I bought one of these telescopes a few years ago. The optics are good. With good eyepieces, I can easily spot some of the dimmer Messier objects. It makes a BIG difference if the optics are just a little bit out of alignment. The supplied 25mm MA eyepiece is fair, but I bought a 20mm Plossl to take its place because the plossl has the same FOV, and the eyepiece quality makes up for the brightness lost due to magnifacation. The 6X30 finder is fair. The focuser is good, and I like the big knobs.
The mount is fairly stable, with vibrations dampening out in 3 seconds. One problem is with the thumb-screws that hold the slow motion cables on, they work themselves out very easily.
It is very easy to set up, and portable enough to take on trips.
I paid $200 for mine (new) and I think it was an excellent deal. At the time, $400 was a good deal, but now that Orion has their SkyView Deluxe 4.5", the 4500 is not such a good deal.
*Update* Ok, I was being a little kind to it in my first post there. After getting my 10" this sat in the closet for a while. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take it out because I didn't have time to take out the 10" and all. I now relize how shakey that mount is. I don't see how I put up with it before. Wood legs would probably help it out. I do not regret getting it because I used it a lot and it served its purpose. But it you come across one, unless it is pretty darn cheap (or is $500 and comes with a few Naglers;-) I wouldn't get it. There are much better beginning scopes out there at the ~$200 dollar range, such as the XT4.5", Orion ST80 and similar scopes.

Overall Rating: 4
Optics:6 Mount:2 Ease of Use:5 Value:5
Weight: 10
Date: 12/04/2002 09:34:59 am PST

Replies: 0

I have had my eye on these binoculars for a while, but was unsure how good the quality really was. After reading the extremely positive review here, I decided to buy a pair. They just came in today along with some accessories for my telescope. It is cloudy, so I have not had a chance to try them at night, but I promise to post updates as I use them more.

So far, I really like what you get for only $80. Rubber coated barrels, lens caps, nice strap, nice case, nice focuser, BAK-4 prisms, 7.1d FOV, shall I continue? The coatings on the objective lenses are good, very uniform. Pointed at a bright street lamp at night, there is no glare, and the FOV is sharp and bright out to the last maybe 10% of it. Really seen good. I haven't had a chance to try them on the sky, so I will not rate them yet.

*Update* 10-12-2002
It finally cleared up here for about an hour before the next system moved in and clouded it up again:-( But the seeing was great, so I tried out the binoculars. I found a little glare/haze around the Moon, but it was not enough to annoy of affect the view, so the Moon was a great site. I also checked out M13 and NGC869/NGC884, the Double Cluster. Both were nice. I think these may cut back the amount of time the XT10" gets to observe;-) I would definitely recommend these.

*Update* 12-03-2002
I am really enjoying these binoculars. I spent an hour or 2 the other night observing open clusters in Canis Major and had great success. Also I tracked down a few galaxies in it, such as NGC253 (In the Dec. issue of S&T in the binocular challange.) Recommend except that Orion has some of their supposedly better binoculars on sale for good prices if you can spend the extra $$$.

Noah

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:7 Value:10
Weight: 10
Date: 12/03/2002 08:18:06 pm PST

Replies: 0

After a lot of research, I decided on the XT10 to cure the apeture fever I had caught after 3 years with my Meade 4500 4.5" reflector(don't get me wrong, that is a great 'scope). I received the telescope 4 days after it was shipped. The box for the scope was pretty beat up, but everything was in good shape. Assembely took about 40 minutes. The altitude motion was excellent, but the azimuth motion was a little stiff (as expected), so I put 5 milk-jug washers on it. That really helped it for a time, but after a few days the azimuth motion got REALLY bad. I took the mount apart, cleaned it (some sand had got on the teflon pads), put 1 more washer on it, and oiled the teflon pads. That got it back to really good, but it may come back. Also, the screw holes for the screws that hold the primary mirror cell on the tube are a bit too big, so the cell will shift a bit if you carry by holding the cell (as I have to do.)
The included 8X50 finder is awesome. Actually being able to see though the finder and see anything is great. Adjusting it is a snap, but when putting it in the mount, the o-ring can be a hassle. The included eyepieces are not Sirius eyepieces( I have a 40 and 20mm). The 25mm is good. The 9mm is not so good. It shows out of focus ghost images on bright objects, whereas a 9mm MA I have does not. It is not hazy in the fov like the MA is however.

