---
product_id: 1144601
title: "Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope for the Serious Adult Astronomy Beginner - Portable Telescope for Stargazing & Deep-sky Objects"
brand: "orion"
price: "€ 941.71"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/1144601-orion-spaceprobe-130st-equatorial-reflector-telescope-for-the-serious-adult
store_origin: HR
region: Croatia
---

# 5.1" aperture reflector equatorial mount with slow-motion tracking fast f/5 focal ratio Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope for the Serious Adult Astronomy Beginner - Portable Telescope for Stargazing & Deep-sky Objects

**Brand:** orion
**Price:** € 941.71
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 🌌 Unlock the cosmos—your gateway to breathtaking night skies!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope for the Serious Adult Astronomy Beginner - Portable Telescope for Stargazing & Deep-sky Objects by orion
- **How much does it cost?** € 941.71 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/1144601-orion-spaceprobe-130st-equatorial-reflector-telescope-for-the-serious-adult)

## Best For

- orion enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted orion brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Complete Beginner Kit:** Includes two quality Plossl eyepieces, star & moon maps, and collimation cap—everything to start exploring right away.
- • **Bright, Wide-Field Views:** 5.1" parabolic mirror + f/5 ratio delivers stunningly sharp, bright images of planets, nebulae & galaxies.
- • **Ready for Astrophotography:** Smartphone adapter included—capture and share your cosmic discoveries with friends and followers.
- • **Precision Celestial Tracking:** Equatorial mount with slow-motion controls lets you effortlessly follow stars and planets across the night sky.
- • **Portable Stargazing Powerhouse:** Compact 28 lbs setup with adjustable tripod makes it easy to bring the universe to your backyard or beyond.

## Overview

The Orion SpaceProbe 130ST EQ is a 5.1" aperture Newtonian reflector telescope featuring a fast f/5 parabolic mirror for bright, wide-field views of planets, star clusters, and deep-sky objects. Its sturdy equatorial mount with slow-motion tracking enables precise celestial navigation, while the lightweight 28 lb design and adjustable tripod ensure portability. The package includes two 1.25" Plossl eyepieces, star and moon maps, a collimation cap, and a smartphone adapter for astrophotography, making it an ideal, versatile telescope for serious adult beginners eager to explore the night sky.

## Description

Our largest aperture SpaceProbe reflector telescope is the niftiest Newtonian reflector on an equatorial mount we've seen in a long time. The Orion SpaceProbe 130ST EQ Reflector Telescope is a quality telescope with a fast parabolic mirror for more serious beginning or intermediate stargazers who want additional performance, particularly for targeting deep-sky objects. This "Short Tube", version of the SpaceProbe 130 reflector features a 130mm (5.1") primary mirror and focal length of 650mm (f/5), yielding a wider field of view and brighter images for a given eyepiece. The 130mm primary is a diffraction-limited parabolic mirror, the same type used on much larger reflector telescopes costing many times as much. A parabolic mirror is a must for focusing incoming light to a point and delivering sharp, detailed images. The included 1.25" 25mm and 10mm Plossl eyepiece provide a 26x and 65x view of the night sky. Use the 25mm to start exploring, and the switch to the 10mm for a close-up view. To make your evening under the sky more enjoyable, we've included the DeepMap 600, the MoonMap 260, and a smartphone adapter to take pictures of solar system objects. The Orion SpaceProbe 130ST telescope sits on robust equatorial mount with slow-motion control knobs. After a simple polar-alignment procedure, the EQ mount allows you to track celestial objects in the sky, so you can observe them in detail. The adjustable-height tripod is strong yet lightweight and includes an accessory tray so you can keep your observing gear close by while using the reflector telescope. The SpaceProbe 130ST EQ weighs 28 lbs. once assembled. It's an easy telescope to take out to your favorite stargazing spot, whether in the backyard or in a more distant location away from streetlights and light pollution. If you're looking for a better-quality first telescope or a nicely portable telescope to complement your big Dobsonian, you'll love the Orion SpaceProbe 130ST EQ Reflector Telescope.

