ORION ASTROVIEW 120ST EQ

[oldno7]

I've been looking at this scope. I like the short tube and the f/5. I want to shoot deep sky. I know the mount is questionable. Any thoughts on this scope or better yet personal experience?

[chris.bailey]

Scope is probably OK. I personally would go for a shorter FL again, say 450mm to begin with as it makes a whole load of things easier but as a visual package it is probably fair value for money. The ED80 is its various guises is well regarded as being an ideal starter scope for imaging.

As you identified the issue is the mount. You can try guiding by hand using the finder scope but I think at 600mm you are going to struggle to do that with any degree of finesse though 450mm would still be a challenge. The mount can be motorised but that adds $ and I'm not sure the mount would even then be up to tracking over any period of time.