Which is better, Celestron or Orion Dobsonian telescopes?

[John Relling]

Please keep your responses to the dobsonian models only! Thanks!

[Geoff G]

They're mostly built from similar parts in the same factories, so there's not much to choose between them. I personally prefer the Orion because of the IntelliScope feature, but the Celestron may have slightly better optics. Antares is another brand to check out.

[ngc7331]

Its not really so much a question of which name brand is better, they are both equally good at making telescopes. The real question is, "Does the telescope I just bought have great optics?".
There are many tests to determine the quality of the telescope (too many to list here), but a few would be; Check for the best quality mirror coatings (reflectivity well above 86% on the primary and above 92% on the secondary); Check for severe abberations in the mirrors (abberations make it impossible to cleanly focus on objects); Ease of aligning and collumnating the mirrors (it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to align your mirrors, you should be able to do it quickly); Smoothness of trunium bearings and axial bearings (the up/down and side to side movement); Balance of the tube in its mount (one finger should be enough to move the scope in nearly any direction); Quality of the focuser (smooth action through focus). These are just some of the things I look for when I'm buying a bigger and better light bucket. Information regarding these tests are readily available through website search engines, library, and most importantly your local astronomy club. I hope this helps. Good luck and I wish you clear skies!

[EVERYTHING]

In my opinion, I would say, doesn't matter really because it only depends on it's rating (reviews) of the objects they make individually, like binos, telescopes, accessories for binos and telescopes, etc.