Review: great scope for beginners - This is my first telescope. I've read a lot of reviews before buying. My choices were the orion 4.5, 6 dobsonian and the celestron astromaster 130 eq. I was on a budget of 500 USD and with that budget includes shipping here in the Philippines via sea freight. With that budget the dobsonians are out, I've really like the 6 inch built a telescope from orion but the shipping cost was really over the budget. Now the celestron astromaster 130 and this telescope. Well I've read from the users that the celestron astromaster 130; Cons 1. the tripod of the celestron can easily break 2. the dot finder was a challenge to use 3. plus there is no included collimation cap (you can easily make one) 4. Mirror has no center guide (though you can mark it yourself) 5. the included 20 mm plossl is not of good quality Pros 1. Optics is really good with the astromaster 130 2. Parabolic mirror 3. Cost about 187 USD (sometimes it changes to 210 USD) With this I chose the orion spaceprobe 130ST since I don't want to deal with the cons of the Celestron Astromaster 130. After waiting about 50 days the telescope finally arrived. Packaging: It is well packed and it is double boxed to protect the items inside and there's a lot of small empty boxes to prevent the items from moving. The OTA is separated by a divider and tightly packed. All items are complete, The finder scope, 2 eyepiece, dvd's and tools are in a separate box and the EQ mount is already pre-assembled. Assembling the telescope is easy and it took me about 45 minutes (watch the video in youtube on how to assemble the scope, it will really help) Equatorial mount: As for an equatorial mount you'll get the hang of it after several use and is actually convenient to use when tracking objects (its just a turn of a knob.) You can also use the scope like a dobsonian and an alt-azimuth (release the Dec and RA lock and you're free to move it around) Advantaged of an EQ mount is that I tracks objects by a single turn of a knob and it can also be used for astro-photography when you want that on a later time. Performance: Overall the performance of the telescope is great. It is properly collimated, mount is stable and durable. The 2 eyepiece included is of good quality. Focuser is smooth and the finder scope is easy to use (opening your other eye will help you target objects while using the finder.) 260x is the rated useful magnification of this scope but I've tried 325x with the moon and jupiter (using a 6mm plossl and a 3x barlow) The view is not as crisp sharp for jupiter and but I can still see the major bands. I'll purchase the celestron 2.3mm soon and see how it goes. Cons for the Orion spaceprobe 130ST 1. At high magnification the scope will become shaky when focusing. (I guess this is to be expected on the EQ2 mount. Let it settle for a few seconds and the view will steady) 2. My 25 mm siruis plossl has a big lint between the lens (Orion replaced it) 3. Some scratches on the tripod 4. Some dirt on the mirror 5. EQ mount is for latitude 16 and above only. Although you can remedy this by turning the scope so the front leg of the tripod is facing south and the counterweight will not hit the tripod leg. 11/3/2012 On a clear night just recently I spend the whole night looking at jupiter. I got a glimpse of the great spot! (And occasional eye floaters!! Damn) Things I saw on our backyard with limited view Pleiades - easy to spot and magnificent with the 25 mm Plossl Orion nebula - by far easiest nebula to spot Andromeda galaxy - Its just like a gray blur cloud in the sky Jupiter - see above Moon - great as always (don't expect to see the american flag) Sun - Try to view at sunrise and sunset and use a baader filer or mylar I'll update this review when I can.
Review: Amazing instrument, but be warned if you are a "beginner"! - Wanted to get a telescope for my daughter on her 10th birthday. Was guided by the reviews here which generally stated that this was a solid instrument for beginners. Some notes on the telescope itself and then some comments on what you're in for if you are like me, the true clueless beginner: SpaceProbe 130ST Pros: Nice looking telescope, seems very professionally made. We have seen some amazing sights in the first few nights. The waxing moon looks amazing and all kinds of incredible details can been seen. At 60x and 120x magnification (a 2x barlow lens is needed for 120x mag, not included with this scope) we could see the cloud bands on Jupiter and it's moons. We could even see the shadow of a transiting moon on the surface of Jupiter. We found Saturn, surrounded by one brilliant fat ring. We could make out some cloud rings on the surface as well. Venus looked like a nice bright crescent. The equatorial mount and dials are pretty cool. We got ourselves an education in the coordinates of the night sky: declination, right ascension, etc. However for viewing planets all that went out the window and we did the old point-and-shoot. Space Probe 130ST cons: The mount looks sturdy at assembly, but in use the weaknesses become apparent. At 60x and 120x magnification, focusing on objects is a challenge. Using the focuser will cause enough vibration that we had to 'guess' if we were focused. Adjust the focus, wait for the vibrations to stop, adjust again, repeat. After some practice this really isn't a problem. The assembly instructions were pretty bad. I would almost say that a beginner would have no chance of putting this thing together using the included manual only. Thankfully Orion has an online video which will walk you through the process. The video was very good. The instructions for aligning the mirrors (collimating) are also useless if you are a true beginner. Even the Orion online video is not that helpful. Aligning the mirrors properly is incredibly important for good performance of the telescope. We had to use several online tutorials from other sources to figure this step out. NOTES FOR THE BEGINNER: As a complete uninitiated beginner, I found the assembly to be a challenge. Particularly the aligning, or collimating, of the mirrors, was quite difficult for this beginner and required a fair amount of manual dexterity. Definitely way beyond the capabilities of my 10-year-old, so keep that in mind. I discovered that the only reliable way to get perfect alignment was to purchase a laser collimator ($50 to $100) to assist the process. When using a laser, I could see that what seemed to be perfect alignment with the Orion-included collimation cap was not perfect at all. If you want to get the full performance potential out of this scope, I believe you're going to have to invest in the laser. Also a good investment is the moon filter for lunar viewing, and a Barlow 2x magnification lens, neither of which are included with this telescope.

