Side by Side Comparison of: Celestron vs ORION

I am still very much a beginner, even after using telescopes for 20 years. After much research, I settled on the 6 SE telescope, and couldn't be happier. This is a huge upgrade from my previous telescope, and the motorized tracker is a convenience I din't know I needed until I had it.

Big, heavy, expensive, exactly what you want in a quality Telescope.Love it. Does exactly what it says it will do.Planning our holiday this year around our telescope.

Great Telescope for 3 years now. I bought the 5" for the polar alignment feature. There are many good reviews on here about the scope already. So, I'll just say that you don't really 'see' what these images show, you need a decent camera and a computer to process your photos into stunning images. I would also suggest getting the Celestron Star Sense Auto Align, it will save time and that means more viewing. The Orion Nebula was shot with a Sony A6000 at 30 Sec ISO3200 using a Celestron 94123 1.25-Inch UHC/LPR Filter and is a single image. Jupiter was created from a series of video frames shot with the Celestron NexImage 5.

This is hands down a fantastic instrument. I purchased this scope to have something portable for camping in the summer and something less cumbersome to set up in our pasture for impromptu star parties. I have a 12" Meade lx200 classic with great optics but it's a beast to move around and flat out miserable to take camping where the really dark skies are. I wanted/needed a scope that was easy to transport but had enough aperture to make things interesting. This scope got awesome reviews and everyone seemed to love it so when Amazon had it on a warehouse deal for a scandalously low price I bought it. No regrets at all so far after a couple of months of solid use. When I first looked through the 6se, I was blown away by how bright and sharp the images were for being a 6" as opposed to my 12" Meade which desperately needs its mirrors recoated. This little 6" reignited the spark as I observed favorites like Albireo and the great cluster in Hercules. Amazing views! The single arm mount seems very solid though the spur gears are not optimal for fine tracking needed for loooong exposure astrophotography. I may end up upgrading next year to the nexstar 8 evolution for better gearing and some more bells and whistles. There is a noticeable amount of noise in the gearing as it tracks but really not a big deal in my mind as it does its job very well. I'm impressed with how well it does track though as I've centered an image and come back 2 hours later to find it still centered exactly as I left it so far as I can tell (visual observation, not using a camera). The 6se is about as big as I'd think you could go on this mount however as a scope that is much bigger might be a little heavy for the arm but I don't have an 8se so I'm just guessing there. As far as my original goal of portability goes, I found a cheap hardside suitcase which the packing foam fits in perfectly that makes transportation to observing sights a dream. This is a total winner for my needs and I look forward to years of quality astronomy using it. Highly recommended.

One night in, fantastic scope! I upgraded from a powerseeker 80eq to this one. This scope is so much nicer quality wise. The mount is sturdy and doesn't wobble, the electronic 2 axis movement is pretty slick and it is so much smaller than the 80eq which is great.It took me several times to get it to actually sync to the sky and work properly. I didn't realize you need to use your laser finder as well as your eyepiece to line up the stars first. Once you get it lined up it will work all night and is pretty cool.Overall a pretty sweet scope, can see the stripes on Jupiter with the moons and haven't even used a magnifier eyepiece yet. However I did buy an accessory pack that has a moon filter and a 9mm eyepiece which helped a lot.

The Celestron Nexstar 6se Telescope is fun, big and heavy, powerful, and really good optics. The night I first used it I used the Skyalign alignment and worked perfectly along with auto 2 star alignment. That night I saw Saturn In really good detail, and what was surprising was I was able to see Swan Nebula and Hercules Cluster all from a heavy light polluted sky.Optics: 10/10Goto: 8/10Tracking: 8:10Portability: 7/10Eyepiece: 7/10Battery Life: 4/10Strength of tripod: 10/10Magnification: 10/10Light Gathering: 9/10So this telescope is really cool and fun to use and I will buy an AC adapter later. This telescope is the best I have Ever Had and Is worth the $800.00Update 11/30/13:I live in a very heavy light polluted sky and no deep sky objects are visible to the naked eye. But when I look through the telescope I see the Orion Nebula(M42) very bright and clear. But when I type in Dumbbell Nebula(M27) I don't see a thing except several tens of stars. To see it you have to image it, I took 10 images 10 second exposure each (10x10s) and stacked them for a total of 100 second exposure . The Nebula was big, bright, and colorful(you can see the image in the product image gallery). So to see brighter/faint deep sky objects in a light polluted sky you have to image them with a camera. the faintest thing I have ever detected in any image is about magnitude 12(244 times fainter you can ever see with the naked eye).

