Side by Side Comparison of: Meade vs ORION

This telescope is great! A little larger than I thought, but I found a big enough duffle bag to fit it in, and now I can even travel with it. As for the seller: I was amazed. The telescope arrived three days after ordering instead of two weeks. Thank you,
Edie Kasper

Meade Infinity 102mm Refractor Telescope review:
UPDATE June 12, 2016: I've since upgraded and now own this Meade Infinity 102mm Refractor telescope and sold my Meade 90mm Refractor Telescope.
Why Amazon have the reviews all mixed up for the different Meade Infinity series is not nice, especially when I had purchased two different telescope and have to use the same review to either rewrite or add to it is beside me and I think that is not the way it should be.

Anyway I got this Meade 102mm telescope Tuesday 07, June 2016 and it came well packaged, all items intact and am fully satisfied with what I received. It took me less than 10mins to setup and have it ready for use for first light. I also got the Red Dot viewfinder set into the Telescope and did my adjustments, focusing the telescope on an object a few miles away. It took me about 5mins or less to get the Red Dot viewfinder perfectly aligned. I then looked at Saturn to see if the Red Dot viewfinder was perfectly aligned and all was OK.
I then took out my Meade 90mm Telescope to compare the difference in viewing, using on both of them the same eyepieces. I selected the 26mm eyepieces, seeing I now have 2 eyepieces of the same from both telescopes.
I placed both telescopes side by side and set it upon Saturn. I elected Saturn seeing its the smallest and easily seen planet at the moment, that way I can actually see how well both will display Saturn. Looking at Saturn from both telescopes have shown me quite a difference.
Lets consider the 90mm; when you look at Saturn you definitely see it but much smaller and can make out the ring around Saturn but not the Cassini band and i.e. bare in mind using the 26mm eyepiece.
Looking through the 102mm using the same 26mm eyepiece at Saturn brings the planet a little closer to your eyes and have a clearer and brighter view also you have a very marginal wider field of view but not much to make a fair comparison with the 90mm. I did not see the Cassini band using the 26mm eyepiece on the 102mm Telescope.

The next day I took them out and decided to look at a communication tower located several miles away in the horizon and when I looked through using the same 26mm eyepieces you definitely have a much closer and detailed view of the top of the tower with the 102mm telescope. Whereas the 90mm you have a clear view but its seeing the tower a little further away and don't see too much details but just barely.
In summing up I'd say that the Meade 102mm is much brighter and better viewing enjoyment than the Meade 90mm. All in all I still love both Telescopes but a friend of mine came by and saw the 90mm and asked me to buy it and I sold it. So now I have only the Meade 102mm which I'm enjoying very much.

Meade Infinity 90mm Refractor Telescope review:
This is the first Telescope I've ever owned, and also the very first time I ever looked into a Telescope. Setting up everything was just around ten minutes or less.
I got a small packet of tools, 1 Phillips screwdriver, 1 triangular shaped flat head screwdriver and 2 different size spanner. I did not need to use any of the tools to setup the entire apparatus.
I love the red dot viewfinder and found it very easy to align with the telescope. I aligned it using a distant object in the horizon with the Telescope, centering the eyepiece with the Telescope then taking the red dot viewfinder to align with the red dot. All that I did late in the evening time. I then used it at night and looked at a distant star with the red dot viewfinder then in turn looked at the star through the Telescope and it was perfectly aligned. Amen
The tripod came already assembled in its own box while the Telescope came wrapped in its own box, all items was placed in a bigger box so it looks as one item. As advertised on Amazon I got everything as described and was not disappointed.
As described with the Telescope all is seen completely upright as if you're looking through a binoculars with one eye. For terrestrial use this is ideally suited for me. So up is up, down is down, left is left and right is right.
I will later on look at the planets and star clusters etc to see what more I can see and as much as I can see.
I had a quick look at the Moon and its quite breathtaking seeing the craters of the Moon with so much details.

UPDATE MARCH 19, 2016: I got up this morning approx 1:30 AM and could not go back to sleep and decided to walk out my back step and what did I saw was both Saturn and Mars with the Moon approx 30 degrees (i.e. from the horizon to the Moon) setting at the west. I decided to take my Telescope and view those planets. I was really amazed, it's the first time I've ever seen Saturn & its rings using all the different eyepieces. I also had a good long look of Mars and was all excited about my short night events.
A few nights ago I also viewed Jupiter and was amazed with so much details to see the bands on Jupiter and seeing 4 of Jupiter's Moon.

