Orion USA Reflecting Telescopes

Orion Reflecting Telescopes - Newtonians and Clear Aperture Newtonian
Orion offers a broad range of Newtonian telescopes - on this page you will find presentations of two very popular models.

The Orion Starblast is an ultra-compact Dobsonian telescope with a surprising optical performance. It is one of the most warmly recommended telescopes for beginners who are looking for a powerful yet compact telescope for visual use. The telescope is very easy to use and compact enough to fit into airline luggage (the telescope as carry-on luggage, the rocker-box as normal luggage). The rocker-box allows for smooth movements in both axes.

This telescope's motto: Put it down and begin observing right away!

Visual Use:
113 mm of aperture collect enough light to bring within reach hundreds of nebulae and galaxies. You will not only enjoy watching extended standard objects, such as the Orion nebula and the Pleiades, but also countless fainter objects. With the low-magnification eyepiece you can enjoy strolling through the milky-way leisurely, enjoying a multitude of pinpoint stars - example: With the TS Super Plossl 32mm you get a field of view of about 3.7° - more than seven times the diameter of the full moon!

With its precisely figured parabolical (!) primary mirror the telescope is also well suited for high magnifications such as on the moon and the planets. Magnifications up to 200x are possible.

Parabolical Primary Mirror
The most special feature of this telescope - far from common in telescopes of this size - is the parabolical primary mirror. Many instruments of this size have a simple spherical primary mirror which is much easier to make, but offers an inferior image quality compared with a parabolical mirror. Due to the parabolical mirror high magnifications are possible with a sharp, clear image quality. At the same time image sharpness is also much better on wide-angle rich-field observations.

In a Newtonian telescope with such a short focal length the parabolical mirror is strictly necessary in order to reach a diffraction limited image quality!

Customer Feedback:
"Until now I have used a similar telescope of similar aperture and focal length. I thought that a small, short focal length Newtonian simply wasn't able to show more than the one I had. Now I tried your telescope and it really opened up my eyes! On Saturn I was previously only able to see traces of its rings, now the ring floats clearly in space. Nebulae and star clusters are brighter, too; I think this is due to the larger secondary mirror [Many telescopes of this type have too small secondary mirrors, permitting only a part of the light collected by the primary. Editor's note]. I am looking forward to further observations - for me this telescope is a perfect portable all-purpose telescope.

Specifications and Scope of Delivery

Aperture / Focal length / F-ratio	113mm / 450mm / f/4
Primary mirror	parabolical - very good optical quality
Spider vanes	four thin spider vanes for minimized vignetting
Max. useful magnification	approx. 200x due to the precise mirror
Focuser	low profile 1.25" focuser
Finderscope	Star Pointer - red dot finder
Eyepieces	RK 17mm (26x), RK 6mm (75x)
Other accessories	collimation aid, eyepiece tray, solid rocker-box alt azimuth mount

Price

Item No.	Short description	Price - SEK incl. VAT
StarBlast	compact Dobsonian telescope with accessories as described above	1980.-

The Orion Clear Aperture Newtonian on the massive Sky Pro mount.

The Best of Both Worlds: The Orion Clear Aperture Newtonian (CLAN) - A telescope that combines the advantages of Newtonian telescopes with those of very good refractor telescopes!

Refractors have no secondary mirror, no spider vanes, nothing that is in the path of the light and might deteriorate the image. As a result they offer an excellent contrast and image sharpness. On the other hand all refractors suffer from more or less false colour - bright objects are surrounded by a coloured fringe. Only very expensive apochromatic refractors can solve this problem.
Newtonian telescopes on the other hand have no false colour whatsoever, but a secondary mirror in the path of the light reduces contrast.

The Solution: The Orion CLAN ( Clear Aperture Newtonian ) combines the advantages of both telescope designs.

- no false colour and no secondary mirror obstruction
- comfortable viewing position at the upper end of the telescope tube (and as a result a better stability with many mounts due to the fact that the tripod need not be extended as much)
- quick cool-down time because of the open tube
- only two optical surfaces (primary and secondary mirror) for further contrast and a very good image brightness

The Orion CLAN is not a rich-field telescope - its focal length of 1240mm makes it better suited for viewing the moon and the planets. Of course you can also use the telescope for viewing deep sky objects. With the TS Super Plossl 40mm you get a field of view of about three times the diameter of the full moon.

The moon and the planets are shown in their true colour without any coloured fringe around them. A similar image quality is otherwise only reached by other, much more complex (and expensive!) clear aperture reflecting telescopes or a perfect (and even more expensive) true apochromatic refractor of a similar aperture.

The telescope is collimated like a normal Newtonian telescope. Both the primary and secondary mirrors sit in adjustable cells.

Specifications

Aperture / Focal length / f-ratio	91mm / 1240mm / f/13.6
Maximum Useful Magnification	approx. 210x
Focuser	1.25" focuser with integrated T-mount. Metal design
Finderscope	6x30 quick release finderscope
Eyepieces (only in complete telescope)	Plossl 25mm & Plossl 10mm

Price

Item No.	Short description	Price - SEK incl. VAT
CLANT	Clear Aperture Newtonian telescope - 91/1240mm Optical tube, tube rings, finderscope - without eyepieces	6980.-
CLANT Sky Pro	Orion Clear Aperture Newtonian on Sky Pro mount with steel tube tripod. With Plossl 25mm and Plossl 10mm	9980.-


Star Blast - Mini Dobsonian Aperture 113mm - Focal Length 450mm parabolical primary mirror	CLANT - Off-Axis Newtonian with ZERO Obstruction Image quality similar to a 91mm apochromatic refractor