## Features

- This 5.1" aperture reflector telescope gathers an ample amount of light for great views of the planets and Moon, as well as brighter galaxies, nebulas, and star clusters
- Compact optical tube design for easy portability and fast f/5 focal ratio for pleasing wide-field performance makes the SpaceProbe 130ST EQ a very versatile telescope the whole family can enjoy
- Sturdy equatorial telescope mount and adjustable tripod allows manual slow-motion tracking of celestial objects as they appear to migrate across the night sky
- Complete assembled telescope weighs just 28 lbs. for convenient transport
- Includes two 1.25" Plossl eyepieces (25mm and 10mm), smartphone camera adapter, DeepMap 600, MoonMap 260, collimation cap, and more!

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN | B00D05BKOW |
| Best Sellers Rank | #3,175 in Camera & Photo Products ( See Top 100 in Camera & Photo Products ) #59 in Telescope Reflectors |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,375) |
| Date First Available | May 28, 2013 |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Item Weight | 24.2 pounds |
| Item model number | 9007 |
| Manufacturer | Optronic Technologies, Inc |
| Product Dimensions | 24 x 24 x 51 inches |

## Product Details

- **Brand:** Orion
- **Compatible Devices:** Smartphone
- **Eye Piece Lens Description:** Plossl
- **Finderscope:** Reflex
- **Focus Type:** Manual Focus
- **Item Weight:** 24.2 Pounds
- **Objective Lens Diameter:** 130 Millimeters
- **Optical Tube Length:** 24 Inches
- **Product Dimensions:** 24"D x 24"W x 51"H
- **Telescope Mount Description:** Equatorial Mount