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.

I'm sure at some point I'll want a bigger aperture, but so far I am loving this thing. For context, this is my first "real" telescope, but I've spent a bit of time of the last several years poking around the sky with binoculars and a spotting scope.I had a bit of trouble with the Sky Align, but after reading some discussion online started using the "Two-Star Auto" align feature and it works like a champ. I point it at Polaris (pretty easy to find), align it and it slews to a second star. Typically it is only a bit of, so a bit of adjustment and you are aligned. The bonus is that you get to learn a new star since it tells you which one it is going to.Once aligned, it is all fun and games. The sky tour feature is great. First item I hit was Andromeda Galaxy which is so cool and I would NEVER have been able to find on my own. I love also that it is smart enough to only show you things that are above the horizon. I've also been using the identify feature quite a bit.Yesterday morning I viewed Jupiter in the early morning. Even with the somewhat lighted sky I could make out the cloud bands and (of course) the four moons. So cool. I'm guessing this will be super clear on a dark night.A couple things I'd advise is:1) Buy the power supply or external/rechargeable battery. I've read that this thing eats a set of batteries in a night (8 AA batteries in all), so it is nice to not worry about that if you are near power (I run an extension into my yard).2) Get at least one other eyepiece. I won't make a recommendation on this, since I'm still playing around with the additional set I bought, but a 17mm in the set seems significantly better than the one that came with it.3) Buy at least a blue and moon filter. Looking at the moon without a filter will nearly blind you (OK, maybe just make you see spots for a while), so toning that down is very helpful. The blue filter definitely made the cloud bands in Jupiter stand out a bit more.I would definitely recommend this scope for anyone just starting. It will let you see some very cool things in the sky and help guide you through the night sky.PS: It also does terrestrial viewing pretty well. I am going to play around with using it as a telephoto for my DSLR, but haven't done so yet.

great scope, but the placement of the keypad thing is very poor.. it never stays on there and is hard to get on at all anyways... i ended up taking it off and using the aux port on top of the tripod

Overall, I am very happy with this telescope. It's ability to track and stay on an object is excellent. Periodically I have a hard time getting it setup and the control can be pretty complicated when you get deep into the options... but that being said, it has so many options! I am a beginner and this has been a great start for me. I also got the power cord and power it from an external battery, so I don't have the battery issues I've heard about when using this telescope.

Love my telescope, but I'm not sure if it works as well as advertised. I'm very much an amateur astronomer so take this review with a grain of salt, but I have trouble viewing anything with clarity other than the moon, which is not what I would expect from something that costs around $500. I am going to do some research to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong, and probably order the different lenses to see if I can get some better quality viewing. I'll update the review when I figure something out. Also, it has to be calibrated every time you move it, so if you can't leave it outside in some sort of observatory, it's pretty annoying to do every time you set it up...

Really love it, but setup is a bit difficult for a beginner. I'll keep researching the setup, but it is not plug in play for tracking the sky. The lens that comes with it provides a beautiful view of the moon, and can almost make out the stripes on Jupiter. Venus looks a bit smaller than the moon does with the naked eye. Ordered the Celestron lens kit and will try it out on the next clear night. Very happy I purchased this telescope.

I love the idea, but it's more difficult to use than I'd hoped. The sighting reticle could be much better. The scope itself is awesome. I don't know why (with what is now the relatively cheap option of using GPS) this wasn't built into the scope. The find 3 bright objects thing, even after you've told it where you are on the planet (which out to tell it the altitude) and what time of day it is where you are seems superfluous; and it is cumbersome.

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.

While I have not set this up completely yet, or thus tried it out, I am extremely unhappy that the assembly documentation does not match the hardware. The tube is not assembled to the drive yet all the documentation shows that it is pre-assembled. For this amount of money I would think the documentation and hardware would be/should be in sync. WTF

