Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic Dobsonian Telescope for Adults - High Powered Beginner Astronomy Telescope for Moon, Planets & Deep-sky Objects

A great beginner-intermediate level scope that should last for years. What I like the most: Great optics that are clear and bright. Appropriate for viewing the moon, planets, and an assortment of nebulae and messier objects. It has a true, parabolic mirror that does a great job of focusing the image onto the secondary mirror. I have mixed feelings about the tension springs--which work, though I generally prefer tensioning systems that are more adjustable. Finally, it's offered at a great price for an 8-inch reflector. What I think might be better: The assembly directions for the base could be a little bit better. They are not horrible, but there is certainly room for improvement. There are a couple of places where I had to guess which washer went where. Second, the red dot scope is pretty bad. The way it mounts is great, but the scope itself is subject to lots of parallax and the dot isn't really round. I'd recommend replacing it with something better. I went with a Rigel Systems Quick Finder. Finally, mine arrived wildly out of collimation. I don't know if this is a result of shipping/handling, or if the factory screwed up, but it took me a frustrating hour to get it correctly collimated initially. While I'm no expert at collimating, neither am I a novice. It was so far out that the laser beam shot out the front of the telescope and I had to use a collimating cap at first. Fortunately one was included. Final thoughts: Buy it. The pros vastly outweigh the cons. This is an excellent Newtonian/Dobsonian telescope at a very reasonable price. Pro tip- it isn't exactly light. If you want to move it without separating the OTA and base, you can use a hand cart to safely move it without risking throwing it out of alignment.

The Orion XT8 Classic is a great telescope at a wonderful price for new telescope users or those upgrading from a small, very inexpensive telescope to something more capable. Setup: The XT8 sets up easily and the instructions provided by Orion are not difficult to follow. Basically, you are assembling the Dobsonian base, which isn't hard to do. If you can bake a cake using a recipe from a book, this won't be hard. :-) The tools provided are all that are necessary to do so, but a power drill with a screwdriver and hex bit make quicker work of the assembly. Collimating: You most likely will need to collimate your scope, since the primary and secondary mirrors were likely pushed out of alignment during shipping. The instructions provided are all you need to do this along with the collimation cap. A laser collimator (optional equipment) is even better, but not needed for most folks. Take your time collimating by moving one screw on the primary or secondary mirror at a time and observing the results and you shouldn't have any problems. Moving more than one screw at a time can make your work harder, as it can become difficult to isolate which screw and mirror you need to adjust. Again, if you can follow written directions well, this shouldn't be hard. :-) Finding Things to See: If you have a decent knowledge of the sky, a no-frills reflector Dobsonian (like the XT8) is great for you. If you need a bit of help finding things to see, consider getting an electronic aid to find the objects you want to see. A lot of great applications for smart phones or tablet PCs allow you to do this by simply holding your phone/tablet to the sky and revealing the names of stars, objects, and constellations. I use Star Walk (among others) on my iPhone and iPad for this with great ease. If you want to find things very, very easily, then consider upgrading to an intelliscope or go-to scope, which does the work for you for a bit more money. The Dobsonian base can be a little tricky to maneuver to find what you want to see at first, but with a little practice you'll get the hang of it. Eyepieces: The XT8 comes with a 25 mm Plössl lens, which is a decent lens that gives you 48-power magnification with this scope. This okay, but you'll definitely want other eyepieces since there are better ones out there. Strongly consider getting 2-3 eyepieces (in the 10-32 mm range) and a 2-3 power Barlow lens, which would give you a set of power options for viewing. I'm using Tele Vue eyepieces and Barlows, which are a little higher quality than most of Orion's offerings, but if you're new to the hobby you'll likely have fun and not notice much difference with sub-$100 eyepieces and Barlows from most companies. :-) Overall: This is a great buy from Orion, giving you a scope that pulls down a lot of light at a modest price. I would definitely recommend this to those interested in getting into the hobby. :-)

