Wild purchasing idea

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.

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

Tom wrote in message ...
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.

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



for about $25 you can get new rings in all sizes to fit your newt and the
skyview pro from Orion, Scopestuff etc.
Or simply trade the rings for the size you need , on astromart.

best regards,
matt tudor

"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."

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

The only thing I have experience with it the Orion 80ED.

When I bought mine, I bought it from a local telescope store. I've done
business with them for 20 years so they allowed me
to check the collimation of the 7 ED's they had in stock, so that I could
pick the best one.................................... they were
all pretty much dead on. I've only read one comment in the last year or so
about someone that had a slight collimation problem
and he unscrewed the 3 screws that hold the focusing assembly onto the back
of the OT. Apparently he was able to achieve
perfect collimation by tweaking the assembly and then tightening the 3
screws back in place.

My 2 cents,

Francis Marion