Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope for the Serious Adult Astronomy Beginner - Portable Telescope for Stargazing & Deep-sky Objects

This is my first telescope. I've read a lot of reviews before buying. My choices were the orion 4.5, 6 dobsonian and the celestron astromaster 130 eq. I was on a budget of 500 USD and with that budget includes shipping here in the Philippines via sea freight. With that budget the dobsonians are out, I've really like the 6 inch built a telescope from orion but the shipping cost was really over the budget. Now the celestron astromaster 130 and this telescope. Well I've read from the users that the celestron astromaster 130; Cons 1. the tripod of the celestron can easily break 2. the dot finder was a challenge to use 3. plus there is no included collimation cap (you can easily make one) 4. Mirror has no center guide (though you can mark it yourself) 5. the included 20 mm plossl is not of good quality Pros 1. Optics is really good with the astromaster 130 2. Parabolic mirror 3. Cost about 187 USD (sometimes it changes to 210 USD) With this I chose the orion spaceprobe 130ST since I don't want to deal with the cons of the Celestron Astromaster 130. After waiting about 50 days the telescope finally arrived. Packaging: It is well packed and it is double boxed to protect the items inside and there's a lot of small empty boxes to prevent the items from moving. The OTA is separated by a divider and tightly packed. All items are complete, The finder scope, 2 eyepiece, dvd's and tools are in a separate box and the EQ mount is already pre-assembled. Assembling the telescope is easy and it took me about 45 minutes (watch the video in youtube on how to assemble the scope, it will really help) Equatorial mount: As for an equatorial mount you'll get the hang of it after several use and is actually convenient to use when tracking objects (its just a turn of a knob.) You can also use the scope like a dobsonian and an alt-azimuth (release the Dec and RA lock and you're free to move it around) Advantaged of an EQ mount is that I tracks objects by a single turn of a knob and it can also be used for astro-photography when you want that on a later time. Performance: Overall the performance of the telescope is great. It is properly collimated, mount is stable and durable. The 2 eyepiece included is of good quality. Focuser is smooth and the finder scope is easy to use (opening your other eye will help you target objects while using the finder.) 260x is the rated useful magnification of this scope but I've tried 325x with the moon and jupiter (using a 6mm plossl and a 3x barlow) The view is not as crisp sharp for jupiter and but I can still see the major bands. I'll purchase the celestron 2.3mm soon and see how it goes. Cons for the Orion spaceprobe 130ST 1. At high magnification the scope will become shaky when focusing. (I guess this is to be expected on the EQ2 mount. Let it settle for a few seconds and the view will steady) 2. My 25 mm siruis plossl has a big lint between the lens (Orion replaced it) 3. Some scratches on the tripod 4. Some dirt on the mirror 5. EQ mount is for latitude 16 and above only. Although you can remedy this by turning the scope so the front leg of the tripod is facing south and the counterweight will not hit the tripod leg. 11/3/2012 On a clear night just recently I spend the whole night looking at jupiter. I got a glimpse of the great spot! (And occasional eye floaters!! Damn) Things I saw on our backyard with limited view Pleiades - easy to spot and magnificent with the 25 mm Plossl Orion nebula - by far easiest nebula to spot Andromeda galaxy - Its just like a gray blur cloud in the sky Jupiter - see above Moon - great as always (don't expect to see the american flag) Sun - Try to view at sunrise and sunset and use a baader filer or mylar I'll update this review when I can.

Wanted to get a telescope for my daughter on her 10th birthday. Was guided by the reviews here which generally stated that this was a solid instrument for beginners. Some notes on the telescope itself and then some comments on what you're in for if you are like me, the true clueless beginner: SpaceProbe 130ST Pros: Nice looking telescope, seems very professionally made. We have seen some amazing sights in the first few nights. The waxing moon looks amazing and all kinds of incredible details can been seen. At 60x and 120x magnification (a 2x barlow lens is needed for 120x mag, not included with this scope) we could see the cloud bands on Jupiter and it's moons. We could even see the shadow of a transiting moon on the surface of Jupiter. We found Saturn, surrounded by one brilliant fat ring. We could make out some cloud rings on the surface as well. Venus looked like a nice bright crescent. The equatorial mount and dials are pretty cool. We got ourselves an education in the coordinates of the night sky: declination, right ascension, etc. However for viewing planets all that went out the window and we did the old point-and-shoot. Space Probe 130ST cons: The mount looks sturdy at assembly, but in use the weaknesses become apparent. At 60x and 120x magnification, focusing on objects is a challenge. Using the focuser will cause enough vibration that we had to 'guess' if we were focused. Adjust the focus, wait for the vibrations to stop, adjust again, repeat. After some practice this really isn't a problem. The assembly instructions were pretty bad. I would almost say that a beginner would have no chance of putting this thing together using the included manual only. Thankfully Orion has an online video which will walk you through the process. The video was very good. The instructions for aligning the mirrors (collimating) are also useless if you are a true beginner. Even the Orion online video is not that helpful. Aligning the mirrors properly is incredibly important for good performance of the telescope. We had to use several online tutorials from other sources to figure this step out. NOTES FOR THE BEGINNER: As a complete uninitiated beginner, I found the assembly to be a challenge. Particularly the aligning, or collimating, of the mirrors, was quite difficult for this beginner and required a fair amount of manual dexterity. Definitely way beyond the capabilities of my 10-year-old, so keep that in mind. I discovered that the only reliable way to get perfect alignment was to purchase a laser collimator ($50 to $100) to assist the process. When using a laser, I could see that what seemed to be perfect alignment with the Orion-included collimation cap was not perfect at all. If you want to get the full performance potential out of this scope, I believe you're going to have to invest in the laser. Also a good investment is the moon filter for lunar viewing, and a Barlow 2x magnification lens, neither of which are included with this telescope.

