Customer Reviews

Orion SpaceProbe 3 Equatorial Reflector Telescope

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this telescope for my girlfriend for Christmas. She had been wanting a telescope for sometime so I decided this would be the perfect gift. I was looking for a scope that wouldn't break the bank but wouldn't be a piece of junk either. I looked at models from Meade and Celestron but ultimately decided on this one.

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!

*December 2010 Update* I thought I would give an additional update. We have had this telescope for 4 years now. It's fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I cannot recommend it enough. Recently we were looking at Jupiter and could make out all of the Galilean moons as well as being able to make out red striping of the planet itself (still haven't been able to see the great spot!). All of this from the front of our yard in the city. A buddy of mine got a 7" reflector scope, and while his can see much deeper and give better resolution, this one is still tops in my book. It's easy to transport and move around and still provides great viewing. We just love taking it camping with us - get 50 miles out of the city and the "awe factor" grows exponentially. Try taking a huge super powerful scope camping, or seeing anything cool with one of the cheap toy-store ones. For price and features, you can't beat this one.

I was worried when I read the other reviews on this product but decided it was the best scope in the price range and went ahead. I think the other reviews do this product a disadvantage. This is a really nice telescope.

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.

This is my first telescope. My wife bought it for me for my birthday and the first thing I did after setting it up was took it outside and saw Jupiter! Using the 25mm and 10mm eyepieces that came with it, I was able to see the dark bands around Jupiter (better on the 10mm) and the 4 Galilean moons! I just got 2 more eyepieces for Christmas and am looking forward to trying them out. I haven't gotten any filters yet, but that's next on my wish list.

I am very happy with my purchase of the Orion SpaceProbe 3, It is much bigger than i had expected ! It arrived in very good condition and didnt take long to put it all together . it takes a couple of nights to get the hang of finding the moon but when you do it is well worth the wait. This telescope is well worth the money i paid and most people that see it think i spent a whole lot more..I would purchase it again..

I purchased this telescope for my 9 yr old daughter as a Christmas/Birthday present. I had no idea what to get but the reviews of this seemed like a good buy. It came in a huge box with directions for set-up that looked darn right scary! I am not mechanical and the directions are limited - no step by step pictures and some key pieces aren't labeled at all. With that being said I still managed to get it together without incident! It took me at least 1 1/2 hrs - as I said I'm mechanically challenged. I did make 1 call to the help desk - the tripod required installation of a piece that wasn't actually listed at all in the diagram - once I found that it made more sense. The telescope is so NEAT - it looks amazing and the view is spectacular. For the money it can't be beat.

I bought this for my teenage daughter. It does bring the moon up close and clear, but I was hoping to see other planets in more detail. Still, it was easy to set up and use, and I'm sure we will get better at spotting things as we get more familiar with it.

I am alway reading reviews to help me decide on buyng a product, especially spending this much for a gift. But after reading the other revies I decided to take a chance. I was very excited to give this to my husband for christmas. On other reviews the only issue folks seem to have was putting it together, Nut my husband had no issue at all. I am very glad I bought this. It's a great Telescope!

Puchased for my 8 year older daughter - unit very nice - but would probably pick one less complicated for this age group

Good - Nice telescope for the price. Don't expect the Hubble. Useful for looking at the moon, but not much else. I would buy this again for what I want to use it for......

Bad - the assembly instructions leave out steps and do not clearly name parts. However, if you can tie your shoelaces you should be able to figure this out, even if it takes two or three tries. Max assembly time is 45 minutes

I bought this telescope as a Christmas present for my family. My daughter (soon to be 12) is a bit of a science geek, and I have always been interested in astronomy, so I figured we would give it a try. My daughter helped me to put it together. Thankfully the mirrors did not need to be installed, or for that matter, adjusted. We took it out to the deck in our back yard and were very disappointed! I couldn't find anything in the night sky, and my sight didn't work. Later that night I re-read the instruction manual. I guess I didn't read it very closely the first time, because it was filled with directions on how to properly sight the scope and a bunch of different ways to adjust the telescope.

So the next day armed with this knowledge, I sighted in the finder on an object about a mile away and I played with the different adjustment knobs to get more familiar with the telescope. My daughter and I tried again that night. The moon was in the first quarter. I sighted it in and.....there it was in the lens! My daughter was very impressed. Next I sighted in on Venus, but it was partially obscured by some trees, as it was lower on the horizon. Directly above us was Jupiter, so I decided to try that next. I sighted it in and sure enough, there it was right in the middle of my lens! We then switched to the 10mm lens and looked at Jupiter...beautiful! We could even see a few of Jupiter's moons! My daughter was very excited seeing all these objects! It's nice to see her interested in science, and I think this telescope will really help with that!

I cannot stress enough the importance of reading the instruction book (multiple times if you are as dense as I can be!). It seems every time I read it, I find something else that helps me. Also take the time to learn the different parts and how to adjust them. The Equatorial Mount is really nice, but if you don't know what you're doing, it's useless.

I think this product is perfect for the beginner astronomer who is willing to take a little time to learn to use the product.