Who makes high quality newtonians?

Hi guys,

I am considering of getting a 8" f/5 newtonian scope to be mounted on my LXD55 mount, but I couldn't find anything besides the Syntha clones. I want one with an excellent mirror and good mechanics. Is there any manufacturer that does this?

Please help

Thanks
Vin

Try Parks optical,I think they have ads in Sky and Telescope.

How about a Mark Harry Mirror and some nice woodwork by Lee Stock or Chuck Fellows!!!

Walt

Parralax also makes very nice untis.

Take care,
john

Starmaster is about to offer an 8" newtonian solid OTA (no mount). Hard to beat a Zambuto mirror. Otherwise I would say build your own with a Royce mirror (or one of the other preimum mirror makers - Swayze, Mark Harry, etc.).

Jarad

Check out StarBuckets scopes - Royce mirrors and top of the line components. www.starbuckets.com

Pat

Vin,
I constructed my own with a Royce 8" F/5 last summer. I was routinely pushing past 400x last fall on Mars
with wonderful views. (Using an Antares 1/20 diagonal). A couple nights I pushed up to 625x
on Saturn and the image held.

My mirror suffered a minor tragedy when the diag
came loose and impacted on the edge of the mirror.
I thought all was lost, but after I carefully cleaned it up and replaced the diagonal, I was
getting very close to the same views. I had a
chance to do a comparison with an Orion 8" on Saturn, and I was consistently getting a better
view. The Orion would get "mushy" beyond 250x while I was able to get steady views to 400x. I think it was only partly optics, however, since I
had a fan on my OTA blowing across the mirror and
the Orion was just the plain model with no mods.