## Images

![Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope for the Serious Adult Astronomy Beginner - Portable Telescope for Stargazing & Deep-sky Objects - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71+cV1ZAnBL.jpg)
![Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope for the Serious Adult Astronomy Beginner - Portable Telescope for Stargazing & Deep-sky Objects - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71d-LuSE6XL.jpg)
![Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope for the Serious Adult Astronomy Beginner - Portable Telescope for Stargazing & Deep-sky Objects - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71O3IDWoEsL.jpg)
![Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope for the Serious Adult Astronomy Beginner - Portable Telescope for Stargazing & Deep-sky Objects - Image 4](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61bGRHEqdtL.jpg)
![Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Equatorial Reflector Telescope for the Serious Adult Astronomy Beginner - Portable Telescope for Stargazing & Deep-sky Objects - Image 5](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81R7P3jwFCL.jpg)

## Available Options

This product comes in different **Customer Package Type, Style** options.

## Questions & Answers

**Q: I'm just starting this great hobby which one is better the Orion skyquest xt8 or the spaceprobe 130st Thanks**
A: The thing about telescopes is none are perfect. Each has its pros and cons and you should buy the one that suits your needs best depending on what type of viewing you hope to do. They are both good beginner telescopes and being relatively large reflectors, you will be able to see plenty of great stuff. I will compare them for you so that you can make a good decision.The XT8 is a Dobsonian meaning it sits on the ground so there is no tripod to lug around and care for. If you are tall then you will have to bend over to look through the Dobs eyepiece unless you bring a large crate or surface to set it on. Also, the XT8 has what is called an altazimuth mount. This means you can only move the telescope up/down and rotate left/right. You'd think that is all is needed, but this makes even finding objects difficult and tracking (or staying on them as you view) even more difficult if not impossible for a beginner. On the other hand, the Spaceprobe comes with what is known as an equatorial mount. With a slight learning curve you can avoid the extraordinary hassle of dealing with an altazimuth mount by simply aligned the Spaceprobe to the north star ONCE (at the start of each and every viewing session) and then finding and tracking stars and objects is very very easy and effortless. It allows you to not even have to think about the issue of tracking objects. In case you aren't aware, when you view objects you have to move the telescope ever so slightly to keep it in view, because as the Earth moves the object appears to move out of view. It gets more pronounced at higher magnification. That is why I brought up this issue and compared the two scopes. Frankly, for this issue I would recommend the Spaceprobe. However, both of these can be fitted with a computerized motor, although I don't know how the XT8 would use one, which would make finding and tracking objects not an issue at all, but it costs a lot to upgrade them like this. Lastly, note that most people will say that EQ mounts are only necessary for astrophotography, but I honestly disagree for the above reasons. I've had both alt./az. and EQ mounts and I'll never use an alt./az. mount again, but that is just me. Now, lets look at the next topic.Dobsonians usually have a large focal length and that is the case here. Although the SkyQuest does come in a 6 inch as well as an 8 inch while the SpaceProbe has 5.1 inches. When it comes to reflectors, the aperture is what matters most. A larger aperture will gather more light and so in principle you can see fainter objects more easily with an 8 inch aperture. Since area goes like the square of radius, the 8 inch will gather 2.46 times more light. Since I don't know the focal length of the XT8 I can't compare their focusing and fastness capabilities. Also, try to never get a spherical primary mirror. The Spaceprobe has a longer (ie not the ST which stands for short tube) version--the 130 EQ--which uses a spherical mirror but has a longer tube. The 130ST has a parabolic primary mirror which is much better than a spherical one. You get cleaner more crisp images since you avoid spherical aberration. Now, bigger isn't always better. There are several things which will limit what you can see. The first is light pollution. If you live in or anywhere near a city, big or small, you won't be able to use much of the power that either can offer. You can always travel 30-45 minutes away from the city and that should be good enough to do some great viewing. I stay in my backyard and that is fine for viewing the moon and bright