Hi David,

I just recently purchased a Orion XT8 dob.

I agree with you that sharing the view with others is at least half the satisfaction of owning a scope. I have to reset the dob frequently for others.

One other inconvience to the dob is seeing through the spotter scope. I added a telerad finder almost have to be laying on the ground (on the opposite side of the scope- had to mount it on the other side of the spotter that came with it) to use the finder. getting too old for that much bending.


But is it really nice to set-up and take-down. No time at all. at a recent star party I got a 20 min start on the fellow beside me lining up his EQ.

What do you mean by the F4 ratio? I don`t understand all I know about that. You must be referring to another scope. I also have a Tele vue Ranger which is only 70mm with 480mm fl. t gives great views of the moon and planets but they are not as high power.

I only got one look at the planets so far (very early morning) and they are much larger in the 8" but didn`t have good detail as the sun was following them and the sky was turning blue. Hoping for better detail against a dark sky.

I found one scope is never right for all occasions. I bought the TV for a spotting scope primarily with astronomy a secondary use.


Norm