(This article originally appread in the Q4 2007 STAR Newsletter and was written by Dwight Rahl)

iOptron Smartstar-E-R80

by Dwight Rahl

When I was about 13, my parents got me my first telescope - a 6" Criterion Dynascope. I had fun with it, but I was always frustrated by the amount of trouble I had in finding objects in the sky to observe. I found I was using it less and less often because of the trouble I had finding objects. Eventually, the telescope got packed away.

Fast forward 30 years to the present. My interest in astronomy was rekindled by the fellow I sit next to at work - he just happens to be one of the chairmen of the Raleigh Astronomy Club. After a few sessions of talking about stars and 'scopes with him, I was inspired to unpacked my trusty old Dynascope and point it skyward once again.

It wasn't long before some of the old feelings of frustration started to return. Sure, I could find the moon and a planet or two, but I just didn't have a feel for how to locate any of "the good stuff" like nebulae and such. It was then that my office neighbor showed me an ad for a GOTO mount called "The Cube" offered by a company called iOptron. The price was right, and it sounded like it might make observing the heavens a little less work and a lot more fun - so I bought one; which leads me to the rest of the story...

I decided to buy "The Cube" with an 80mm refractor telescope. I wanted to get going quickly, and I was concerned that I might have trouble mounting my Dynascope OTA to the new mount. After using the new setup a handful of times, I thought I'd share my observations and experiences about the overall experience.

Ordering and Shipping

Ordering the product was very straight-forward. iOptron's website uses all the standard elements you'd expect to encounter when buying a product over the Internet - shopping cart, secure server credit card processing, etc. A week later, a nicely packed, double-boxed package arrived at my home

Packaging

The GOTO mount, telescope and tripod were securely packaged within the glossy, multi-color inner box. Appropriate use of styrofoam was made so that there was no problem at all with any elements in the package being damaged in shipment.

As I'd expected from reading other reviews of this product, the AC adapter was missing, as was the instruction manual. I sent an email to the company which was responded to in less than 24 hours. I was informed that the AC adapter had been shipped separately, and that I should expect to receive it within 24-48 hours of receiving the telescope and mount. Sure enough, I received the AC adapter in the mail on the very day I received the email response! I downloaded the manual from iOptron's website.

Package Contents

The package contained the GOTO mount with wired hand control, an 80mm refractor telescope with finder scope and 45 degree eyepiece holder, 2 eyepieces (25mm and 12.5mm Plossl), a 3x Barlow (quite lightweight and not terrific quality), and a tripod with leg spreader that doubles as a small parts tray.

Assembly and Set Up

Not a whole lot to say about this. Like many products, the assembly directions leave something to be desired. After all, they are not written by native English-speakers, so at times, some things tend to get lost in translation. In any event, the picture on the box in conjunction with the instructions led to a pretty straight-forward assembly process. I decided to go ahead and set up the controller before heading outdoors. If you follow the instructions, you shouldn't have too much trouble - just be sure that when you enter the time of day, use 24-hour clock notation.

Use of GOTO Mount and Telescope

After a bit of trial and error, I discovered a couple of things. The first is that time spent in pointing the "South" reference on the mount accurately to the South is well spent, as is time spent in leveling the mount. The closer to being accurate that these two alignments are, the better the GOTO operation of the mount will work. This is particularly true if you use the single-star alignment rather than the two star alignment process. Once these settings were made accurately, I found that the GOTO operation of the mount was quite good, as is the tracking capability. There is a bit of "play" in the mount, but this did not seem to have an impact on the ability of the mount to perform adequately. After performing a careful positioning and leveling of the tripod and mount, and then performing a two-star alignment, I was able to GOTO a pretty long list of objects and have each show up close to centered in the field of view of the 12.5mm eyepiece. Here's the list of objects I used during a 45-minute observing session (includes set-up, alignment, and break down of the scope and mount): M13, M92, M103, M31, M30, the Moon, M11, M27. I took a break between M31 and M30 to see how well the mount tracked Andromeda. After 10 minutes, Andromeda was still centered in the eyepiece! Of note is that I performed the 2-star alignment process, using Deneb as the first of the two stars. I do not recall the second star I used... After I was done with the short viewing list above, I performed a GOTO to Deneb; and it was spot-on. Pretty impressive for a $200 GOTO mount and a $110 80mm 'scope. Early this morning (Nov 17th. 2007 @ 4:45 am), I took the scope out to have a look at Venus, Mars, Saturn and the Orion nebula. I had seen the planets recently with my 6" Criterion Dynascope and wanted to make a comparison between those images and what the new 80mm 'scope was capable of.

Object Clarity

This is the first refractor I have owned, so I have no basis for comparison to any other refractor telescope. I can only tell you that the image quality I see with this new scope is quite good, all things considered. It does not, however, compare to the images that my 6" Dynascope produces - nor would I expect it to. There is a substantial difference between the images that can be produced by an 80mm refractor and that of a 6" f8 Newtonian reflector. But, setting up, using, and then breaking down the smaller 'scope with a GOTO mount takes WAY less time and effort - so I would imagine that I am likely to take advantage of small windows of observing opportunity that I would otherwise miss with the bigger 'scope.

Overall Conclusion

I am more than pleased with the iOptron GOTO base and 80mm refracting telescope. It is a terrific value at $350 shipped (provided that it continues to give good service). The GOTO mount's specifications states that it has the capability to handle an OTA of 7 - 11 lbs. Frankly, I think that this is a bit optimistic. Staying closer to the 7lb end of that scale seems to make more sense to me. Having read other reviews of the mount, I've learned that the internal gearing mechanism consists of plastic/nylon gears. I am no engineer or materials scientist, but my impression is that an 11lb OTA (like my 6" Dynascope) might very well be too heavy for the mount to contend with. iOptron is apparently preparing to market a larger GOTO mount (an equatorial one) that claims a capacity of 35 lbs. If it offers value anything like "the Cube" does, there may be a second GOTO mount in my future!