Customer Reviews

Orion SkyQuest XT8i IntelliScope Dobsonian Telescope

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One of the best features of Dobsonians is that they offer high aperture at a decent cost. A Cassegrain with the same aperture would cost twice as much. The downside to Dobs is the size of the scopes themselves. Larger Dobs can be almost impossible to carry around. However, the Orion XT8 is a fine compromise in size and weight. With everything assembled it weighs a little over 40 pounds.

The scope's power is more than enough for an amateur getting into astronomy (I found the Ring nebula just the other night). With a 203mm aperture, the main mirror can pick up faint clusters, nebula, and most of the planets. Combined with a recently purchased 8mm Hyperion eyepiece, Jupiter was just an amazing sight. I recommend buying eyepiece upgrades. One line of thought with telescopes is that half of the scope's ability comes from the mirror aperture, the other from the eyepiece power. The two included eyepieces are 'ok', but once you slip in a TeleVue or Baader into the focuser you will definitely notice the difference.

The Intelliscope finder is a different matter. Assembly of the scope and encoder boards have to be spot on for the alignment procedure to work properly. The Intelliscope finder is manually controlled and a two star alignment must be done for proper use. This system works better in theory than in reality, as only slight variations in the star or vertical alignment procedures can throw off the finder's ability. But once you get adjusted to the night sky the Intelliscope finder's use is almost negated.

I'd recommend the Orion XT8i to beginners or to anyone looking to upgrade from a starter scope. But keep in mind that the Intelliscope finder must be installed precisely and used with exact alignment or else it will be so off from its altitude/azimuth that it won't work properly.

My previous scope was an equatorial mounted 3" refractor. This 8" Intelliscope is much better. I wasn't sure how I would like the Dobson mount, but it works well. It is very smooth, especially if you have the scope level. It is a little less responsive when you are looking at objects that are almost straight up. The Intelliscope computer works well for finding objects in the sky. I have a small patch of light polluted sky for sky observing, so the stars I use for initial setup are not very far apart, but with careful setup I can locate what I want in the sky (provided it's in my patch). All of the parts appear to be well made. I recommend getting the bag, a barlow and a moon filter.

My first telescope.. and I'm happy with it .. easy to put together,(watch the video on their site as you do it) easy to use, well made (base could be a bit better then it is but it seems to work fine)Great images of Jupiter and four of its moons, also our Moon so far is mostly it.. have been able to find a few galaxies but I live in a pretty heavy lighted area, so not much detail to them, and also its been very hot here lately (heat distorts views I've read?) I think for the price this is a great started scope with some room to grow. OH and Orion has been awesome with its service so far also .. had an issue with a 2" Q70 eyepiece I ordered and they replaced it within a few days.. like three days! Now that's service!

short review, this telescope does a great job of collecting light. and the object finder does an amazing job at locating objects, very simple to use. i just load my star app on my phone find a bright star lock on and then do it again, the object finder will pinpoint anything. probably would suggest buying better lenses then the ones that come with even tho they do fine but since your spending the money go ahead and get the most out of your telescope.

This is a highly recommended telescope. Bought it for my husband for his birthday. He was definitely impressed. It is much bigger than the picture indicates. Nothing in the online material indicates that it is nearly 5 feet long. It might be wise to add that information to the details offered. It does a great job; we've been watching the moons of Jupiter.

The Orion Skyquest XT8i is an awesome telescope, good magnification; portable, excellent quality and assembly instructions are very good. I find for the beginner, that would be me; the (i) part of the XT8i is a little intimidating. I have yet to get mine zeroed in.