planets, but anything else would be hard to do. Secondly, there is the problem of "seeing". The atmosphere rarely stands still. There are so many layers of atmosphere at different temperatures and humidity that it causes a shimmering or shaking. The proverbial twinkle twinkle little star is actually a curse to astronomers. The twinkle is caused by the shaky atmosphere. If you try to pump up the power of either scope, but especially the bigger XT8, you will get a blurry blob of what could have been beautiful. On great nights, you can see a lot of amazing stuff with both scopes (Jupiter shows its gas bands and the 4 Galilean moons, Saturn and its amazing rings are clearly visible with the Cassini division too and some of its moons like Titan, the moon is exquisite with not just craters and mountain ranges, but also the texture is amazing. The Spaceprobe made me feel like I was hovering over the moon at just a half a mile because I could see so much detail). If you have great seeing and go far from the city, then you can probably notice a little bit of a difference between the two scopes, but if you are a beginner then I highly doubt that you could tell the difference or even know what to look for to discern a difference. With deep sky objects the XT8 in principle will make them seem a litter bigger, but not by much. It will gather more light, but not so much that the nebulae or galaxy looks like it does in famous Hubble images. In fact, unless you become a well-versed astrophotographer there is no telescope you can buy as a beginner that will show you large bright colorful images of nebulae and galaxies. I looked through my Spaceprobe at the Orion nebulae--as an astrophysicist and well seasoned night sky observer I knew what to expect. What I saw was a faint greyish green blob. I could make out that I was looking at a nebulae, but in darkness the eye is incapable of discerning color from faint objects. If you want great pictures of nebulae and galaxies then it takes a LOT of learning and practice and MONEY, but eventually you can use filters and trackers and special cameras to do long exposures and get a compiled image of a DSO which is significantly more beautiful than you can see with your eye. Only in that case would it really matter having a larger Dobsonian instead of the spaceprobe. There is so much more to discuss, but I think I will summarize now. The slightly smaller Spaceprobe will require some slight learning (you have to polar align it every time you view, but it gets super easy after the first 4 tries), but when you get used to that it becomes very convenient since as you view you simply tweak the RA nob and you are ready to keep absorbing the celestial beauty. Once you get any object in view you are going to want to stare at it and stare at it because you can't look away from its awesomeness. So I just keep my hand on the RA nob and tweak it slightly every few seconds to keep it in the middle of the eyepiece. The XT8 I don't think has this ability unless you upgrade it to have a tracker if it even can do that I don't know. That is the only thing I don't know for sure about the XT8 by the way. The tripod makes it easier to be stable and look through if you are tall, but then it is more of a nuisance to carry around whereas the TX8 is more compact and can be carried in a special bag. You can see plenty with BOTH and what you see is highly highly dependent on how good the atmospheric conditions are and where you live. However, under the most ideal circumstances you might be able to get slightly more brightness from the XT8 due to its larger aperture and longer focal length. In terms of stunning views of DSOs, they will both seem very similar to the beginner's eye and the full potential of the XT8 won't be realized without lots of special extra gear like trackers, filters, and cameras. Both of these could make good scopes for beginning astrophotographers which is a great way to develop. Photography is difficult but very rewarding and both scopes have the ability to become good astrophotography scopes, but I'm getting ahead of myself here. In conclusion, I would say that I only can give the information off the top of my head and you should do more research. But in the end all you need to know is what do you want from a telescope? What type of things do you want to see and do you live in a place where there are city lights? Clouds are very often present like northern California? Or fog? Smog? Any of these could derail all of your plans for easy viewing and the atmosphere is unpredictable and you just have to know how to deal with what you are dealt (i.e. you have to know what eyepiece you should use based off of poor atmosphere, medium, average, or great atmospheric conditions). If you know what you want from a scope, that will help you determine which pros and cons matter most/least to you in each case. Good luck and I wish you many clear skies! Let me know if you have any more questions!

