How about joining the ST80 club? You get a T-shirt lol.

http://www.telescope.com/Orion-ShortTube-80-Refractor-Telescope-Optical-Tube-Assembly/p/9948.uts?keyword=short tube 80 ota



http://www.astronomyconnect.com/for...rtures-130mm-and-below.2940/page-55#post-7381

 

Now, Mak - you know we don't really have any t-shirts - yet! Despite your playing with 'photoshop'.....

RC's eh? I have wondered the same thing before - and went for a web-crawl looking for reports on their visual characteristics & use. What I found was they're alright for visual. Or some are. But some are terrible for everything - like anything else you can buy. We call such 'lemons' over here, Mak. But one thing appears certain with the RC's: If you're mostly into visual use for telescope - don't do it. The cost of $$$-to-Inch of Aperture is way high.

Most of what I've heard about Mak-Newtonians is very, very good. Reports on difficulties in collimation are in conflict, though. So, as I don't wish to end up as a 'beta-tester' for very expensive designs, I'll say that for me -"the jury is still out" for now, but a 'straw-vote' shows they do give excellent views and take wonderful pictures!

Hope this helps -

Dave

 

I think portable is a relative term when you factor in the tripod, mount and powertank for the dew control. Then there's the eyepieces, filters, finder, diagonal and stuff lol.

 

I think you have to spend a lot of spondoolies on an RC to get a decent one. I thought they were mainly used in professional observatories. I know Mak-Newt's are used by some of the AP mob. I've always thought that the meniscus complicated a Newt' though as it can dew.

Nice T-shirt Dave. I've got one just like it lol.

 

The Mak-Newts seem to have excellent visual applications - as well as AP. But again you run head-on to the high $$$-to-Inch problem. So unless I won the lottery, I wouldn't do it. But that's me.

I know you have that t-shirt, Mak. I 'stole' it from you! If you want it back, swim on over and get it. Our local Lake-Monster is being fitted with a saddle I designed him. But the saddle costs lots of money - so I haven't been feeding him lately.....

How big are you, Mak? *

Dave


* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champ_(folklore)

 

I went to Loch Ness and Nessie didn't make an appearance, I think lake monsters tend to avoid me.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ex...arbon-fibre-maksutov-newtonian-telescope.html

Mak-Newt's look nice but wouldn't be much cop for me as I'd have problems looking at the zenith.

We really should do the T-shirts in other colours lol.

 

That could work. I got the basic SW reversed Kellners with my SW ST80, although I bought the Orion ST80 as just an OTA.

 

And they dew!

 

I think if you want the ST80 here in the Untied Snakes, you'll be buying it from Orion. And it comes with the Orion Expanse EP's. And those are actually quite good! Just checked - 9mm & 20mm Expanse, 44.4X & 20X. I've got a few of these and use them - so I must like 'em.


Orion Expanse 9mm 66° EP $59.99

Same as the 20mm one. You'll like the 66° FOV.

Dave

 

The Expanse are Barsta manufactured. They're marketed under a lot of names. The 9mm is supposedly the sweet one of the set. I have the 9mm Orion Expanse. The draw tube contains a Smyth lens and can be unthreaded to facilitate cleaning the actual field lens. It's doubtful they would Barlow well.

 

Time for me to look into 'Barsta' and what their history is. Thank you, Mak!

Between you and Gabby, it looks to me we have what soon Google will link everyone looking for data on eyepiece's to!

You're both doomed!

Dave

 

From what I can gather, Orion tend to match the eyepieces to the scopes they're marketing. Maksutovs tend to have Sirius Plossls of 10 and 25mm. These are almost certainly Synta (Celestron, Sky-Watcher) in origin. A lot of slower entry level reflectors are supplied with a form of reversed Kellner. I don't know where they are sourced from but they look better made than the Sky-Watcher 'Modified Achromats'. I don't think they supply the Sirius Plossls with scopes f/6 and under. In fact, Synta don't recommend their Plossls to be used with f/6 and under. I use a Barlow with my ST80 if I use Synta Plossls to slow the f/r down.

http://www.barsta.com/show_hdr.php?xname=MDA8V11&dname=OPFOR71&xpos=11


How much of the original manufacturing process is actually done by Barsta is debatable. It's possible they source optical glass and housings from other OEM's. Their stuff is rebranded by everyone as far as I can see. The 'Expanse' version on their site is supposedly 65° AFOV and I think TS Optics used to originally claim that their 'Ultraweitwinkel Okular' was the same. Artistic licence my guess lol.



http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop...-Eyepiece-9-mm-1-25----66--field-of-view.html

 

My Maksutov came with what they called (SW) a 2" 28mm LET Eyepiece. Turns out it's a giant Kellner. Seems pretty good, but weird.

I just crawled through the Barsta site. It didn't have much real concrete data, but what they offer is quite familiar looking! LOL! I can't be right, but some of it looked to be written in Burmese! Very strange indeed..... The Barsta site shows quite a few of the products with the re-brand names clearly shown. No prices. But that's to be expected as they likely only sell in large lots to these brands as is. They do show the MA EP's that Skywatcher shoves at people with low-priced scopes. As well as the Sirius plossl's as seen from Orion-USA. Here's Barsta:

http://www.barsta.com/show_hdr.php?xname=MDA8V11&dname=2EFOR71&xpos=2

Worth a stroll.

Well - back to watching the American Soviet Socialist Republik crumble on the news....The Rats are jumping off the ship...

Raul aka Dave

 

I think SW include the 28mm LET with most of their 2" focuser equipped scopes. It's supposed to be pretty decent. I think the fact that Kellners have large field stops makes them a sort of inexpensive ersatz wide angle eyepiece.

http://www.barsta.com/show_hdr.php?xname=MDA8V11&dname=OPFOR71&xpos=12

These may be the source of the Orion Edge On series.


And these Plossls do resemble the Sirius Plossls, although it's difficult to say.



I don't know who makes the SW MA's. I'm guessing Synta. The MA's are reversed Kellners as opposed to Plossls. The upper body is plastic so they're probably not internally flocked well. The draw tubes on the 10mm MA's are chromed brass as opposed to the aluminium of the 25mm MA's or the Sirius Plossls. Although they won't thread into metal cased housings and are usually used on plastic cased eyepieces. Unless you invert the tube, in which case the insertion flange will be on the wrong end.