Orion 08985 SkyQuest XT6 PLUS Dobsonian Reflector Telescope (Twilight Blue Metallic)

Well this is a honest review of this telescope, and I will say first that I returned it. The EZ finder scope was non-functional and there was minor shipping damage. But I kind of regret that I did. The images produced by this telescope are very good. Once you've got it well-collimated, the stars are bright distinct pinpoints. Surface features of the Moon are very detailed. Clarity and brightness are very good with a 25mm eyepiece. The 10mm eyepiece with the greater magnification was just okay. The bulkiness of any Dobsonian is a given, but the length of the Optical tube helps to improve image quality and contrast, and you don't get much interfering light from the periphery. The major problem with this that I had was the cheap finderscope. If you look at the reviews on that you'll see that it's not reliable and they often break. The tensioning knobs didn't hold the tension they tended to slip. I'm not convinced that was an improvement over the xt6 classic. If you're looking at this model and the extra accessories arent a good match, you might consider the xt6 classic instead and use the difference in price to get the accessories you find you want or need later (like an upgraded viewfinder, moon filter, etc).

This is my first telescope, so I don't have much to compare it too. The first time I used it, I of course wanted to check out the moon, and it was amazing. I purchased a moon filter, which made it very easy on the eyes, as I viewed it without the filter, and it was very bright! A few days later, I used it during the day to check out the sun with the included sun filter, and wow. Also impressive. I saw a little black spot on it, and had the Police song stuck in my head for the rest of the day. It's a big telescope, and if I had to do it over, I perhaps would have maybe looked into getting a more portable one, as I live on the 2nd floor of an apartment. But with so many positive reviews, and suggestions as a great first telescope, I went with it and I can't say I am disappointed with it. I did get the carry case for it, which makes it a little easier to cart around.

It's a basic intergalactic telescope. The instructions are transmogrified from Chinese into English; sometimes hard to understand, sometimes just wrong. The pictures are fine. Came with a sun screen. It's a good basic product.

Bigger than I thought, hoping for some good viewing tonight. The base is made from laminated particle board; it screws together snugly but time will tell how well it actually holds up. For the price, it seems like it's good quality. I'm a novice but sighting it in, it seems like it arrived well collimated and without issue.

I love this telescope. I wanted a good scope that was smaller than a hot water heater, and this one does the job. I can carry the base and telescope separately easily enough, but it's awkward, and I'm a 200 pd. guy. Make sure you buy a moon filter, it doesn't have one. The LED site scope is very useful and easy to set up.I can see the rings of Saturn and several of its moons with this scope. I can see the ring nebula and M13 very easily. I can just barely see the great red spot on Jupiter from my light-polluted house. Looking forward to better viewing areas!

Great telescope- purchased it for my grandson.

Fabulous 'scope. Our lives are better for having it!

