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Orion SpaceProbe 3 EQ Reflector Telescope | 
| Brand: Orion
Category: Photography
Buy New: $149.95
as of 11/27/2009 07:09 CST details
Seller: Orion Telescopes
Rating:  3 reviews
Media: Electronics
Resolution Modes: 0.9
Aperature Mode: under-80mm
Maximum Focal Length: 700
MPN: 09843
UPC: 410000061213
EAN: 0410000061213
ASIN: B0000XMT42
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Great for all-around astronomical observing, this is a great beginner's telescope at a great price! | | • | 76mm aperture and 700mm focal length for wonderful views of the moon, planets, and even some nebulas | | • | Includes sturdy tripod and equatorial mount for hands-free celestial tracking | | • | Includes two eyepieces, finder scope, focuser, collimation cap, and FREE astronomy software | | • | One-year limited warranty |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Buying a first telescope used to be risky business, with more cheap models on the market than affordable quality ones. Our SpaceProbe 3 changes all that. It's not only affordable, but its optical quality will make the night sky's treasures accessible right from your backyard. The 3"-diameter primary mirror gathers enough light to reveal the faint glows of many star clusters and nebulas, as well as Saturn's rings, Jupiter's moons, and the stark, cratered terrain of the Moon. The aluminum Newtonian optical tube features a 1.25" rack-and-pinion focuser and two Explorer II eyepieces - a 25mm (28x) and a 10mm (70x). The included EZ Finder II finder scope helps you locate objects with ease. The SpaceProbe 3 EQ's equatorial mount allows easy manual "tracking" of objects with the turn of a knob (or optional electronic drive for hands-free tracking). Includes aluminum tripod with accessory tray. One-year limited warranty.
Amazon.com Review
Orion's surprising little Spaceprobe 3 has been picked by independent reviewers as one of the best telescopes in its price class. Unlike similar telescopes seen in discount stores, Orion has refined the Spaceprobe 3 by paying attention to the little details, and that make this telescope a great value. The Spaceprobe 3 comes with an unusually complete set of accessories. The package includes two very good Explorer II eyepieces (25mm and 10mm), an equatorial mount with adjustable tripod, a good red-dot finder, a student edition of "The Sky" planetarium program, and a well written manual. The package even includes the tools you'll need to assemble the telescope and align the optics. The Spaceprobe 3 is a Newtonian reflector. That means it uses mirrors instead of lenses. Newtonians are primarily used for astronomy because the images are upside-down. Orion includes a collimation tool and good directions for aligning the mirrors. The reward for aligning the mirrors is seen in images that snap into sharp focus. My Spaceprobe 3 arrived properly aligned right out of the box. With its Explorer II eyepieces, this telescope consistently delivers fine views. Using the 25mm eyepiece (28x magnification) the Pleiades cluster is simply wonderful, showing dozens of stars. From a rural location with a dark sky, the Orion Nebula is a big ghostly glow, and when I zoom in with the 10mm eyepiece, the Trapezium resolves into four tiny pinpoints. The double star Gamma Andromeda becomes two beads of light, one gold, the other one pale blue. Moon and planet images are crisp, with none of the false color I see in low cost refractors. When I look at the Moon I see mountains and terraced walls inside the larger craters. With the 10mm eyepiece (about 70x), Saturn's rings are sharply separated from the planet, and I can even pick out the planet's shadow on the rings. If you point the polar axis at the North Star, the EQ-1 equatorial mount will make it easier to track the stars and planets; an AstroTrack motor will even give you hands-free tracking. A similar telescope, Orion's Spaceprobe 3 Altaz comes with an intuitive (and lighter weight) altazimuth mount, and Celestron sells essentially the same optical system with the computerized NexStar 76GT. -Jeff Phillips Pros: - Best in class optical performance
- Two good Explorer II eyepieces
- Complete accessory package
Cons: - Small 76mm aperture
- Upside-down terrestrial images
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| Customer Reviews:
 A good scope for the price November 3, 2009
W. Waters (USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was worried when I read the other reviews on this product but decided it was the best scope in the price range and went ahead. I think the other reviews do this product a disadvantage. This is a really nice telescope.
