I predicted that it would look exactly like the 80mm ED since it IS the 80's big brother AND since they both have a focal ratio of f/7.5, my prediction was correct. The focal length is 900mm which makes it shorter than most of my telescopes including my Newtonians. What I was most curious about were those great big objective lenses. In order to get the best view of those lenses one must pull off the lens shade. This was my first surprise.

It wouldn't pull off.

I thought to myself "Wow, those guys went all out with the felt!" I was wrong. There IS no felt. The lens shade is threaded on! Yes!! I wish they could have done this to ALL their APO series, but I was thrilled to see it now.

After unscrewing the lens shade, I was able to inspect the objective lens. It looked just like the other Orion APO lenses with multi-coatings galore, except that this one was HUGE.

Orion utilizes a special flourite (FPL-53 low-dispersion ED) glass in one of the elements. This combination not only insures that the light which passes through the scope reaches the eyepiece without the "purple haze" that is common in achromatic telescopes, but it is also the reason Orion is able to bring us a reasonably-priced apo! The more expensive apo refractors utilize three elements, which is preferrable, but adds greatly to the cost of the scope.

The outward appearance of the scope is no different than the other ED series sold by Orion. The outside of the tube is painted with the usual metalflake grey finish, while the inside is the usual dark flat finish. A noteworthy difference is the number of baffles in the 120mm ED. I counted three baffles in the main optical tube assembly, but also three additional baffles in the drawtube itself! For those new to astronomy: adding baffles to an OTA helps cut down on scattered light, and improves the contrast of your view.

My telescope unpacking ritual always involves giving the focuser a few turns to test its smoothness. It seems that I do that without even thinking about it. I'm turning knobs before I ever realize that I'm doing it!

(GYAH ANDY!! Take your time! Stop and smell the focusers!)

The Crayford Focuser that comes on the 120ED responded evenly and smoothly enough. I even gave it a tug or two to see how much pressure it took to pull the drawtube out by hand. This is something I do to get an idea of how much weight I can put on the back end of a scope. This 120ED will definitely be used for astrophography so I had to know.

First Light!

I packed everything I needed to be as big a show-off as I possibly could (*nyuk*) and headed for Mansfield Dam that evening.

I decided that even though the 120mm ED is light enough for the SkyView Pro equatorial mount to handle easily, I would bring along my Atlas EQ-G instead. It just looks SO good sitting on top of that mount! It was inevitable that someone would remind me that I was breaking my $3000 philosophy according to my mission statement. I could not deny it. I did. But, since I am the Grand Pooblah undt Visier of Andy's ShotGlass, with a wave of my hand, I raised that to $3500. So, as a famous man once said "It's good to be the king" (Mel Brooks in History of the World).

The Austin Dam Astronomers loved it! The initial responses were varied:

"It's shorter than I thought it would be"

"It looks just like the 80ED, 'cept bigger"

"Why didn't they do this sooner?"

"Can I have it?"

"Gyah, Raiford! Have you given up on reflectors??"

Ralph brought along his 130mm apochromatic refractor manufactured by AstroPhysics to do a side by side comparison. Some felt that it wasn't fair to compare a $2000 120mm doublet to a $5000 130mm triplet, but my question was "fair to who?"

I had no illusions that the Orion 120mm would beat the AP130 in quality or performance. The problem in doing comparisons with the Orion 120mm ED is that there are no similarly-priced apochromatics to be found.

There are rumors that Meade will shipping their $1800 127mm triplet apo in January 2007. This sounds like a deal that is almost too good to be true. If they can build and sell a triplet while maintaining that price, they are truly headed in a good direction. When the Meade 127mm triplet actually hits the market, I'll return to this web page and amend it.

But, in the very real present, and without the availability of similiar scopes, I have to resort to comparing the 120mm ED to more expensive apochromats.

It is always with a sense of tongue-in-cheek amusement that we compare these Orion EDs to very expensive telescopes. But in the past that amusement was usually turned into amazement when we pressed our faces to the eyepieces, and this time was no different.

Ralph set out immediately to do a star test. He found that it revealed a well-collimated telescope. The contrast was very good, and the stars were as pinpoint as the seeing that night would allow. There were a few eyepieces that showed wispy star tails on the outer edges of the field of view, but in all fairness, it was repeated when we put that same eyepiece in the AP130.

Ralph was amazed, but not phased. We have had the distinct pleasure of stealing views through his scope over the last few years and we are all aware of its excellent optics. Crisper, sharper stars can rarely be seen in scopes of any price. Ralph particularly enjoys putting his binoviewers with two TeleVue Panoptic 24mm eyepieces, onto the AP130 to thrill us AND verify our astronomical inadequacies.

*smirk*

That night, I felt no such inadequacy. The Orion 120ED performed to within 90% of the AP when it came to beautiful contrasty views. There was no way we could compare the Crayford focuser to the FeatherTouch focuser on the AP, but the Crayford was adequate to the task. I compensated by using a helical focuser which has become a normal part of my observation regimen.

The scope didn't seem to need any more time to cool down to ambient tempertures than we expected. As the night wore on, the views got better but only straight over our heads. The seeing deteriorated with every passing hour.

I'm going to continue testing it visually and also photographically over the next few weeks. The way it stands right now, this telescope is a winner! Keep checking back for Part 2 of my review which will include photos taken through the Orion 120mm ED as soon as weather permits.

-Andy Raiford

©AndysShotGlass Nov 2006