"Tom" wrote in
:

I went to a telescope shop today in Tucson, and the Orion 80ED caught
my eye. This was the whole rig, accessories, and a "Sky View" mount.
Street price.
(I wonder how those guys stay in business?) Anyways, he also had a
Vixen GEM mount with tri-pod for 800. The gizmo to make this thing
track is sold seperately at $400, and that can wait. I wish I could
remember the model... GP or GM? At home I have a "Celestron"
Powerseeker 114 Newt, on a really shaky tripod. I was thinking that I
could buy the 80ED rig AND the Vixen,
put the 80ED package on the Vixen, and put the Newt on the SkyView.
The key is weather or not the Newts rings would fit onto the SkyView.

You don't have to buy the SkyView mount. You can buy the 80ED OTA for
$499, and the tube rings for $20 and the vixen mount for $800.

As for the 80ED. I have heard good things, but I have also heard
about collimation
problems, and trickyness in collimating. Is this a concern that
should steer me away
from this scope? Any experience with it? -Thanks, Tom

To quote Stephen Tonkin, "Many amateur refractors are assumed by the
manufacturer to be permanently collimated when they are shipped to the
distributor, and thus they may not have facilities for recollimation. You
would be wise to establish just what is possible before you begin. You
should also check with the vendor and/or manufacturer that any actions you
propose to take would neither invalidate any warranty nor be irreversible."