Coming back to the red dot viewfinder; I did some very fine tweaks to it and now its spot on. Once you find the object with the red dot and you look into the Telescope its right on the target.

I know nothing about telescopes. That being said, it was very easy to put together. It took us less than 10 minutes to get the entire thing set up. The dvd took a while for me to get it to work because it didn't run on my laptop. Thank goodness we had an older desktop that would run the disc. Overall, I think this is a great starter for you future astronomy student. The telescope is good to use during the daytime as well, so you can look at the wildlife around your home. With the Astronomy with a Home Telescope, I was able to start going in the right direction with this telescope. We have enjoyed trying it out as a family. It is a great way for us to spend more time together and we're all for it.

I received this telescope for review purposes, all thoughts are my own.

Awesome telescope. I tracked Venus, Jupiter and its moons, and the Orion Nebula within an hour of first opening the box. One knob was bent, but Meade replaced it with little effort.

I read many reviews for various telescopes in this price range before choosing this one. In the end I chose this for the following reasons:

1. The specifications of the scope. 90mm is the largest refractor scope in this price range.
2. The image is not reversed or upside-down. This means daytime terrestrial viewing is possible.
3. The mount is not a typical alt-azimuth. It has fine tuning knobs so you can track during celestial viewing.
4. This scope came with 3 eyepieces and a 2x Barlow lens. It also has a red dot view finder.

I was very skeptical due to the lack of reviews but it came with everything I wanted as a first time buyer. It arrived professionally packaged and with all the pieces. It was simple to assemble and I was outside calibrating the view finder within about 10 minutes. The moon is amazing, especially when less than half full. I can see Jupiter with 4 of its moons and if focused properly I can see the two major bands across its surface. To see Jupiter clearly I found the best method is to choose your eyepiece, focus it using the surface of the moon, and then use the view finder to target the planet.

The only thing I think this telescope could benefit from is a finer focus knob. It is however adequate if you are patient or use the method I mentioned above. I am attaching a photo of the moon I took my first day of use. I took the picture using my phone by just holding it up to the eyepiece so it is not crystal clear. The image you see through the eyepiece is very clear. I hope this helps others who are considering this purchase.

I purchased this as a gift for my husband's birthday. Neither of us had ever used or owned a telescope but had been talking about getting one for our family for a few years. This telescope arrived before expected and in great condition, we assembled the telescope the night it arrived and set it aside to wait for a clear night. (being early spring in New England we had a week or so to wait!). ON the first clear night we took it out to look at the moon. We didn't follow the first steps listed in the instruction manual to balance and calibrate the telescope first, but after about 20 min we were able to find and look at the moon and show our two young children who were super excited and in awe over what we could see. We plan on balancing it and calibrating it before we use it again (have another week of predicted rain) to make it easier to locate objects in the sky, but it wasn't too difficult and the images were amazing! I can't wait to look at planets and stars with this telescope!

Still playing with it as I just received a few days ago. Got to take a look at the moon for the first time last night and was impressed. This is my first telescope so I can't speak to all of the technical stuff yet. I'm still waiting for the planets to get above the horizon, at a decent time, to take a look at them. I would like to know from the more experienced what eye piece they recommend for seeing the rings of Saturn and Jupiter. I can see the mountains around the moons craters, but I'm not sure the two eye pieces this came with will give me a good shot of Jupiter, Saturn or the other planets. Also ordered the electronic drive, but haven't received yet.

This telescope is incredible! absolutely love it. the mount is sturdy and reliable and very easy to use. the optics are easy to adjust. i've been able to see the orion nebula, andromeda galaxy, saturns rings, jupiters moons and cloud belts and of course craters on the moon. this telescope is the best that ive seen out there in this price range.

