Customer Reviews

Orion SpaceProbe 3 Altazimuth Reflector Telescope

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a very nice telescope for the price. I've always heard you get what you pay for with telescopes. Well this one is very affordable and works amazingly well. Easy assembly, 2 different eye pieces and the EZ finder is awesome. We bought this for our Son for christmas and he loves it. We were actually able to see Mars (which looked like a little orange moon)and Saturn. That experience alone was well worth it. I highly recommend this scope.

This is a wonderful telescope! I have not had one since i was a kid and being on a budget i did alot of research before finally making a purchase. The telescope is easy to put togeather. The redot sight is wonderful for finding things once its set up. I was able to view Jupiter and four of its moons and also make out 1 of its bands. A moon/planet filter may help bring out more detail.Stars will appear is nice tight pinpoints of light. No moon viewing yet. I was also able to pick up NGC 1977 off of Orion's belt very well, it had a blueish haze. I was able to hit the M110 Galaxy orbiting the Andromeda Galaxy and it was very easy to see. I'm sure i would have found alot more things with this telescope if only i had more experience. But just a few ours under my belt this telescope is still calling my name to bring it outside. Also there was quite a bit of dew on the outside of the tube and on the redot sight as the night went on leaving the redot a bit difficult to use do to a halo effect but the picture in the telescope's eyepeice maintained VERY clear. The stand is very sturdy, once you let go of the telescope the view is stablized very quickly. It came with great software. and also two eye peices that were x28 and x70 magnification. I can't wait save up some cash to get another Orion telescope.

I wanted a telescope for our 5 and 7 year old. After a bit of research I decided for a starter telescope we would get the best value with a reflector style. A couple of astronomy web sites recommended Atlas mounts as being more intuitive than equatorial mounts for novice users.

Once the Orion SpaceProbe 3 arrived it assembled quickly and easily (less than 30 minutes). The images of the moon are quite clear.

I bought this for one of my kids, and was impressed. This is a very basic telescope kit, but it does what it's supposed to very well, and is a very good value for the money.

If you don't want to spend more than 100 bucks but want some magnificent moon view and reasonable planet/nebula observation, e.g. when you're testing the taste of your kid, go for it. This will give you some truly breathtaking experience.

Just to give you some ideas of what to expect, the Moon is really, really detailed and sharp. Jupiter is a small colored blob and its four moons are tiny bright white dots. They're gorgeous.

I have some success taking pictures of the moon through this telescope using my dslr.

If you need to observe more details like the gap in Saturn's ring and Jupiter's dot and whatnot, you need a bigger telescope.

I'm not that impressed by the mount, thus 4 stars, not 5. It works, it doesn't wobble as far as you don't touch, but its backlash/play/stickiness is not small, and you need to learn to work around it. It makes things trickier than necessary.

All in all, I'm impressed by what you can buy with 100 bucks.

By the way, regardless of the telescope you have, you need to constantly adjust the pointing. That's not the telescope's fault, it's just that you're looking at such a tiny part of the sky that the Earth's rotation pushes the star out of your view pretty quickly.

If you hate constantly adjusting things, you might want a telescope with a computerized mount. These costs more, but not ridiculously so, and they will automatically find and track stars for you.

To give you some perspective, Earth's one revolution per day means 0.25 degrees per minute, while an angle formed by full moon's diameter and your telescope is a bit over 0.5 degrees.

Reveived the telescope in just a couple of days. Much sooner than promised. It was packaged very well and I received it without any damage. Great price and delivery!! Thank you!!

This telescope is really nice. Me & my daughter took it out for a "test drive" last night and I was amazed at its ability. We started off easy looking at the moon and the clarity was unbelievable. We could really see the craters very well. I particularly like the two different powered eyepieces that come with it. You can use the lower power to find and focus, then switch over to the high power to get a better view. The only thing I didn't really like about this telescope is the ability to fine tune the aiming. It has a view finder that lets you get the subject generally in view but if you want to adjust your aim a little it's difficult.

This is a great beginner telescope. Take it from me .... a beginner. I am still learning this astronomy thing, but I am having so much fun with this telescope. It took me about 30 - 45 minutes to assemble (with 3 kids hanging all over me) and I was looking at stuff upside down right away (reflector scopes flip the immage). Stuff=satellite dishes on neighbors homes and I even caught up to an airplane in the sky with the easy to use alt azimuth stand that it comes with. I recently travelled with it, and it was very easy to take down, pack and reassemble at my location.
The images that I see through both of the eye pieces that this scope comes with are crystal clear. Seeing the craters on the moon with that much clarity is amazing. I haven't gotten to see Saturn yet, but I can't wait to point this thing towards all the planets.
Also, the software that comes with this scope is really easy to use and makes it fun to try and find out the names of the stars I am looking at in the sky.
If you are looking for a starter telescope, this is the one. Look no further. (unless you want to use it for terrestrial viewing, in which case the upside down thing might not work out so well)

Product was lovely but set up was difficult....the instructions were not nearly thorought enough for use and set up for beginers like my husband and myself

This was a Chrismas gift, 2010. My daughter was so excited and then came the disappointment. It was impossible to get a view of anything. Any slight movement near the telescope would risk losing the view that took forever to find! My daughter wanted either a telescope or the three seasons of Avatar the Last Airbender. So once I sent this back, I bought the 3 DVD box sets and she's happier now!

It is a great telescope. Since, my 21 year old daughter and I are Science Major, it is easier for me to talk to my 9 year old how to use, take care of lense, ask him questions and also give him particular assignments.