**Q: Can you see stars with this telescope**
A: Depends on what you mean by "see stars". If you want to see details in distant stars or discern some kind of size, NO. All optical telescopes will resolve stars to point-like light sources. You should be able to see the color of a star more clearly, like the red of Betelgeuse or blue of Rigel. You could also see both stars in binary pairs, but you will not see any more detail than point-like light sources of various colors.

**Q: What is the maximum magnification of this telescope?**
A: Magnification is the focal length of the scope (in this case 650mm) divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. The shortest included eyepiece is 10mm. So with what's included the maximum is 65x.  If you get shorter eyepieces or a barlow you can easily more than double that.But you'll rarely use such high magnification. Atmospheric distortions become very visible at high magnifications. It has to be a pretty clear evening for me to even WANT that much power. (On most nights the limiting factor is the viewing conditions, not the telescope...)

**Q: Can you see the surface of mars with this?**
A: In a short answer, no. But let me explain. Under the best viewing conditions, this telescope is powerful enough to view Mars. You will see the red disk resolved and perhaps some fuzzy white blotches at the North and South poles, indicating the polar ice caps...again if the time is right. Even superpowerful telescopes can't do much better than that so keep that in mind. This is a great telescope.

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ great scope for beginners
*by M***C on November 1, 2012*

This is my first telescope. I've read a lot of reviews before buying. My choices were the orion 4.5, 6 dobsonian and the celestron astromaster 130 eq. I was on a budget of 500 USD and with that budget includes shipping here in the Philippines via sea freight. With that budget the dobsonians are out, I've really like the 6 inch built a telescope from orion but the shipping cost was really over the budget. Now the celestron astromaster 130 and this telescope. Well I've read from the users that the celestron astromaster 130; Cons 1. the tripod of the celestron can easily break 2. the dot finder was a challenge to use 3. plus there is no included collimation cap (you can easily make one) 4. Mirror has no center guide (though you can mark it yourself) 5. the included 20 mm plossl is not of good quality Pros 1. Optics is really good with the astromaster 130 2. Parabolic mirror 3. Cost about 187 USD (sometimes it changes to 210 USD) With this I chose the orion spaceprobe 130ST since I don't want to deal with the cons of the Celestron Astromaster 130. After waiting about 50 days the telescope finally arrived. Packaging: It is well packed and it is double boxed to protect the items inside and there's a lot of small empty boxes to prevent the items from moving. The OTA is separated by a divider and tightly packed. All items are complete, The finder scope, 2 eyepiece, dvd's and tools are in a separate box and the EQ mount is already pre-assembled. Assembling the telescope is easy and it took me about 45 minutes (watch the video in youtube on how to assemble the scope, it will really help) Equatorial mount: As for an equatorial mount you'll get the hang of it after several use and is actually convenient to use when tracking objects (its just a turn of a knob.) You can also use the scope like a dobsonian and an alt-azimuth (release the Dec and RA lock and you're free to move it around) Advantaged of an EQ mount is that I tracks objects by a single turn of a knob and it can also be used for astro-photography when you want that on a later time. Performance: Overall the performance of the telescope is great. It is properly collimated, mount is stable and durable. The 2 eyepiece included is of good quality. Focuser is smooth and the finder scope is easy to use (opening your other eye will help you target objects while using the finder.) 260x is the rated useful magnification of this scope but I've tried 325x with the moon and jupiter (using a 6mm plossl and a 3x barlow) The view is not as crisp sharp for jupiter and but I can still see the major bands. I'll purchase the celestron 2.3mm soon and see how it goes. Cons for the Orion spaceprobe 130ST 1. At high magnification the scope will become shaky when focusing. (I guess this is to be expected on the EQ2 mount. Let it settle for a few seconds and the view will steady) 2. My 25 mm siruis plossl has a big lint between the lens (Orion replaced it) 3. Some scratches on the tripod 4. Some dirt on the mirror 5. EQ mount is for latitude 16 and above only. Although you can remedy this by turning the scope so the front leg of the tripod is facing south and the counterweight will not hit the tripod leg. 11/3/2012 On a clear night just recently I spend the whole night looking at jupiter. I got a glimpse of the great spot! (And occasional eye floaters!! Damn) Things I saw on our backyard with limited view Pleiades - easy to spot and magnificent with the 25 mm Plossl Orion nebula - by far easiest nebula to spot Andromeda galaxy - Its just like a gray blur cloud in the sky Jupiter - see above Moon - great as always (don't expect to see the american flag) Sun - Try to view at sunrise and sunset and use a baader filer or mylar I'll update this review when I can.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazing instrument, but be warned if you are a "beginner"!
*by S***N on May 28, 2015*