I'm not at all familiar with astronomy so when choosing a telescope to surprise my techie husband, I read many reviews and looked at different products in the $250-350 price range. It was a huge challenge to understand what would be best and I took the leap on the Orion SpaceProbe 130ST (my parents ordered the lens kit to supplement the gift). I chose it over a Dobsonian because this one is much easier to move around, which is necessary when you live on the edge of a city. My husband was super surprised and delighted as he had no idea I was even thinking of getting his dream gift. Since I am not the product's user and I am completely clueless, I asked him to share his feedback on the telescope.Here's what he shared:"I'm not a usual beginner since I'm more technical. For a true beginner, a Dobsonian is better because there is less to mess up. It's simpler, but it's more expensive. For the money, so far, this is the best combination of size and quality. It has a smaller mirror than the Dobsonian, but the images I'm getting are still really cool. We live in what aren't the greatest conditions, it's a Minnesota winter. I use it standing outside the front door and can dicern Jupiter's bands with the lens kit. I haven't tried deep space objects yet because it's been too cold and cloudy. The two lenses the telescope comes with are more than sufficient for moon and deep space objects like nebulas and galaxies which are suited to lower magnifications, but out of the box, you need to get the Orion 1.25" Premium Telescope Accessory Kit if you want to see the bands of Jupiter."Keep in mind, he knew practically nothing about telescopes before opening this gift and just the thought of owning his new telescope has him reading blogs and websites and learning everything he can. It's a priceless gift for someone who loves learning and has an interest in the sky.

