This artical is reviews for Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic Dobsonian Telescope
I have been interested in astronomy for most of my life and lastly decided to buy a telescope. I spent a whilst doing my analysis and settled for the Orion SkyQuest XT8 because of its size, high marks for top quality materials, and its cost.
As others have noted, it took longer to unpack and verify absolutely nothing was missing than it took to assemble the base and mount the scope. Regrettably, I did have to invest some time aligning the primary mirror (known as collimating) and then sighting within the spotting scope. Absolutely nothing terribly complicated, but it did take a little bit of patience. The instructions on collimating the mirrors are incorporated and were really clear.
The telescope comes with a single 1ሑ″ 25mm Plossl eyepiece that, when paired with this scope, gives a magnification of 48x. The eyepieces can very easily be swapped out and the telescope can accept either 1ሑ″ or 2″ eyepieces.
As soon as I lastly experienced everything assembled and aligned I got it outside and set up to get a very first viewing. I live in a suburban area with moderate light pollution from the skies (mostly low about the horizon) near Pittsburgh, PA. I had been concerned that this might prevent me from getting good views, but that was not the case. My extremely primary target was Saturn, which was fairly close to the sky glow of light pollution. I had been blown away by the clarity! With just the fundamental, incorporated eyepiece (25mm Plossl) I had been very easily able to see Saturn and its rings, despite them being practically edge on at the time. I put a 2x Barlow lens into the eyepiece and also the magnified view allowed me to see faint banding from the atmosphere, and a tiny point of light that might are actually Titan (one of Saturn’s moons). I was just speechless by how easily I was able to use the telescope.
The next target for viewing was the moon, which was nice and higher above the horizon, visible as a waxing crescent. I had been able to pick out individual craters and mountains, and the sharpness of the image produced it feel nearly as though I was much closer to the moon rather than seeking via a telescope.
In short, if you’re searching for an great telescope for any beginner or a more experienced sky watcher, you’d be hard pressed to go wrong here.
click here to buy it on amazon
Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic Dobsonian Telescope
