![]() ![]() ![]() This would work well for larger scopes in the Orion SkyQuest line as well. Some people use a padded hand truck for the same purpose. By storing mine outside, I eliminate this cool down period.Īs you can see in the photo, mine sits on a cart, fully assembled, ready to be rolled down the driveway to my observing area on my front sidewalk. This is often referred to as the “cool down” period. With any mirror-based telescope, including SCTs and MCTs, the scope works best when the mirror has reached the same temperature as the surroundings. A dry, well-ventilated shed would do just as well. Not only does this eliminate stairs but the scope is always near the ambient temperature. I store mine in my unheated, well-ventilated garage. However, I do not keep my XT8i in the house. If you put your eyepieces and other accessories in a shoulder bag or backpack you could move the whole thing in two trips. Then you move the 21-pound base separately. Some people add strap handles to make this even easier. If 20 pounds is comfortable for you, this makes it easier to take it up and down stairs if you store it in the house. I can easily lift the entire 42-pound package and carry it, but that would be awkward for me on stairs and I would not want to carry it a long distance.įortunately, as you see in the assembly video, the optical tube easily lifts off the base with the removal of the two caps on the end so you can carry the 20-pound tube alone. Many first-time telescope buyers see the size of the XT8 Intelliscope and are impressed by the size. This is especially important when you are viewing at higher magnifications. Once it settles down it is a great scope, but I have none of this in the XT8i. And if we are in a breeze you can see that in the eyepiece. It is a very nice package but every time we focus, the image shakes like crazy for a couple of seconds. ![]() My friend has an 8” GoTo scope of a different brand. Glass material – Low thermal expansion borosilicate glass.Here are the key specifications for the Orion SkyQuest XT8 Intelliscope that I am reviewing, as taken from the Orion website. So an XT8, XT8i, and XT8G have the same optical characteristics. It is the mount and the accessory packages that differ. Whether manual, PushTo or GoTo, the solid optical tubes are the same within size as are the XX truss tube designs. You enter your target into the hand control, hit the GoTo button and the mount moves the optical tube to the target and then tracks it as it moves through the sky. In the G series, they have added motors to the mount. ![]() This series includes the XT8G, XT10G, XT12G, XX12G, XX14G, and XX16G. The SkyQuest XT GoTo series is based on the same Dobsonian mounts. And you don’t need an external power supply to drive the mount. With the Intelliscope series, you gain computer guidance to find your targets at a small incremental cost with very little increase in weight as compared to a GoTo mount. The XX indicates that those are truss tube designs as compared to the XT solid tube designs. The SkyQuest XT Intelliscope series includes the XT8i, XT10i, XT12i, XX12i and the XX14i. You do the tracking as you would with a manual Dobsonian scope. However, the base does not incorporate motors, so you “PushTo” the target with computer guidance. The Intelliscope hand controller will show you where to point the tube to find your target. These are computer-assisted mounts that are also called PushTo or digital setting circle mounts. The Orion SkyQuest XT Intelliscope series is based on the same Dobsonian mount but Orion has added encoders in the package, all the needed wire, and a handset that reads the position of the optical tube. These include the XT4.5, XT6, XT8 and the XT10. In the Orion SkyQuest series, there are manual mounts which Orion refers to as the Classic Dobsonian series. The line includes solid tube Newtonian optical tubes and truss design Newtonian optical tubes. These are Newtonian reflector optical tube assemblies that range from the XT 4.5 at F7.9 to XX16G F4.7. The XT8 Intelliscope, or XT8i, is part of Orion’s extensive SkyQuest line of floor standing Dobsonian telescopes. ![]()
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