Foto de jupiter

Ownership at time of review: 2 years 6 months.The not great news:The software it ships with is amazing, however the drivers don't explicitly have the 8se, so you have to know your focal point and some other technical data to hand install the 8se, and also which com port number is the USB you have it plugged into. ... I work with computers, so it only took a moment to look up, but I think this would stop many average users in their tracks.We spend half our time aligning it. The power adapter wiring just decided to stop working, I had to cut it and redo wiring to the plug. That took a while to diagnose, since the only symptom was it randomly turning off. Which is quite frustrating, since I'm no pro, and aligning takes so much time.Once it's setup, if you breath heavily, it starts wobbling around. If a shallow breeze has a mild gust, it wobbles. Which isn't really noticeable or bad, until you go to use a lens smaller than 17mm. Since this is an 8 inch, on great nights, you really can go down to 6mm usefully. So the wobbling is quite noticeable, and annoying.On to the good part:We got to see the moon better than any pictures I've ever seen in my life.We took pictures of Jupiter with our cell phones, that look better than I've ever seen in textbooks.I saw nebulae with my bare eye!Hindsight:If I'd had known how much we were going to enjoy this, I'd have splurged on a slightly better model, two arms for more steady, and auto-aligning. If you can, go to an astro get together near you and get an idea of what set up is involved, as well as what all you can see with different type scopes.

Good telescope. Got it for our daughter. It takes a lot of work to get is setup, maybe a little too much for a beginner, I have no regrets with this purchase but wouldn't get it for someone too young as it might be too discouraging

Much more complicated than adwertised

I don't want to say this is a bad telescope, because it gets the job done, but I can honestly say this was nothing like what I expected.My biggest complaint is that (unless I'm doing something TERRIBLY wrong) the pictures of Jupiter on the Amazon site are very misleading. If you expect to be able to see images like that, you are going to be as disappointed as I was. Jupiter looks like a tiny white star, as does just about every other planet I try to look at. It's still cool to look at, and you can make out the two moons (as two tinier dots), but it doesn't look anything like those pictures. The only really cool planet to look at is Saturn, because you can see the rings, but it's still a tiny thing.Other than that, the SkyAlign feature hasn't worked very well for me either. I would line up three bright stars (or two and the moon), it would say it was aligned, but then it would never point at the right thing. This could be user error, though, as I don't see many complaints about this.If you want to look at the moon, this thing is great! You can really make out the craters and everything. It's also good for just general star gazing. This is my first telescope, so it's entirely possible that my complaints are just inexperience. It's just for $500 I expected a much better view of the planets than what I got.One last thing I'll throw out there is that the camera attachment (sold separately) doesn't seem to work to well either. I actually got better pictures with my iPhone through the lens piece than I did with a Nikon D5000 using the attachment.If I'm doing something wrong with this telescope, then PLEASE someone let me know and I'll happily change my review.

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.

No rs232 cable!

The telescope itself is fine, a good product. The ancillary items are not worthless but nearly so. They cheapen the entire package.The spotting scope is somewhat flimsy but the real problems are: the lack of a cross hair in the scope so you get the exact center of the target item, You have to be directly behind the scope to even see the red dot and when spotting stars especially the dot is so large even on the lowest illumination the target is completely obliterated. You can get it close and jump the the telescope and hope you are lucky to find the target - usually you don't and have to start over. Also the battery life of the spotting red dot scope is abysmal, maybe 30 minutes if you are lucky. Good thing on Amazon you can find a good deal on them.The second cheap item is the spot level provided. It has a peel off sticky tape on the back to mount the level. the first time you bump it it comes off and you loose it. It would have been much better to have the level built into the base of the support arm.The instructions are minimal at best and might do for someone experienced in setting up and using telescopes. I am not and bought this model so If I liked it I wouldn't have to buy a better model to improve viewing. Over all the entire process is user friendly at all!Have viewed Jupiter and Saturn and they are recognizable and the spotting scope does ok. Distant stars would be impossible especially if you use the lower powered eye pieces provided in the accessory set.

The scope is amazing. When it works. I can only speak for my specific order. One day (thats correct, 1 day, less than 24 hours) after receiving this I got the notorious and all too common "boot loader serial invalid pkg: 0002" <----google this before spending money on any of these models. This error happened to me literally within 24 hours with maybe 20 minutes of use. You'll also notice there are numerous online posts depicting this exact issue. Long story short I bought a $15 cable on amazon, waited 2 days and downloaded some software and fixed the issue. I can see this being a road block for some. Not what you want to do after spending $800, but whatever.*Side note, don't buy the Celestron 93973 Skyportal wifi module for these models unless you understand what kind of app you are going to be using. It's horrible, and I tried to like it, I really did, but it doesn't work 50% of the time. Do the same things exactly the same way and sometimes it connects, sometimes it doesn't. When it does, well sometimes it crashes or freezes and sometimes it doesn't.IF your unit doesn't fail like mine did and if you aren't planning on using the app, this telescope is great.