After much debate on purchasing this scope ( a Newtonian Reflector on a Equatorial Mount with 130mm aperture ) or a Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic Dobsonian Telescope, I went with this scope for a couple of reasons.1. This scope is supposedly ( more on this later ) more portable then the 8" tube and base that I would have received. I have small two door car and would not have been able to fit the tub in the trunk and only in the passenger seat.2. This scope is on a Equatorial Mount which would be needed if you wished to take long exposure AstroPhotography or wanted to have a the telescope track objects in the sky without having to continually adjust.3. It provided a very bright telescope ( f/5 ) with a wide field of view which was recommend to me to be better for a beginner.4. The mount could later be upgraded to attach a motor to automatically track objects. Again a plus for taking photos or if you have people over and would like it to stay centered on the object. I was amazed at how quickly objects will move out of view, even a few minutes and your object will disappear.5. This scope does a little bit of everything well enough and can let me grow or dabble into different areas without having to purchase another scope or added features. At most, you would need two accessories. A Orion Shorty 1.25" 2x Barlow Lens to help with magnification ( The long tube version of this scope Orion SpaceProbe 130 EQ Reflector has a longer focal point as well as the Dobsonian reflectors which gets your more magnification for the same eyepeice) and a camera mount/accessories for taking photos.This is my very first telescope and I will give you my opinion in each area of the product as well as issues I ran into as a beginner.PACKAGING:The scope arrived very well packed with many empty boxes inside the package to serve as cushion for the telescope and parts. It is a single box that is about four feet long and about 50 lbs. Unpacking may take a bit to carefully set up the parts for assembly.INCLUDED ITEMS:It comes with a manual, Orion's starry night software which I found helpful as beginner ( also notifies you of any upcoming events that you may want to watch) , tools for assembly of the telescope ( no hex wrench for collimation i.e. adjusting the mirrors ), collmination cap, and two eye pieces. A 10mm for 65x and a 25mm for 26x magnification.ASSEMBLY:The instructions list that this should take 30 minutes. I agree if I had to do this a second time and I could probably do it in 15 by the second or third time. However, as a beginner with no prior experience, expect an hour to 1 1/2 hour to assemble. The instructions are good but a bit hazy and unclear during certain steps for a beginner. This is due to the large area of controls, gears, and levers on the mount itself that can seem a bit over bearing at first before you are familiarized with the controls. It would be helpful to have smaller diagrams between steps showing exact controls or parts to move. You may have to re-read the steps a few time and continue to consult the single diagram for reference. Order of Assembly: 1. Mount tripods to Mount ( Mount is heavy! ) 2. Add and assembly accessory tray 3. Thread and add counterweight to mount ( Be very careful ) 4. Add ring mounts ( will hold the telescope tube or OTA ) to mount. Remember to add the correct one to the correct side 5. Carefully set tube in ring mounts and tighten. 6. Adjust balance of telescope in both axis 7. Add slow control knobs to worm gearsNotes about assembly:I ran into issues at first after installing the counter weight. I was under the impression that the locking bolts to secure the mount at a particular angle would hold the mount in place with the counterweight. No matter how tight you press the weight will force the mount down. I assumed something was broken but luckily I figured out that the latitude adjustment bolt needed to be set first. This bolt limits how low the mount will go. In my case, with the bolt not set the counterweight would flop down and hit the tripod legs. Setting this bolt to 30-40 degrees stops it from BENDING lower and the counterweight stays still now.Second issue I had was mounting the tube rings on the wrong side. There is one right with a small metal wheel on top to be used for taking photos with a camera. That ring should be toward the FRONT of the telescope WHICH IS where the SLOW MOTION CONTROL for Declination is! This means the control knob ALSO points towards the front of the telescope.COLLIMATION:I used the included cap ( place over the focuser or eyepiece tube on the telescope ) to check if the mirrors were aligned. I looked through and it looked pretty close to me at first and I wanted to get out and test it. You should check it after receiving it as some of it may be off. Mine was as I realized later however it was close enough to still see brilliant images the first night. I corrected it today and after over an hour of the learning process I have mine aligned well and it did seem that the moon was sharper then the day before. This is a maintenance process that you have to do on these types of scopes. The first time, it's tough. If I had to do it again now I could do it in about 5-10 minutes or less.Here are some of the mistakes a beginner like me made that caused confusion:When you use the collimation cap, you are supposed to see all these "rings" and reflections of the mirrors. There are only two things you are going to adjust, the secondary mirror and the primary mirror ( the big one at the back of the tube). The secondary mirror is the tricky one. Basically, you look down the focuser and with the telescope parallel to the horizon ( in case you drop a screw or tool and don't' want it falling onto the mirror and breaking it! ) you look through and see if the dark black ring around the center is , well centered. If not you start by using a Philips screw to adjust on the front of the scope. There is a cross at the front and only one Phillips head screw in the center to modify. This Moves the mirror toward the back of the tube or toward the front. This just aligns it so that when you look through you are seeing the whole image of the secondary mirror through the focuser. You may rotate it if it's at an angle but only touch the stub, not the mirror itself. Then, you can use a 2mm Allen wrench to adjust the three screws to adjust the tilt to make that dark black ring in the center. There will be a ring shaped mark that you will see. don't worry about getting that centered yet, only the dark ring around it. Once that is done, you unscrew three screws at the back to take off a cover and then find 6 screws to adjust the back mirror. This is trial and error as well but you just have to move either of the screws a little bit and it will cause the ring mark to move and center with the dark dot directly in the center. This "dot" is the hole that you are looking through that you will see in the mirror reflection.USING THE TELESCOPEFinally, actually using the telescope is not so bad but you will have to get used to moving it around a equatorial mount. It does not move left to right and up and down. It moves in "arcs" that match the movement of the Earth. For the first night, I just moved the telescope around and moved it into position of the moon without polar aligning the mount. Since this was a quick test, I didn't care about that just yet. All the controls moved well and smoothly. I did have to tighten the RA and Dec knobs well to make sure no movement happened, though if you give it a hard nudge or rested your hand on the tube you could accidentally move it slightly. The scope is a bit sensitive to movement. The tripod base was sturdy but once you got to the tube you could tap it and it would bounce slightly and then stabilize. I feel this is normal for any mount in this price range of this type as I tested from tripod off tapping everywhere to see where I could make adjustments to make it more sturdy. All the pieces are heavy and solid, and I think once it gets to the tube itself there is some play in movement just because the telescope is a rolled metal tube.Adding and taking off eyepieces is fairly easy. Simply loosen two screws pop into place. The focuser worked well. Some people complain that it is plastic, but it does not make it work poorly because of it. It was very smooth focusing and also held my DSLR camera with the Orion 1.25" Universal Camera Adapter in place fine.IMAGE QUALITYFantastic. I had my neighbors over and we were all very impressed with shots of the moon. Pictures would not do it justice to how sharp and clear the images were. I also later that night pointed the telescope at Jupiter and with the 2x barlow lens and 10mm eyepiece could see Jupiter and all four moons. I was very impressed. The image was tiny in the eyepiece but you could see them clearly. I have purchased a 5mm eyepiece for higher magnification ( 130x base and 260x with a 2x barlow ).OVERALL QUALITYEverything is packaged well, seems of decent heft and weight, and is relatively good quality. I only found maybe a few parts that felt "cheap" but really, everything worked well and didn't degrade it from performing properly. I think for the price that this sells for I got good product.SUMMARYThis telescope is wonderful and is versatile. It is a bright scope with a wide field of view. It is on a equatorial mount which if you plan on growing into the hobby will want to learn how to use. If you want to try AstroPhotography you have everything basically ready to start other than a mount for your camera. You can adjust the magnification to get very high power with a simple eyepiece upgrade to match other longer focal length scopes. It IS portable, if you take the tube and tripod/mount/counterweight apart before traveling. For me I will be able to fit each piece into my tight spaces and still have someone in the passenger seat. For those with larger vehicles, the Dobsonian telescopes might be more portable. Overall this is a well made scope with options to grow into and can give you some flexibility. My number one reason for buying this over a Orion xt8 is that I could learn and work with a little bit of everything in this new hobby.