Wanted to get a telescope for my daughter on her 10th birthday. Was guided by the reviews here which generally stated that this was a solid instrument for beginners. Some notes on the telescope itself and then some comments on what you're in for if you are like me, the true clueless beginner: SpaceProbe 130ST Pros: Nice looking telescope, seems very professionally made. We have seen some amazing sights in the first few nights. The waxing moon looks amazing and all kinds of incredible details can been seen. At 60x and 120x magnification (a 2x barlow lens is needed for 120x mag, not included with this scope) we could see the cloud bands on Jupiter and it's moons. We could even see the shadow of a transiting moon on the surface of Jupiter. We found Saturn, surrounded by one brilliant fat ring. We could make out some cloud rings on the surface as well. Venus looked like a nice bright crescent. The equatorial mount and dials are pretty cool. We got ourselves an education in the coordinates of the night sky: declination, right ascension, etc. However for viewing planets all that went out the window and we did the old point-and-shoot. Space Probe 130ST cons: The mount looks sturdy at assembly, but in use the weaknesses become apparent. At 60x and 120x magnification, focusing on objects is a challenge. Using the focuser will cause enough vibration that we had to 'guess' if we were focused. Adjust the focus, wait for the vibrations to stop, adjust again, repeat. After some practice this really isn't a problem. The assembly instructions were pretty bad. I would almost say that a beginner would have no chance of putting this thing together using the included manual only. Thankfully Orion has an online video which will walk you through the process. The video was very good. The instructions for aligning the mirrors (collimating) are also useless if you are a true beginner. Even the Orion online video is not that helpful. Aligning the mirrors properly is incredibly important for good performance of the telescope. We had to use several online tutorials from other sources to figure this step out. NOTES FOR THE BEGINNER: As a complete uninitiated beginner, I found the assembly to be a challenge. Particularly the aligning, or collimating, of the mirrors, was quite difficult for this beginner and required a fair amount of manual dexterity. Definitely way beyond the capabilities of my 10-year-old, so keep that in mind. I discovered that the only reliable way to get perfect alignment was to purchase a laser collimator ($50 to $100) to assist the process. When using a laser, I could see that what seemed to be perfect alignment with the Orion-included collimation cap was not perfect at all. If you want to get the full performance potential out of this scope, I believe you're going to have to invest in the laser. Also a good investment is the moon filter for lunar viewing, and a Barlow 2x magnification lens, neither of which are included with this telescope.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by D***T on March 17, 2014*

My son got this telescope for his birthday. The first pleasant surprise is the build quality and sturdiness. The tripod has a nice weight while still being easy to move around. Once all of the pieces were put together we waited for night and were fortunate to get a clear sky. We skipped reading the manual and therefore struggle trying to position and point at the moon. Once we managed to point it we were all blown away by the amount of detail we could see of our lunar friend. Next my son pointed the scope to a bright star and when he looked got excited by what he saw. When I looked I was confused as to why there was one large star and 3 other pin point stars in a line. Then it hit me... this was Jupiter. We were looking at a planet. We are all hooked. Best advice I can give you if you purchase this is to spend a bit of time reading the manual to get it set up properly first and then go looking at the stars.

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