Easy Astronomy Blog

Orion Skyquest XT8

Here is a great telescope, the Orion Skyquest XT8.

For those of you with a modest budget, it is an excellent choice. At a price tag of around $330 for the regular XT8 you get a formidable tool. If you didn’t already know, the Skyquest series of  Orion telescope is already legendary. The XT8 uses the same Dobsonian design as the original Intelliscope. The XT8i adds an optional computerized object location system that lets you easily point the scope to any of the more than 14,000 objects in the included celestial database. Nebulas, galaxies, star clusters and planets are easy targets for the XT8i.

The XT8 consists of a 44.5-inch enameled steel tube that contains a 203mm (8-inch) primary mirror. Two eyepieces are included; the XT8 also accepts 2-inch eyepieces. A 2-inch Crayford-style focuser with rack-and-pinion system provides focusing. A 9×50 power finder scope is included for manual object location.

Moving the scope to the observing location is relatively easy, given that a large handle is mounted on the back of the rocker box. However, the placement of the handle is below the center of gravity. The tube wants to swing upwards when you try to pick it up. You can solve this problem by positioning a web belt around the base and tube while it is ‘in transit’. You can also install a retrofit for smoother azimuth movements. This modification consists of the addition of six ‘milk jug washers’ on the central bolt between the upper and lower baseplates.

The tube is constructed of rolled metal with a black enamel finish. It is painted flat black on the inside. The end caps are cast aluminum, making for a very nice looking product. The tube has what Orion calls a navigation knob at the top. It is quite convenient for positioning the scope, especially when tracking a planet. The dust cap (included) fits snugly atop the tube and a shower cap keeps dust out.

The XT8i includes a computerized system that uses a set of guide arrows that show you which direction to move the scope to quickly center an object. Once the object is centered, you must move the scope by hand to keep the object centered.

The Orion SkyQuest XT8 Intelliscope is a good first telescope for individuals who are new to astronomy, and an ideal choice for experienced users who want a scope that is sizable yet easily portable.

This telescope is available for purchase at Telescope.com.

I had a request for more content on Picture of the day so I’m sharing some amazing shots with you here. Click the pictures to see them full size.

Orion’s belt

Explanation : Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, are the bright bluish stars from east to west (left to right) along the diagonal in this gorgeous cosmic vista. Otherwise known as the Belt of Orion, these three blue supergiant stars are hotter and much more massive than the Sun. They lie about 1,500 light-years away, born of Orion’s well-studied interstellar clouds. In fact, clouds of gas and dust adrift in this region have intriguing and some surprisingly familiar shapes, including the dark Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula near Alnitak at the lower left. The famous Orion Nebula itself lies off the bottom of this star field that covers about 4.5×3.5 degrees on the sky. This image was taken last month with a digital camera attached to a small telescope in Switzerland, and better matches human color perception than a more detailed composite taken over 15 years ago.

The next one is truely incredible

Saturn’s Hyperion: A Moon with Odd Craters

Explanation : What lies at the bottom of Hyperion’s strange craters? Nobody knows. To help find out, the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn swooped past the sponge-textured moon in late 2005 and took an image of unprecedented detail. That image, shown above in false color, shows a remarkable world strewn with strange craters and a generally odd surface. The slight differences in color likely show differences in surface composition. At the bottom of most craters lies some type of unknown dark material. Inspection of the image shows bright features indicating that the dark material might be only tens of meters thick in some places. Hyperion is about 250 kilometers across, rotates chaotically, and has a density so low that it might house a vast system of caverns inside.

Largest Full Moon of 2008

Explanation : As viewed from a well chosen location at sunset, October’s gorgeous Full Moon rose behind Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose, California. Captured in this lovely telescopic view, historic Lick Observatory is perched on the mountain’s 4,200 foot summit, observatory and rising Moon momentarily sharing the warm color of filtered sunlight.

Milky Way Road Trip

Explanation : In search of planets and the summer Milky Way, astronomer Tunç Tezel took an evening road trip. Last Saturday, after driving the winding road up Uludag, a mountain near Bursa, Turkey, he was rewarded by this beautiful skyview to the south. Near the center, bright planet Jupiter outshines the city lights below and the stars of the constellation Sagittarius. Above the mountain peaks, an arcing cloud bank seems to lead to the Milky Way’s own cloudy apparition plunging into the distant horizon. In Turkish, Uludag means Great Mountain. Uludag was known in ancient times as the Mysian Olympus.