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Please help ID this scope

Started by desoto, 11/07/2003 04:48AM
Posted 11/07/2003 04:48AM Opening Post
I bought a Newtonian OTA from the local Orion store about 3-4 years ago (see photo). At the time, I didn't know a Newtonian from a Telecaster. I never used it much because I bought a LX200 SCT soon after. The dimensions of the OTA are identical to the Vixen R200SS, an f-4 8" Newtonian as are the colors. However, the only lable on the scope is "Orion". It cost about $900 at the time. I cannot find it anywhere in the Orion website. The question is did Vixen make the R200SS for sale under the Orion badge or did Orion copy the scope and sell it? Any help would be appreciated

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Posted 11/07/2003 05:05AM #1
Vixen made it. It's just a rebranded R200SS. Orion was Vixen's authorized North American distributer until fairly recently. They no longer are, so they no longer sell rebranded Vixen, though they did have a few left overs in the sale section last time I looked. TeleVue is the new Vixen distributer.
Posted 11/07/2003 05:07AM #2
This looks indeed like the R200SS. Vixen as you may know, used to supply Orion with refractors and some reflectors. Orion just had their name put on them.

Recently though the deal between Orion and Vixen ended. Now all of Orion's telescopes come from China.

Donnie