Ok this telescope has a lot of bang for a little buck. First night out I saw Saturn with four moons highly visible. The second night ( tonight ) I found the Boges Galaxy, Sombrero Galaxy, Venus, Pinwheel Galaxy, and Whirlpool Galaxy. All of which were awesome. The 25mm eyepiece that comes with the telescope is great but I highly suggest buying more. I bought a Astro-Tech 1.25" Accessory kit which comes with 5 eyepieces, a 2x barlow lens, and 5 filters including a moon filter. I got all this for 119.95 from astronomics(dot)com. They really brought out some great views with this scope. I would love too look through this thing with some nice nagler lenses but maybe on down the road seeming this was a spur of the moment thing and I spent 550$ but I'm very glad I did. I found my new favorite hobby. And believe me, I did a lot of research on scopes before I bought this I swear I probably researched scopes for 2 weeks straight and found this one to have the best size, brand, reviews, and tech specs for the money. I am very glad I decided with this one. I highly suggest not buying this scope for anyone under at least 13 years old because it is big it's 45" tall just the tube not including the base. It ways around 45 pounds base/tube together. I highly suggest carrying them seperatly when setting up. So unless an adult will be around to lug this thing around for anyone under 13 I would buy them something smaller. But all in all I LOVE THIS TELESCOPE thats all I can say.. If you are looking into getting a scope of this size BUY THIS ONE YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. Also, I highly suggest anyone just starting out in stargazing not buying a go to scope buy a manual scope so you get to learn how to find stuff on your own that is half the fun in stargazing learning where everything is. Also, another reason a beginner should start on a manual scope is Ok think of this scenario.... You buy a go to scope and have never had to manually find anything. You decide to go to a dark sky sight a good drive from your house lets say 45 minutes to an hour drive. Ok you get there get set up and then realize your batteries are dead and you forgot to bring more so do you want to waste all the precious liquid gold gas and precious time just to turn around and go home or would you rather know how to find your way around the heavens and get to enjoy your planned evening out. Personally, I would love to enjoy my evening. Just saying people think about it????? Any comments you wanna leave go ahead I'll try to respond. Thank you I hope this review is helpful.

I bought this telescope 2 years ago and figured I should have my input on it now that its been put up to the test of time and travel. This is a very sturdy scope, its able to break through the light pollution in the city where I live and I've taken it out to the country side and it still shows the same view of the sky, the only thing about it being in the city is that the nearby highway causes a vibration so getting the shock absorbers for the base will be needed but it really hasn't bothered me too much and I still have them in my wish list waiting to be ordered. I love this scope, its my first really nice one and I plan on getting more lenses to go with it like for the moon because its so bright looking at it full so be careful on that one but just to say this is a great telescope for the money and its worth having and can always get attachments for an upgrade. It's light-weight, easy to fit anywhere in the house since that was my main concern when buying it but it fits perfectly in a small car for travel, just the base is the bulky part for that concern so I had to put that in the front seat with the scope in the backseat. Simple yet powerful, even the kid can operate it!