One review said it was hard to put together with little instruction. This is not the case. I has step by step instructions that are easily followed. You must pay attention to what you are doing though. Each image in the directions is clear as to which part goes up and the axis for each knob, etc. It takes time to assemble. I did it with my ten year old sister and let her try to figure each direction out and do it and it took us 1.5 hours to assemble. If an adult was doing it probably 45 min. would be about accurate.
Once it is put together it is great. I could easily find things in the sky to look at. I did have trouble aligning the red dot pointer but once on a good object and aligned it is hard to get out of alignment. Constellations are very nice to look at in the scope and the moon and some close planets are spectacular in detail. I was pleased in purchasing this as a gift for a ten year old. Also she was quick to catch on how to use it and it didn't take more than a half hour for her to be finding and adjusting the knobs to get things in focus. I would recommend this for a low-medium priced scope.
 Awesome! December 15, 2008
Samantha D. Mast (San Diego, Ca)
4 out of 23 found this review helpful
While Christmas shopping on Amazon I came across this telescope. It only had one review but the review was a good one so decided to purchase this telescope for my husband for Christmas.
I recieved the telescope in perfect condition and excellant shape. It is a beautiful piece. We have yet to use it because it's sitting under the Christmas tree but I am excited to see him open it and be able to use it.
Being amateur star watches I'm sure we will be amazed with what we see through this.This was a great price for a beginner telescope and cannot wait to use it.
Great Telescope! December 27, 2006
M. Meckfessel (Dallas TX)
45 out of 45 found this review helpful
I bought this telescope for my girlfriend for Christmas. She had been wanting a telescope for sometime so I decided this would be the perfect gift. I was looking for a scope that wouldn't break the bank but wouldn't be a piece of junk either. I looked at models from Meade and Celestron but ultimately decided on this one.
I chose this over the refractor telescopes mainly because it seemed that to look into the refractor scopes would require a lot of bending over whereas this one has the eyepiece closer to eye level which makes viewing easier. Also, go for the equatorial mount, it's much easier to track things in the sky using it as we quickly found out.
Ok, so how was it? Well it came in a big box (which made the g/f crazy with this HUGE gift under the tree!) and everything was nicely and neatly packed. Everything appeard to be of high quality and good build; which is typical of Orion products from what I've read. The instruction maunal on assemble was pretty scarce. Anyone who's pretty handy at building things will be able to figure it out; but it's not the easiest thing either. This is mainly because of a lack of pictures to go along with the assembly steps. Well we got it assembled and waited for dark.
It was pretty cold and we just did some viewing of the moon and a couple of stars from the front yard. A hazy night with tons of light from the street didn't provide the best viewing conditions. That being said the moon looked amazing!! The detail was outstanding. We were able to also see the Orion Nebula and looked at other stars. I can't even imagine what it will look like on a good clear night. We're looking foward to bringing it camping with us where there will be some great viewing. The included software is also extremely useful and fun to use. The software alone is easily worth more than half of the price of this scope. Even if you hate the scope; you can learn a lot of great information from the software.
Overall this is a great scope for the amateur astronomer. It's cheap enough that it won't break the bank (good especially if you're not sure if astronomy is for you) but still plenty good enough for some great viewing. The instruction manual could be better but the quality of the software and of the scope itself more than makes up for the poor manual. I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for a good budget scope!
*Update* We've had this scope for about 16 months now, and it's fantastic!! We have taken it with us several places camping and have gotten to see some really great stuff. It's fairly easy to find the planets and even a galaxy or two. The only downside is that it takes up a lot of room in the car when we camp; but this would be true for any decent telescope. So not so much a problem with this one specifically, but with telescopes in general. Even to this day, we're still amazed just looking at the moon. The details and "awesomeness" of it never get old. Really looking at everything never gets old. I'm so glad we have this scope!
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