My son got this telescope for his birthday. The first pleasant surprise is the build quality and sturdiness. The tripod has a nice weight while still being easy to move around. Once all of the pieces were put together we waited for night and were fortunate to get a clear sky. We skipped reading the manual and therefore struggle trying to position and point at the moon. Once we managed to point it we were all blown away by the amount of detail we could see of our lunar friend. Next my son pointed the scope to a bright star and when he looked got excited by what he saw. When I looked I was confused as to why there was one large star and 3 other pin point stars in a line. Then it hit me... this was Jupiter. We were looking at a planet. We are all hooked. Best advice I can give you if you purchase this is to spend a bit of time reading the manual to get it set up properly first and then go looking at the stars.

Ich bin absoluter Anfänger in der Teleskopie. Ich wollte unbedingt ein Teleskop, was für alles ganz gut ist (Planeten, Deep Sky und schöne Mondbetrachtung) und habe mich für dieses entschieden. Das Auspacken und zusammenbasteln hat innerhalb von 30minuten gut geklappt. Die Anleitung ist auf englisch. Im Internet gibt es die aber auch auf deutsch. Man hat 2 Okulare und ein Sucherfernrohr. Wichtig ist, dass man das Sucherfernrohr mit den 2 Schrauben, so einstellt, dass man das gleiche, wie auf dem kleinsten Okular sieht, von der Richtung her. Das wusste ich natürlich erst später und dachte, dass es nicht richtig hergestellt wäre. Aber seitdem ich alles genau so, wie in der Anleitung beschrieben eingestellt habe, ist alles mega gut. Die 2 feineinsteller sind gut durchdacht. Doch der Feineinsteller, der von oben nach unten die Sicht verändert, hatte bei einer Mutterschraube keinen guten Kleber. Irgendwann hatte ich den feineinsteller ohne Teleskop in der Hand, weil ich zu fest das Rädchen nach links gedreht hatte. Mit gutem Sekundkleber ins Gewinde, hält alles wieder Bombenfest. Trotz der kleinen Eskapade bin ich vollends begeistert von diesem Teleskop und kann es jedem empfehlen. Einzige Sache, die ich mir schwierig vorstelle, ist der Transport, da die Stativbeine mit einem Dreieck in der Mitte verschraubt werden, was ziemlich aufwändig ist. Besonders, wenn man bei Nacht draußen irgendwo aufstellen will. Da darf man die kleinen Schrauben mit den Muttern nicht im Gras verlieren! Ich hab mir noch ein 6, 3mm Okular Plössl gekauft und eine 5x Barlow Linse, sowie einen Mondfilter. Seitdem, kann ich auch den Saturn sehen mit seinem Ring. Und den Jupiter, mit seinen feinen horizontalen Rillen, welcher sich direkt neben dem Mond befindet und extrem hell leuchtet. Mit einer Barlow linse verliert man aber deutlich an Schärfe, wenn man kleine Okulare verwendet. Besser man greift tiefer in die Tasche beim Zubehör. Noch eine wichtige Sache, die ich für erwähnenswert halte, man sollte wirklich darauf achten, dass man das Teleskop in allen Achsen im Gleichgewicht einstellt. Seitdem ich das gemacht habe, dreht es sich einfacher und es scheint auch weniger Seitdem zu wackeln.

buena calidad del producto, y buena relacion precio costo, el precio fue 30% mas barato que en tiendas, si se requiere un poco de conocimientos basicos para ajustar el telescopio sin embargo hay mucha informacion en internet

Es bueno, envuelto pesaba bastante, una vez montado ya no tanto. Ha sido para un regalo.

This telescope is better than expected. Easy to assemble and the videos available helped greatly. My husband was thrilled with this Christmas present! Need a little time to get used to using it to the full potential but look forward to many years of stargazing.