We purchased for our 10 year old. I found it some what difficult to put together.

Ordered this for a christmas gift for a 10 yr old came packaged nicely he will love it

This being my first telescope, I was super excited. The telescope works fine, and is a good value for the money. But there are some small things that hold it back. The worst of which is that it wobbles. Once you find something to look at, even something big like the moon, if you let go of the telescope, it wobbles out of position. So basically you either have to compensate for the wobble or continue to hold the scope while looking through the lens. Once you do get it to stay still, there is some super cool stuff to look at. And for the price it's hard to beat.

This is my first telescope and I'm about as noob as noob gets when it comes to Astronomy. That being said, here's my pros and cons on this telescope.

Here's the pros
- Setup's stupid easy, I was fully setup and zeroed with my red dot finder to my scope in roughly 10 minutes. Also comes with an easy to follow instruction manual, it's practically given to you Barney style.
- Well packaged for shipping. Not even a dent on the instruments box and arrived within a couple days.
- It's a Refractor so day time observation's possible.
- Practically no maintenance required. Keep your dust covers on your lenses, take it outside and use. Perfect for beginners.
- Slow motion controls are simple to use and work well.
- On my first night out I was viewing the moon in great detail. Within a couple nights I was viewing Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. (Jupiter is my favorite to view currently) Only reason I didn't view the planets on the first night is because the telescope arrived on a full moon.

Here's the cons
- 90 degree erect-image prism (elbow joint that connects your eye pieces to the scope) is obviously cheaply made. Consider replacing with a better quality piece.
- Hate the accessory tray. In my opinion it's better to not even use and substitute for an old tackle box or something for your eye pieces.
- Eye pieces are average. It wont be long before I invest in upgrades.

That being said...I LOVE this scope. This is the first telescope I've purchased and I'm glad I did. Great instrument to introduce someone into a life long hobby. Very well done. I highly recommend stalking Jupiter, I viewed it for over an hour tonight. :D

Love it. Bought this for my sons 5th birthday. It isn't the best but it is a good first. The mirror doesn't lock in so it can spin freely an get annoying. This could also benefit from a heavier tripod as the lightweight one included has a lot of shake to it which distorts the images.the spotting scope should also be located somewhere else. All in all for a low priced beginner scope this a great deal .

The Orion 130ST is a great mid level telescope system. it has some nice bells and whistles on it, I had no issues putting it together as I have had similar weighted bases, to someone who is not a hands on/put together yourself person might be a little intimidating. My family and I were able to see the moon and the creators clearly as well as some additional stars - sorry dont know their names not that professional - but has the kids interested in science and engineering and speeding several hours a week using it (when weather/clouds allow)

Purchased for my daughter, works very well as a beginner telescope. It's bigger than you think it is and goes together very easily. Super solid metal construction on the joints/heavy lifting parts, easy to transport in an SUV or Truck but don't expect an easy ride for this in a small car. Recommended!

We bought our first telescope this Christmas and have had several opportunities to enjoy watching the stars. One thing I do recommend to anyone considering this, be sure to get the accessory kit as it has many filters and lens enhancements that add a lot of value.

I'm not a fan of the instructions however, its just a brief step by step without showing any pictures of how to properly assemble the telescope. The manual could be much written and published much better if they included staged photos of each step because it can be confusing.

After a bit of research and reading reviews I decided on this scope. It was a bit on e high side for my budget but I am glad I spent a little extra to get a more feature rich kit.

It arrived in 2 days, way ahead of schedule. This was fortunate because I got a chance to use it before the skies clouded up for almost a week straight.

I had never used an equatorial mount before, but a little reading online before the scope arrived gave me an idea of what to expect. I also purchased a collimating eyepiece that proved useful in fixing the collimation error from rough shipping.

