Orion SkyScanner 100mm Tabletop Reflector Telescope Kit - Small but Powerful Beginner Astronomy Telescope Kit Ideal for Adult and Family Stargazing

This is a super fun portable telescope for eye viewing. If you're looking for a very first scope for someone, this is actually a decent option. The kit extras are so-so if you're already into astronomy, but they seem like nice resources to help get started. The included eyepieces are pretty good, and the red dot finder scope is quite effective. The red dot also has some really cool futuristic vibes going on, which may help get kids enthused about using the telescope. Getting things all lined up is straightforward enough, and the included documentation seemed good. (That said, this is our second telescope, so we already knew what we were doing.) It can't be collimated, which is a mixed blessing: if it's collimated from the factory, it's unlikely to lose that collimation. On the other hand, if it's ever miscollimated, you can't fix it. Ours was really well-collimated out of the box, though, so hopefully Orion stays on top of the quality control for that. The mount is a bit meh, but, honestly, "meh" is far better than I was expecting out of a bunch of MDF with plastic laminat. If you're using it on tabletops, the mount is really effective and approachable. If you want to put it on a tripod, it's a bit heavier than you might want. There's also no place to put your extra eyepieces, which is a bummer. Eyepieces without a place to live get dirtier faster, and are also much more likely to get scratched. I bought this for my kid's birthday in October 2020, as a telescope for mom's house. We have a much bigger Celestron 117mm scope here, which we used for Jupiter observations in 2020. When this arrived, we set both of them up side-by-side for a few nights (before he went back to mom's house). In terms of image quality, it was hard to tell the difference between the two scopes. The Celestron has a much longer focal length, so it "zooms in" more, and its mirror is a bit bigger, but this little guy really held its own head-to-head. Overall, I really liked this scope while it was here. Since then, it's been camping, used in city parks, and well-loved. It was a really pleasant surprise just how good this little telescope was: I keep having to talk myself out of buying one of my own.

First. Pay special attention that there are no free returns. Return postage was over $50! We ended up keeping it because it wasn't worth the cost to ship it back. Telescope: The moon looks close-up and pretty cool. For everything else this is NOT worth it. The planets simply look like barely larger versions of what you could see with your own eyes - just slightly larger bright spots. Sure, you can maybe see 4 more dots next to Jupiter that would be it's moons or a slight haze that you guess is the ring of Saturn - but it is not powerful enough to make this worth more than a pair of good binoculars. If you're interested in seeing the stars - I would NOT recommend this product. Save your $$ and buy something much more professional. Especially since you can't return it without paying over $50.

i really like how the company went to great lengths to make this product easy to assemble as well as providing simple guides to help you along the way. i haven't needed their customer support but truly appreciate all of the resources and tools that both come with the product and are available online via support telephonically or via email. excellent product. very well thought up from a business perspective. definitely great for beginners and those with young children learning about the solar system. you DO need to figure out how to store it when not in use. Only con, is that you have to look 'down' into the eyepiece to see the item (moon, stars, etc.) which makes it difficult for the 5 and younger kids who can't reach the table that you have to place the item on. overall love this product. I'd recommend it and would purchase again if it gets damaged somehow.

Not that impressive.

Do not buy this Telescope or anything from the Orion Telescope company. I tried to return the telescope and Amazon will give you a shipping label but you have to pay $65 to ship it and there is no guarantee of getting any money back or covering shipping costs. The telescope was poorly packed and the screws that held it to the mount had loosened. One of the nuts fell down and made multiple chips in the main reflective mirror. The telescope tube is bent. Tried talking to Orion and they sent me to Amazon. Amazon customer service page is always displaying a message "Something went wrong" so there is no way to contact Amazon customer service. If I ship it back I will be out even more money and they will likely scam someone else using the same telescope once they have it. Buyer beware, do not buy a telescope on amazon.

My son ordered this with his birthday money. It’s been a great first telescope!

Were still trying to figure out how to get the laser sight to work but its easy to look at the moon with.

This was a big hit with my granddaughter as she is focused at age 13 on working for NASA some day. last year she wanted to be a marine..hahaha. Her only complaint was that the telescope didn't come in pink. Young girl seem to like pink So maybe thats something to think about on the marketing end for Orion.