Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that Hardin Dobs are the same as the
old Orion Dobs that were manufactured by Guan Sheng in Taiwan. I believe
that they began importing them under the Hardin name when Orion moved their
manufacturing/purchasing to China. I have a Guan Sheng XT10 that I have
modified and I am very satisfied with it. The mirror is good quality and the
construction is solid. The only complaint that I had was the quality of the
collimation springs and screws and a quick trip to Home Depot I purchased a
bag of springs for under $2.00 and that was fixed. However, I believe that
was fixed on the later models. The base is quite bulky and if you have a
small car they are difficult to transport. One of Wags' First Base dob
mounts can fix that.
Kevin
-----Original Message-----
From: sf-bay-tac-bounces@No-Spam [mailto:sf-bay-tac-bounces@No-Spam]On
Behalf Of snorkler@No-Spam
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 11:14 PM
To: sf-bay-tac@No-Spam
Subject: Re: [TAC] Need Advice
No, the last generation of Hardin solid tube Dobs were made by Guan
Sheng Optics. They were optically a considerable improvement over the
average Coulter, from what I hear.
Darrell Lee
-- Paul Sterngold <psterngold@No-Spam> wrote:
I think Hardin may have bought or morphed from the remains of Coulter.
From
what I have read, they seem to be equivalent to the solid tube dobs
from Orion,
Celestron, Meade, etc. According to those reports, it's a respectable
instrument, but keep in mind that a solid-tube 12" dob will be quite
long and
bulky. Make sure it will fit in your vehicle and also find out how
heavy is
the tube. Good luck.
(Be sure that there are no hidden surprises- ask lots of questions before
buying something remotely.)
Cheers,
Paul Sterngold
--- Denis Lefebvre <dlefebvre@No-Spam> wrote:
> I have been long considering moving up to a mid-sized dob. I am
looking at
> something in the 10-12" range.
> I found a "Hardin Optical Deep Space Hunter 12" Dob" on AstroMart. Does
> anyone know anything about Hardin Optical? Is this a respectable
instrument?
> I don't want to buy a piece of ****.
>
> TY
> Denis
> --
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