Orion Atlas 8" EQ-G GoTo Reflector Telescope Kit with Eyepiece & 2" Crayford-Style Focuser, Focal Length 1000mm

The Orion Atlas 8" EQ-G GoTo Reflector Telescope has an 8" reflector with precision parabolic mirror optics, perfect for visual and photographic forays into deep space. The tube assembly features an upgraded 2" Crayford-style focuser with a 1.25" adapter, allowing use of either 2" or 1.25" eyepieces and accessories. You also get an 8x40 achromatic finder scope and a 26mm (38.5x) Sirius Plossl eyepiece (1.25"). Large collimation knobs on the high-ventilation rear cell and a center mark on the primary mirror itself make optical alignment easy and precise.

The 203mm parabolic primary mirror has a focal length of 1000mm (f/4.9) and is center-marked for easier, more accurate collimation. The 1000mm focal length is excellent for visually studying a wide variety of celestial objects, from planets to distant galaxies and the f/4.9 focal ratio is plenty fast for deep-space CCD or film photography. The mount has backlash compensation in both axes and programmable periodic error correction (PEC), which provides the precision required for astrophotographic guiding, either manually or with an autoguider via the autoguider port in the mount's drive panel.

Speaking of the mount, the beefy Atlas EQ-G provides incredibly stable support, thanks to its solid construction and 2"-diameter stainless steel legs, which adjust in height. Internal DC stepper motors offer nine slew rates ranging from 2x to 800x sidereal and three tracking rates: sidereal, lunar and solar. You'll slew from one object to the next at a clip of up to 3.4 degrees per second. With this GoTo version of the Atlas 8 EQ-G, you can visit any of 42,900 celestial objects with pushbutton ease.

The hand controller has a two-line, backlit LCD screen and a red-illuminated keypad. An RS-232 serial port permits connection to a personal computer for control of the telescope via astronomy software such as Starry Night Pro. Navigating the menu buttons is nicely intuitive and takes little time to master. The database includes the complete Messier, NGC and IC catalogs of clusters, nebulas and galaxies; eight planets; 100 named stars; and 25 user-defined objects. The Atlas EQ-G mount requires an external 12-volt DC power supply such as the Orion Dynamo Pro field battery (#2307), or an AC-to-DC adapter (#7728) to run off of household 110-volt AC, all sold separately.