Ordered this, a 13% moon filter, and 3x barlow. Took longer to unpack and take inventory of the parts than it did to put it together. Easy instructions and certainly well protected for shipping. Mount is easy to swing but not easy enough to get free wheeling. Main mirror needed slight adjustment which took about 2 minutes to fix. Alignment with spotting scope was equally as easy. Overall, did not have any problems or any issues that weren't easily addressed by the instructions. Did my first test tonight. I live a few miles east of Philadelphia and within a 1/4 mile of a ridiculously lit up Super Walmart. And the only place I could do a test was in my drive way between houses on a busy suburb street. We got 10 inches of snow last night and this was the only place that was solid. Given my crappy location full of light pollution, my only real expectation tonight was to verify that the spotting scope and the main scope were in alignment. So I pointed at Orion's Nebula (M43) with my spotting scope and then took a look through the factory supplied 25mm eye piece with no barlow. WOW!!! Even with my crappy location, M43 was amazing!!! I could easily see the nebula and make out the hues and colors. Equally amazing, my spotting scope and main scope were dead on!! I then wheeled the scope towards Saturn which was only a few degrees over my neighbor's roof, a real no-no when it comes to stargazing. Well, if this was crappy conditions, all I can say is WOW!!! It was just as amazing. Even though the rings are tough to make out since the rings are right on in terms of their plane, it was still easy to see as well as plenty of moons circling. WOW!!! Then tried the 13% moon filter on the crescent moon. WOW!!! Wish I could describe it better, but the first peek at this stuff is just amazing!! I cannot wait to get out this weekend to rural area and look at this stuff. I'm giving it 5 stars now simply because the product's quality right of the box was top shelf and what you can view out of it is simply amazing even with my awful light polluted location. And even though I was only out testing for a few minutes, my neighbors wondered what I was doing and when I gave them a peek at Saturn, the ooooohs and aaaahs were priceless!!! If this thing somehow broke by tommorrow, I feel like I already got my money's worth.

This is my very first telescope. It's been alright and everything, I don't have any complain with the quality of the product per se. Only thing is, I haven't "fallen in love" with it or the hobby. This might just be my unrealistic expectations or still lack of skills/experience on it though. But for such a big ass, and already not that cheap telescope, I was hopping for better views. I've tried with the included 25mm eyepiece, as well with a 9mm one, both from my backyard as well ass far away from the city lights. On the bright side, it is very easy to mount, transport, and operate, so there is not too big of a learning curve, so I would say it is a good option if you are a beginner just like me. Just manage your expectations. It's also right on the limit of a big aperture, while still being able to carry it around on a sedan car. I think a 10in one would be already too big to fit it on most such cars. Clear skys!

I have played the research game for months before finally deciding on this as my first scope. I started with a planisphere and my own two eyes, learning constellations. My next step was to use binoculars to start getting a better glimpse of the sky. I was hooked and knew that I was ready to spend money on a scope that I would use over and over again. That's important, make sure you are really hooked in this pastime before spending money on a large item like this! Pros: Most cost effective way to get a lot of aperture. Orion is a good company with good quality control. This scope is well designed and built. Simple to use for beginners. Cons: Awkward to carry in one piece. It's a large item that needs to be stored somewhere safe when not in use. Only comes with one eye piece, which isn't going to satisfy you for very long. Overall, I do not feel the cons listed above have any real impact on the total value of this scope. I thought long and hard about spending three to five times this much on different scopes with more advanced features. In the end, I decided that I would save my money and pick this scope as the next logical step in my hobby. Don't fool around with anything cheaper or smaller, this is THE best beginner scope you can find.

I really believe this telescope earns a solid five stars for being a great value on an excellent scope. I have been naked eye stargazing and using a 60mm refractor for years. I finally saved up to buy the Skyquest XT8. I had high hopes based on a lot of research I had done to figure out the best value for my money. The XT8 definitely delivered on all my expectations. The setup was easy. It is a very sturdy scope, and simple to use. The motion is very smooth. The EZFinder scope and simple mount make it very easy to find objects. Even my husband, who has no telescope experience, finds it easy to use. The optics are excellent, and the mirrors arrived in good collimation. The included 25mm eyepiece is great for looking at the moon, and larger objects like open star clusters. I also ordered a 2x shorty barlow, which doubles the power of your eyepiece. I have a 9.7mm eyepiece on the way, and I think between that and the 25mm and 2x barlow, I will be good for a while. The one thing I would caution owners about is that this scope is about 45 pounds and kind of awkward to move. I would definitely have someone spot you the first time you try to move it, unless you remove the tube from the mount and transport it in two pieces. This scope used to have 5 stars on Amazon, and I think it is such an excellent value that it really should have a full 5 star rating.