So far 1 star. Cannot get the telescope to align. It is not as easy as they make it sound. No surprise really. Have done everything correctly. Also note that the controller buttons do not match the directions.If i get it aligned, I will update.UPDATE01/04/2016:I returned it to Amazon in original packing and got a prompt refund. Not sure why the telescope would not align. Checked and rechecked date, time, time zone, GPS coordinates, etc.I have used a non-computerized telescopes in the past.

The first one I received kept shutting off randomly during viewing sessions so I got it replaced. The second one I received would not align no matter what alignment method I used, and the finderscope needed a wedge underneath it so it would align correctly. The first unit aligned perfectly with the two star method. I would align the second telescope and then go to Mars, for example, and it would be way at the top of the eyepiece. If I would go to another planet or deep sky object it wouldn't even be inside the eyepiece. I would change alignment to another star and it would do it again. The only reason I am giving two stars is that the optics were very good and the goto worked really well on the first unit. I believe if you are fortunate enough to get a good working telescope this may be a good telescope to purchase. Me however, I will move on to another brand, as the second one is now on its way back for a refund.

Purchased this for my daughter for Christmas. Set up out of the box seemed easy, sky align says it was successful and tonight Jupiter was particularly bright so we went for that for our first viewing. It tracked to Jupiter, the sky finder says it should be looking at Jupiter and yet when we look through the eyepiece we see only a tiny white spot. The planet is far more visible with our own eyes. I was expecting to see larger, more focused images of planets. Overall we have a disappointed little girl and some irritated parents. Have a message in to Celestron for some troubleshooting, but unless we are doing something dramatically wrong, this is going back. Completely not worth the price.

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.

Barely had it 6 months now.. and the up and down motor went out last night):-[.. $1000+Telescope didnt last a year, let alone through less than a dozen nights out ..so disappointed!!

The scope itself is fine but the mount is not designed well. With the equatorial wedge there is no AZ adjustment makingpolar alignment difficult.The only way to align the mount is to move the entire tripod and this will make the mount off level.You will spend most of your viewing time tinkering and releveling the mount. With the mount in the ALT/AZ position, looking straight up is difficult and in the equatorial position looking North is difficult. The mount arm is too short to attach a camera or other accessories because the back of the scope is too close to the battery compartment.

I thought I would take a chance on an Amazon Warehouse Item. BIG MISTAKE. This particular telescope's condition was grossly misrepresented as: "Item has no cosmetic scratches or blemishes. Item has no cracks or dents. Item will come in original packaging. Packaging will be damaged". This telescope had been disassembled and had fingerprints all over the optical surfaces. The secondary mirror had come loose from the mount and apparently had been rattling around inside the scope for some time, destroying the primary mirror and scratching the inside of the corrector plate. The secondary mirror looked like a battered river rock. The OTA had glass shards all over the inside. This scope was obviously damaged before it left the Amazon warehouse. Amazon should at least inspect optical items. Anyone could determine this scope was trashed and completely worthless. If the condition of this item was accurately described and priced appropriately, perhaps it could be a good deal for someone as parts salvage(mount, tripod etc). But this item is neither described or priced appropriately- I would suggest salvage pricing at $250

Hmm...where do I even start.. The batteries will have to be replaced after only 30 minutes of use (you'll need to buy the charger separately). The sky align doesn't work (I've tried alot, and watched video's and read the user manual instructions repeatedly trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Oh, and when it arrived I couldn't even use the controls until, after searching forums for answers, I had to reload the firmware (which of course they don't include the necessary cable). Now the last time I tried using it the display started scrolling multiple messages over top of each other making it impossible to read. I've tried calling Celestron's tech support but regardless of what time I call it always says they're experiencing higher than average call volume. So after waiting 30 minutes without getting through I decided to try their online live chat support since the onhold phone message kept saying it was faster. Lo and behold, the live chat isn't available! But they give you the option to submit a support ticket, which they say will be replied to as soon as possible.. Apparently they must have alot of problems to address since it's been three days and I still haven't heard back from them!

Purchased as a Christmas gift for my husband and it was broken out of the box. There was no apparent damage but it will only slew in one direction in the azimuth plane. Absolutely zero documentation or users manual was included with the product. I'm wondering if this is not a refurb or a total knock off. I except much more when spending this kind of money. Will be returning for refund along with all accessories and avoiding all Celestron products in the future. Very disappointed.

Terrible. Cannot align anything, after leveling the system and using scope finder. Would love to 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