I have not had a chance to get to real dark skies to do a good test on it, so I will more when I get a chance.
One of my first targets was M57. This is a good "friend" of my 4.5". With the 40mm(31X), It is easy to find, and the hole is visible. Cranked it up to 139X with the 9mm and it was great. M31 was a great site at all powers though not a whole lot better than the 4.5" the F8 focal ratio on the 4.5" is a major factor with my not so good skies. M27 was also good, with the "apple core" shape very visible. The double cluster in Perseus was great in the 40mm. M13 had star easily visible to the core and the image blew away the 4.5"'s. I woke up early one morning to get a sneak peek at the winter objects. M42/43 was absolutly awesome. The inter-most region glowed a blueish color, while the outer regions glowed greenish. The amount of detail visible was too much to put here. M45 was also good, though not a whole lot better than the 4.5". Most of the bright OC's will not look a whole lot better.
Saturn at 139X was good, with the Cassini division easily seen, and cloud color variations visible. Jupiter was low, but showed its 3 brightest cloud bands and polar regions. The moon is really great in this scope.

More to come.
*UPDATE* 9-15-2002
I am still having problems with the azimuth, but I am slowly figuring out how to make it better. I pushed the 'scope up to 416X on M57 with the included 9mm Plossl and a camera 3X converter, and the image was very good, with no major breakdown. M33 was easily visable in mag 3.5-4 skies.

*Update* 10-12-2002
I did a star-test on the optics, and they came out very well (I am going to get a Ronchi screen and try it to), with just a tiny bit of down-turned edge. I see that Orion is selling a new "upgraded" version of the XT10. I hope the optics are as good on all them as they are on mine, and I hope the mount problem has gone away.

*Update*12-03-2002
I am getting more and more pleased with the XT10 the more I use it. Saturn is really great in it. The past few nights I haved logged about 25 new objects with it. I did some galaxy observing the other night, and M82 showed good detail.

Noah
Clear and Dark Skies
www.exeat.com/stars/noahm3

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:10 Mount:7 Ease of Use:8 Value:10
Weight: 15
Date: 12/03/2002 08:13:33 pm PST

Replies: 0

I bought the Epic ED-2 5.1mm for my 10" F:5 (XT10) newt for until I can try out some of the higher-price (Radian, Pentax) eyepieces (don't want to spend that much money and not know how it will perform). For the price, it can't beat. The edges are soft, but the rest of the FOV is pretty good. I have so far tried it on the Moon, M13, and M57. It performed well on all. I don't wear glasses, but my parents do, and when I take the telescope to star-parties the 20mm er will be good for people that wear glasses. If you need a good eyepiece with good eye relief at a very good price, I would recommend this. I will update when I can try it on my 4.5" F:8 newt to see how it does.

*Update* 10-30-2002
After 2-3weeks of clouds, it finally cleared up last night. I was able to use the 5.1mm some more. It seems not to be quite as sharp as I previously thought, but it COULD have been since the seeing was not perfect, but it was good enough that it should have been better. As I said, it is a good eyepiece if you need the long eye relief, but for me it is a bit too much, and the lost crispness over my 9mm Plossl is not aceptable for me. Prehaps the longer focal length one would provide a better view. I am thinking about replacing it with a TeleVue 11mm Plossl and 2X barlow, or if I can convince myself to spend that kind of money, a 7mm Type6 Nagler or 6mm Radian.

Noah

Overall Rating: 7
Optics:6 Value:8
Weight: 10
Date: 10/30/2002 07:31:17 am PST

Replies: 0

I bought this eyepiece new to go with my 4.5" reflector a few years ago. It is a good eyepiece. Image quality is very good except at the very edges, and it shows little chromatic aberration. The 1.9 degree FOV is good for hunting down comets and DSO's, although more FOV would be nice at times. This eyepiece is a very good deal for a wide angle eyepiece for somebody on a budget.

*Update* 9-16-2002
I am using this on my XT10" until I get a TeleVue Panoptic 35mm. It has performed quite well on the XT10, showing little to no coma (which is probably in part due to the excellent optics mine came with). I have no complaints about it. I would definitely recommend this, or the 32mm for anybody wanting a wide angle eyepiece on a budget.

Noah

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:7 Value:9
Weight: 20
Date: 10/12/2002 06:55:24 pm PST

Replies: 0