Look Up Into The Heavens

Dobsonian's...everyone's talking about them in the astronomy world, and it's no wonder. Known for its simple use of point and shoot including its tremendous size in apeture for cheap prices. These types of scopes are where you get an excellent quality scope for cheap, but you pay in size. A lot of people make their own dobsonian's themselves because it can cost under $500 to make one. The most expensive part is the mirrors, so if you like me and don't think you can build one, this is the one to buy.

Orion, a very popular name in astronomy, makes excellent scopes and accessories at good prices, and does so here with Orion Skyquest XT10. My XT10 is slightly older than what they are offering now. The only differences really are the Pyrex mirror (supposed to be better), the high ventilation mirror cell (offers faster cooling to the mirror. It takes about a good hour for it cool down.), a four vane secondary mirror holder, aka spider. Mine's a 3 vane, I don't think this is a huge deal, but..., a navigation knob (don't really need this, but I guess it can help..I just stick my hand down the barrell), and thats basically it.

The Skyquest line of dobsonian's are generally the same, except for a few things, obviously size being one of them.
This scope is labeled as a "Level 3" scope according to Orion, but I'm not sure why, its very easy to use compared to my Celestron Firstscope. Other Skyquest's get a lesser level, but I'm guessing its because of its size. It's definitely not a beginner scope in the fact that where are you going to put this if you don't use it. This scope is meant to get use. It assembles in pretty much three simple steps: Take the base outside, bring the tube outside, clip the two tension springs onto the base and plop in an eyepiece.

The XT10 boasts a 254mm primary mirror, which means its a 10" mirror, meaning, it can grab more light. The more light you can gather, the better under clear dark skies. It will result in clear views, and more details in your views.

The XT10 comes with a stepped up finderscope than the XT8 does. I often hear people replacing there finderscopes right away, but the 8x50 finderscope that comes with this, is good. the 50mm lens on it gives me wide views when looking for my objects and gathers enough light that I can see more in it than I can with my binoculars. I have a hard time making it clear. It features a locking knob so it can stay focused all the time, but I can't get it to be focused, but since its the finderscope, I really don't need it to be completely dead on accurate because the scope itself should be, and it is.

This scope offers you to insert 1.25" (standard) eyepieces in and 2" eyepieces as well, unlike the XT8. I haven't been able to plop in a 2" eyepiece yet, but I can't even imagine what it will look like. I have a nice collection of 1.25" eyepieces, and this scope shows exactly what you pay for in an eyepiece. My top rated eyepieces look amazing in here. The views are phenomenal and I love finding stuff with this scope. I can see details on Jupiter with my 30mm Celestron Ultima eyepiece. And that's only at 41x! (My scope has a focal length of 1250, the newer one has 1200-- to figure out the power of your eyepiece, focal length / eyepiece in mm = the power).
My scope's max highest theoretical mag is 600x. I don't really have "excellent" eyepieces in the high power range, so I can't really judge how the views are, but again, when I use the Ultima eyepieces, they are awesome, so if your using high quality eyepieces you will be very pleased.

The eyepieces that come with the scope are decent. I honestly don't think Orion's eyepieces compare to other brands, as some of my "same priced eyepieces" have wider views at higher powers. But if your buying this scope, you probably already have a few eyepieces in your case and it's not a big deal, but nice to have the additions..

To point and shoot the scope, you literally move the tube up and down, and the base swivels moving right and left. Awesome.

Here's the main problems I have with this scope:

The price to ship. Orion charges about $100 to ship this puppy, then you have to put together the stand. I bought mine used (which I don't recommend doing if you don't know what your getting into). Mine was just like brand new and came with a bunch of goodies, and I just happened to be lucky.

You can only buy Orion products, from Orion. So there are no price wars, but there prices are cheap on scopes in general whereas a lot of optic shops and astronomy stores will kill you on price.

The travel bag. You need the bag. You may think you don't, but believe me you do. For $80, the bag is worth it. Its a redicious price, but the bag is huge and the scope fits perfect. it is even properly balanced when you put the scope in the correct way. Its very padded and will protect your scope for years to come when traveling with it.

The scope is heavy. Its a monster. I tell everyone, "are you sure you want me to bring it over, its huge." and everyone's like "yeah!" and then they see it and they almost fall to the floor. Thats what I call the wow factor, and this puppy has it all the way in size and the views. The heaviness isn't really a problem for me, but for some and long walks, it can be a pain in the neck. The tube is about 35 pounds I believe. the base is easy to carry with its handle, but weighs less than 25 pounds I think..



All in all, I love this scope and with proper care this will last me a lifetime of enjoyment. Although this will not be my last telescope as I would like to try other designs, this really fulfills my astronomy nights.

At the price, you can't beat the value. Especially when you should be purchasing high quality eyepieces rather then spending cash on a telescope. This size, I would expect the prices to be over $1200, but with these dobsonians, they aren't, and they are totally worth it.