Reviews

Sky-Watcher’s HEQ5 Pro mount is arguably the single best equatorial mount you can buy for astrophotography. It’s not too expensive, it can carry a variety of instruments, and it performs well enough out of the box that it won’t drive you crazy. The HEQ5 Pro is portable enough to serve as a glorified star tracker […]

The Orion SkyQuest XT12i is a massive instrument designed for demanding observers, and one of the less expensive 12” Dobsonians available, mainly due to its simple build. The XT12i costs only a bit more than its non-computerized competitors, but its Intelliscope mount makes it a bit easier to use – and is a bit more

Celestron’s StarSense Explorer line is the latest in Celestron’s revolving door of low-cost, oddly designed and often computerized beginner telescopes. Celestron has previously tried to make using a telescope as easy as possible in the form of the NexStar telescopes (which sadly lost their extremely simple Level North alignment feature in a patent lawsuit, and

Celestron’s Advanced VX is frequently cited as a great multipurpose mount for astrophotography, but in actuality, it’s ridden with problems in its design which make it less-than-optimal – a product of cost-cutting measures.  The Advanced VX is great, however, if you want a big dumb mount for planetary imaging and visual use which has to

The Skywatcher EQ6-R-Pro is a Go-to German Equatorial mount that finds itself in something of a price and weight-bearing sweet spot. It’s relatively affordable in a hobby that will never be cheap, but expensive enough an investment that you won’t want to replace it for many years. It’s a well-known true-ism in astrophotography circles that

If you are looking for the next step up from your entry-level telescope, or you just want to start out with something which won’t need upgrading for a very long time, The Celestron C9.25 XLT with Starbright coatings (C925), may well be for you.  The C925 can be found everywhere from back gardens and sheds,

The Orion SkyScanner 100 is basically the cheapest good telescope available these days, with a proper parabolic primary mirror to deliver sharp images, enough aperture to show you faint fuzzies, and accessories that aren’t plastic garbage. The scope does have a few concessions due to its low price tag but these are easily ignored. Like

The Orion SkyQuest XT4.5 is the smallest of Orion’s XT-series “SkyQuest” Dobsonians, and seldom seen at star parties or astronomy events. It’s a rather niche instrument considering the lower price of shorter 4.5” and even 5” tabletop reflectors, however is a good entry for someone considering a smaller, lower-priced dobsonian. What We Like What We

The Orion StarBlast 6 is a larger counterpart to the 114mm/4.5” StarBlast unit, and like the 4.5” model, comes in two configurations – albeit drastically less different.  The base StarBlast 6 package can also be upgraded to or purchased as the StarBlast 6i, which has no differences whatsoever apart from adding Orion’s IntelliScope controller and

The Celestron NexStar 6SE is one of Celestron’s more compact Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, providing a good balance between aperture and portability. This can be compared to some of Celestron’s other sibling products, the 4SE, 5SE, and 8SE, all of which are similar telescopes at different sizes of aperture. The NexStar 6SE Optical Tube Weighing in at

Meade’s ETX-90 was a flagship of the company’s product line for decades. Offering high-quality Maksutov-Cassegrain optics in a portable and affordable package, the ETX-90 was originally designed to compete with the Questar, a widely revered premium telescope that continues to cost over $5,000 USD new. The Questar debuted in 1958 and has remained unchanged since.

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