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Displaying (4) Comments | Comment on this piece | Report objectionable art
Orion XT 6 Classic (Electronics)I've had my SkyQuest XT6 for almost a month. One of the parts didn't make it with the tecoslepe and it was a week later until it came. So I had a brand new tecoslepe that I couldn't use for a week. I've always heard that Orion has a reputation of great customer service, and I don't doubt that. But it shouldn't have taken a week after the day my tecoslepe arrived to get a very small part to me small but required, to be able to turn the scope on its mount. As to its performance, to me the XT6 is pretty amazing. I once had a Newtonian with an 8 mirror that I had custom-made to precise optics and it didn't perform as good as this off the shelf XT6. I live in the city so deep sky objects that are observable are few, so I haven't been able to test it on those yet. But my passion is lunar and planetary observing anyway. The craters and mountains on the Moon are absolutely razor sharp. Jupiter is also crisp and well-defined, and is a spectacular sight with its 4 largest moons. Seeing 2 moons on each side of the planet, all 4 lined up in a straight line, is an awesome sight. The Dobsonian mount is very sturdy and stable. And that's the one thing I would put a note of caution on the weight of the tecoslepe if you're a senior citizen (like me) and/or have a bad back or bad neck (like me), or bad knees or whatever. The optical tube weighs about 13 lbs and the Dobsonian mount about 20 lbs. Doesn't sound like much, but the 20 lbs all concentrated in a relatively small area even using the handle on the mount may be very heavy for certain people, or for a child to try to handle. But if you're strong and in good physical shape, the tecoslepe should be no problem for you. And last of all, the most amazing thing about the XT6 is the unbelievable quality of the optics and mount at such an incredibly low price. This has got to be the best deal on the market for a moderate size Newtonian tecoslepe. I can't imagine anyone having a better 6 f/8 Newtonian reflector even at a higher price. The XT6 is a beautiful optical instrument that I'm extremely proud to have. One other thing that I forgot to mention before: The tecoslepe was almost perfectly collimated upon delivery. I had only to tweek it just a hair to get it centered. This is very remarkable when you consider how easy it is to get a Newtonian's optics out of alignment, and that the XT6 arrives by UPS truck. I tip my hat to Orion for that.
By: | Dec 05, 2012 | Report Comment
When working with teeecsopls like these, we usually don't talk about magnification. The best figure of merit is the *resolution* of the telescope. In the submillimeter, the resolution is the physical limit of the measurement and it roughly equal to the wavelength of the light divided by the diameter of the telescope. For BLAST, that is 30 arcseconds. Compared to an optical telescope, this is horrible. BUT, we did pretty well. However, it is the single most limiting factor in our measurements.Actually, the temperature of the motors when we are flying the balloon is rougly room temperature. BUT, just in case, we grease them with special low-temperature grease. A potential problem is the motors sparking because they operate in a near-vacuum. We test them in a chamber on the ground for this.
By: | Dec 04, 2012 | Report Comment
Umm, are you raelly just giving this info out for nothing?
By: | Sep 09, 2011 | Report Comment
you must not know what a swamp is because all the swamps I know don't look like that
By: patches | Feb 02, 2011 | Report Comment
swampy
David
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