NOTE: The difference between this SkyQuest XT6 Plus kit and the similar kit currently selling for $319 is the inclusion here of the 6" Safety Film Solar Filter which sells separately for about $100. If you are interested in solar observation it is slightly cheaper to buy the solar filter as part of this kit.When I first became interested in astronomy at 10 years old, I did all my stargazing through a cheap 3 inch reflector that I found at a yard sale for a dollar-and-a-half. I longed for a “real” telescope, but at prices in those days I might as well have been wishing for a new car!I have recently had time to rekindle my childhood passion, and when I began telescope shopping I was absolutely astounded by the size and quality you can purchase today for only several hundred dollars. I still wanted to keep the cost low and had initially set my sights on what appeared to be the best bang for the economical astronomer, the Orion SkyQuest XT6. However, reading reviews of other telescopes in this series convinced me (at many others’ recommendations) to move up to the XT8. When I compared features and accessories of the Plus series, it was obvious that if you can spend yet a little more the investment is worth it. I ended up with the Orion SkyQuest XT8 Plus, and for me this was the “sweet spot” considering price, features, and size:PRICE AND FEATURES: Regardless of whether you purchase the XT6 or the XT8, the Plus series gives you a better base, easier secondary mirror adjustment (this is IMPORTANT — more on that later!), an additional eyepiece, a Barlow lens, an eyepiece rack (which ended up being way handier than I expected), and an attractive blue optical tube. Especially for the small price increase from the XT6 to the XT6 Plus (at time of writing), this is a real value. Move up to the XT8 Plus and you also get a much better focuser. I’ll only briefly mention the XT10, but the price jump here (both from the XT8 in size, and from the standard XT10 to the XT10 Plus) is much more significant and less of a bargain.SIZE: Bigger is better! The larger your mirror, the better your light-gathering capacity and view. Many reviewers of the SkyQuest XT8 stated how glad they were that they chose the larger size, and when I realized that the base and required storage space weren’t any more than for the XT6 that clinched my choice. Also, having now spent a month carting that 8 inch telescope around, I believe the XT10 would have been exponentially more inconvenient and I continue to be very satisfied with my XT8 Plus choice.TRANSPORTING: While according to the manual the entire XT8 can be moved using the carry handle, Orion recommends disassembling the XT8 Plus for transportation. I quickly tired of doing this every time I moved it thirty feet to the back yard, however, and have found that I can CAREFULLY carry it quite comfortably using the cutouts in the side panels (see photo). I am 5’ 10” and in average health, and I think most adult males would have no trouble carrying the entire telescope this way. I carry it with the finder sight and focuser away from me. I am VERY CAREFUL of my footing and also make sure I am only lifting the side panels (rather than pressing them together against the telescope tube). However, my wife is shorter and would not be able to carry it this way. Note that to carry the telescope like this the eyepiece rack must be removed. I had already decided to only lightly tighten the eyepiece rack mounting screws, and the keyhole design of the rack mount makes it very easy to pop the eyepiece rack on and off — so this proved to be no problem for carrying. Make sure the eyepiece rack slides on snugly enough that it stays in place as you remove eyepieces, though. FYI the manual lists the combined weight of the telescope and base as 41.6 pounds, but I have found this carry method to be quite manageable.COLLIMATION: You will need to collimate, or align the mirrors in, your telescope. Know that I do a fair amount of target shooting and am reasonably practiced in adjusting rifle scopes, red dot sights, and laser sights. I expected this process to be a snap. However, after an hour-and-a-half of adjusting the secondary mirror with no small amount of hair-pulling I had only succeeded in incrementally moving the secondary mirror completely out of alignment no matter what adjustments I made. To fix this I finally had to loosen all 3 secondary mirror screws, reach inside the telescope tube to manually grasp and position the secondary mirror holder, and then retighten the adjustment screws while keeping the mirror in alignment. (DO NOT TOUCH THE MIRROR ITSELF!) This is where the Plus paid for itself with its easy-to-adjust thumbscrews, as this process would have been nigh impossible on the standard XT8 which requires a hex wrench. If you go through the full collimation process, the procedure I used is actually similar to the first step listed in the manual. Once the secondary mirror was aligned this way, I was able to very carefully make the final adjustments, but only by cautiously loosening or tightening the adjustment screws by the very smallest increments—I would say about 1/8 turn at a time. I think the original problem was that gravity was fighting the adjustments I needed to make, and some roughness or friction between the adjustment screws and the secondary mirror holder were impeding adjustments in the needed direction. If I had dropped my review to 4 stars this would have been the reason, but I didn’t because clearly most other buyers haven’t experienced this issue and I was ultimately able to resolve it fairly quickly and easily. And lest I seem too ten-thumbed, once the secondary mirror was correctly aligned it took me less than 60 seconds to align the primary mirror.ORION CUSTOMER SERVICE A+: One minor note is that I got a defective screw with my telescope and contacted Orion about it. I received a reply to my email within hours, and a replacement screw (plus an extra screw just in case!) in about a week. So far, so good!ACCESSORIES: If you are on a budget a SkyQuest Plus will get you 2 eyepieces plus a Barlow, which is a great start. But reading a LOT of other reviews, below are the items I’ve added to my wish list. I’ll review these and adjust my list accordingly as I add them to my astronomer’s toolbox:1. Telrad Finder Sight.2. Zoom eyepiece: While more practiced astronomers might roll their eyes at this, I am finding eyepiece-swapping to be a major chore. It does make the eyepiece rack a must-have accessory, but I have missed seeing things while I was fumbling to get the more powerful eyepiece in, re-centering my target, and then inserting the Barlow. For a high quality zoom the Baader Planetarium 8-24mm Hyperion Zoom Mark IV is the one I’m saving for, but for a lot less the Meade 4000 8-24mm Zoom appears to be a favorite in its price range. Note that even if a zoom ends up replacing the extra eyepieces included with my SkyQuest Plus, I still recommend the Plus over the standard SkyQuest because of the other features.3. Moon filter.4. Laser collimator.THE BOTTOM LINE: Having had a chance to play with my telescope for about a year, I continue to be impressed with what I received for what I paid. Modern manufacturing has made a product of outstanding quality available at an unprecedented price. I strongly recommend the Orion SkyQuest Plus series.

Works as advertised. This is my first telescope so I don't have a baseline to compare but I had great views of jupiter and saturn last night and that's the reason I bought this telescope so I'm more than happy with this product for now. The the hole isn't exactly centrered on the collimation cap though, not sure if that is by design. XT6 is the one to get if you want to carry it in your car, I'm guessing the XT8 base would be too big to fit in the trunk of most sedans. This one is also a better bang for your buck compared to the XT6 classic because it includes the 10mm lense and the barlow and you are gonna need those anyway if you want to watch planets.

Bello,