Assembly was straightforward and took about 45 minutes while keeping an eye on my curious toddler. Tools needed for assembly were supplied with the scope. The instructions were good, but the mount has a few screws and knobs that aren't covered in the manual.

In use, when doing a polar alignment, tightening the elevation axis lock screw causes a slight declination axis (or azimuth axis) shift. This isn't a serious problem because the mount works just fine for its intended purpose, observing. But I expect my hopes of doing astrophotography will have to wait until I can afford a mount made with more precision.

The scope itself is great. I got it roughly polar aligned and then turned to look at the brightest object I could see. I focused as best as I could, but this is a bit of a trick that requires you to move the focus, then wait for the vibrations to damp, then adjust and wait again until you get clear focus. It took about 3 seconds for the vibrations to damp. After installing the 10mm eyepiece, I was greeted with a suprising sight, Saturn! The unmistakable shape of the ringed planet came into focus and I couldn't have been more pleased with my first ever view of the planet through my first telescope.

The reason I deducted one star was the lack of including the little Allen wrenches for collimation, the lack of complete explanation of all the parts on the mount, and the elevation locking screws tendency to affect the alignment. It should only lock it in place, not cause movement. Also the right ascension axis lock slips a bit. When it is fully tightened you can still move the scope by hand without much resistance. Probably there is too much grease inside the mount.

So overall it is a fun scope and will be great for imaging the moon but anything requiring a long exposure is going to need a seriously overbuilt mount with a motor drive that can be precisely polar aligned and is beefy enough to damp quickly.

This product is a beginners dream..One caveat ie the instructions booklet: the parts nomenclature in the directions for assembly often fail to match the parts list..Most assemblers will have some difficulty in overcoming this...So, expect double the estimated 30-minute assembly time..It's a problem that Orion would be wise to address..IMO

This telescope is a great buy for someone wanting to move up from the little refractor you got as a kid and start moving into the world of serious astronomy. Its great for checking out the bright planets visible at any particular moment. Its rather heavy but the good ones always are for stability. Assembly intructions are straightforward but it takes some mechanical ability and organization to get it put together and set up correctly. Its well worth the entry-level price. Have fun with it.

Price equals performance I know. Not great for the money. Part broke, but they sent a new one. Spend more and get a more powerful scope

When I moved to the south end of the island of Hawaii, I took one look at the night sky and decided I had to have a telescope. There are no street lights, so the stars really blaze on a clear, moonless night. I ordered the Infinity 102mm scope.

I was impressed by the quality of the telescope and the tripod. I'm new to telescopes, so I couldn't judge the quality of the optics. I had a minor problem with the elevation cable requiring what seemed like too much force to raise the telescope, but I could cope with that. What did me in and made me return the device was the design of the red dot finder. The telescope had a right-angle eyepiece--an obvious necessity for viewing celestial objects much above the horizon--but the finder did not. If my neck was a lot more flexible than it is, I might have been able to contort myself to look through the finder. As it was, I couldn't find anything.

I'm not sure what the rationale was behind this arrangement. What if you want to view something overhead? There evidently are right angle finders available for an additional cost, but I wasn't in the mood to pay more, so back it went.

Decent for the money don't expect much from it. Great for kids or beginners like me. Only issues I have with it is the finders scope is out of wack upside down blurry just throw it away. And the scope itself is shaky you'll have a hard time getting it to steady you'll have to look through it without holding onto it or it continuesly shakes bad.

Was able to see the moon craters clearly. Struggled a little with the spotter adjustment. The major drawback is that the support attachment screw to the scope does not tighten fully and it is hard to get rid of small vibrations. If it is only the slightest wind outside it is not possible to use.

Well I'll give this three stars, its sturdy telescope, definitely not a toy, but the only downside is I believe I got a defective one because I followed the instructions in putting it together and when I put the lenses in it I couldn't see anything looking out through the lenses.

I like this, but terrible instructions. Still struggle with alignment, but great views of the moon when out. I do not think it is a good choice for a beginner like it says.

I like it , but it's just what I was expecting

Instructions on putting it together , was very poor, used pic , no problem , was not to happy with far away planet viewing, I will need to check instructions again make sure I'm doing it correctly .

I'd love to give this 5 stars but my scope came dented out of the box.

I like the product but it came with the absolute worst instructions on how to put it together.

