I chose this over the refractor telescopes mainly because it seemed that to look into the refractor scopes would require a lot of bending over whereas this one has the eyepiece closer to eye level which makes viewing easier. Also, go for the equatorial mount, it’s much easier to track things in the sky using it as we quickly found out.

Ok, so how was it? Well it came in a big box (which made the g/f crazy with this HUGE gift under the tree!) and everything was nicely and neatly packed. Everything appeard to be of high quality and good build; which is typical of Orion products from what I’ve read. The instruction maunal on assemble was pretty scarce. Anyone who’s pretty handy at building things will be able to figure it out; but it’s not the easiest thing either. This is mainly because of a lack of pictures to go along with the assembly steps. Well we got it assembled and waited for dark.

It was pretty cold and we just did some viewing of the moon and a couple of stars from the front yard. A hazy night with tons of light from the street didn’t provide the best viewing conditions. That being said the moon looked amazing!! The detail was outstanding. We were able to also see the Orion Nebula and looked at other stars. I can’t even imagine what it will look like on a good clear night. We’re looking foward to bringing it camping with us where there will be some great viewing. The included software is also extremely useful and fun to use. The software alone is easily worth more than half of the price of this scope. Even if you hate the scope; you can learn a lot of great information from the software.

Overall this is a great scope for the amateur astronomer. It’s cheap enough that it won’t break the bank (good especially if you’re not sure if astronomy is for you) but still plenty good enough for some great viewing. The instruction manual could be better but the quality of the software and of the scope itself more than makes up for the poor manual. I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for a good budget scope!

*Update* We’ve had this scope for about 16 months now, and it’s fantastic!! We have taken it with us several places camping and have gotten to see some really great stuff. It’s fairly easy to find the planets and even a galaxy or two. The only downside is that it takes up a lot of room in the car when we camp; but this would be true for any decent telescope. So not so much a problem with this one specifically, but with telescopes in general. Even to this day, we’re still amazed just looking at the moon. The details and “awesomeness” of it never get old. Really looking at everything never gets old. I’m so glad we have this scope!
Rating: 5 / 5

One review said it was hard to put together with little instruction. This is not the case. I has step by step instructions that are easily followed. You must pay attention to what you are doing though. Each image in the directions is clear as to which part goes up and the axis for each knob, etc. It takes time to assemble. I did it with my ten year old sister and let her try to figure each direction out and do it and it took us 1.5 hours to assemble. If an adult was doing it probably 45 min. would be about accurate.

Once it is put together it is great. I could easily find things in the sky to look at. I did have trouble aligning the red dot pointer but once on a good object and aligned it is hard to get out of alignment. Constellations are very nice to look at in the scope and the moon and some close planets are spectacular in detail. I was pleased in purchasing this as a gift for a ten year old. Also she was quick to catch on how to use it and it didn’t take more than a half hour for her to be finding and adjusting the knobs to get things in focus. I would recommend this for a low-medium priced scope.
Rating: 4 / 5

I recieved the telescope in perfect condition and excellant shape. It is a beautiful piece. We have yet to use it because it’s sitting under the Christmas tree but I am excited to see him open it and be able to use it.

Being amateur star watches I’m sure we will be amazed with what we see through this.This was a great price for a beginner telescope and cannot wait to use it.
Rating: 5 / 5