It's very hard to focus. We've tried several times to align it per instructions and haven't been successful yet. It's disappointing for our son whose been very excited to use this telescope.

I returned this telescope. I couldn't find the planets. I think I need to buy a more expensive one. I could find the moon. It work well, I want one that has a digital remote with it. It is a great beginner scope.

Too many plastic parts. I couldn't get the spotting scope aligned, & the instructions are inadequate, in my opinion.

Worked great. Then all the sudden it wasn't lined up with the front and rear lenses. Also not great for astrophotography with a Nikon or webcam.

after spending hours on trying to get it put together and to get it to focus in, which it doesn't work right if the L shape eye piece is in, my daughter went to take it outside to use it for the first time and the screw that connects to the scope to the stand came off so we had to find a replacement screw

This is my 2nd scope. My 1st scope was 65mm reflector built in Soviet Union. Although this scope is more ergonomic and obviously has a higher power than 65mm, its quality is much, much worse. Yes, you are right - old Soviet scope was of much, much better quality. Resolution and sharpness of this scope never approached my old one despite all my efforts.Pros: - cheapCons: - almost impossible to collimate. In order to get a decent picture, a secondary mirror must be brought in alignment with a primary. On this telescope you do it with a set of three screws. Apart from overall bad design (collimation 4 screws must be much, much easier) there's an obvious defect - the range of screws is insufficient for collimate the scope properly - you need to unscrew them a little bit more, but there's no more space to do that. As a result... - bad image quality. Telescope has obvious coma. Image is blurry even at 80x. Not sure if this is because of collimation or simply because main mirror is bad; - mount is too lightweight for this telescope. Every time you attempt to adjust sharpness, the scope shakes and image jumps violently.

Easy to assemble. Best to go by the YouTube instructions. Was missing a small wing screw that holds the assessory tray in place. No problem...I thought. Contacted Orion. They said they don't send missing parts if the equipment was purchased through a 3rd party...ie Amazon. Good thing the missing piece was not something more important. You would think she would pick up the phone, called parts, give them my address and have them shoot the little 55 cent screw to me. And then have a happy customer. Seems that was be too difficult for Orion. Wished I would have checked out Celestron's policy before purchasing a scope. It was a toss-up between the two.

product was difficult to assemble. directions to operate/assemble telescope were very poor.

I bought this plus the $150 multi-lens pack thinking I could see Saturn's rings, Jupiter, etc. like they claimed I could. I must be doing something wrong because all I can see is great close ups of the moon.
Even with the Barlow lens and 6.3 I still can't see a planet any better.
Great for the moon and the moon only. $400 total not worth it.

I could not get the telescope to focus. Will never buy again

Honestly cannot figure out how to see anything with this. I am an amateur, but really I can't ever find anything and when I do it isnt the quality I seen in pics in the reviews posted.

The instruction DVD wasn't helpful at all as it showed how to set up a telescope that wasn't even for the one we bought. Either that or the one we bought came without several pieces.
We purchased this 1yr ago and have never figured out how to use it, even after trying to gooey different instructions than what it came with.
We were able to use it to look at a distance about 1 block away but the i.age was very blurry no matter how much adjusting we did.

Unable to see stars and planets as expected.

Wow, you couldn't ask for a worse experience with Amazon.com and Meade Instruments. I bought it for my daughter for her birthday. I wrapped it up when received very quickly and presented it to her on her birthday. Only we found upon opening it up that the tripod leg came already broken, the tripod was covered in blue marker as if it was already used, it was missing 1 of the extra eyepieces, it was missing some screws to stabilize it in one place, the instructions were not in the package, the instructional DVD was missing, and the cost to ship it back is more than what they will give me in return.

It came missing the aperture, and default on their legs, I'm returning this back, and purchase a better one! With Celestron or Maede brand.

I bought this early for a Christmas present and inspected it to make sure it works, and the main cylinder came with a 4" wide dent on it. Really disappointing. The rest of the telescope seems fine, but I can't tell if it affected the optics or not. Will try it out tonight but will likely be returning it since I don't want to give someone a damaged gift.

Missing Parts and extremely poor instructions on how to put this thing together.

With the eye pieces that came, you really can't see much, you can somewhat see the moon and yes it's clear, but not close enough, I am buying a barlow x2 hopefully that will make a difference, if no difference I am looking at possibly returning it back.

Item was return because missing parts and had a big dent in the metal tube