Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

At first glance, the Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Telescope is a great telescope. It gets put on multiple lists of "good first telescopes" all over the internet for a space fan in your family. I am an amature astronomer that runs a public outreach program, a life long amatuer astronomer and all around lover of space and astronomy for over 40 years. My recommendations are based on price, usability, value, and that hard to qualify "will I use this in 3 months" metric. Below, I am going to talk you out of this purchase, and give you my suggestions instead. There are two main types of mounts for telescopes. EQ, Equatorial and ALT-AZ or Altitude/Azimuth. EQ mounts need to be aligned with the north pole to work. They are hard to set up, may need dark skies to find Polaris, are difficult to use to find objects manually, and as a visual telescope are not the first choice a beginner should use. The benefit is that once you get an EQ set up, to track an object you only need to move in one direction to counter the earth's rotation. This is one of the main reasons EQ's are used in astrophotography. An Alt-AZ has a flat base and requires that the telescope move in two directions to track an object in the sky. Up-Down (altitude) and Left-Right (azimuth). These style of telescope mounts can be set up quickly, do not require dark skies to get ready and are very easy to point at objects in the night sky. Most ALT-AZ mounts will require the telescope to be level and then point due north if they have motors. With an ALT-AZ mount you will have a much better time pointing your telescope at locations in the night sky. Depending on the style of telescope learning how to move the telescope to track an object on an Alt-Az mount is not that difficult to learn. Reflectors will have the field of view reversed up/down and left/right and refractors will have the field of view reversed left/right. With an EQ style mount this can get tricky to move the telescope. The build quality of the telescope is fine. The mount on this particular telescope is a bit too lightweight for what I would consider good. Meade has a series of telescopes called "STARNAVIGATOR" that are excellent beginner telescopes. Explore Scientific has a great series of beginner telescopes on a "Twilight Nano" mount in this same price range. Orion has a series of "tabletop" telescopes here on Amazon that are the same telescopes with ALT-AZ mounts. In the $200 range you can now get equipment that is not a 'toy' like us old guys had to deal with in the 70's and 80's. For a bit more money the Celestron NexStar series is great and most of those are motorized making stargazing a bit easier. It is a great time to be someone buying a first telescope! And at this price point you are not that far from the prices of 8" Dobsonian style telescopes, starting at $350-$400. I teach classes on beginning astronomy, and the talk of beginner gear is how I end the class. I emphasize that a beginner telescope should leave you wanting more. To see more, do more, explore more. Not leave you frustrated with a purchase that was hard to aim, hard to keep aligned and will end up as a coat rack in the corner of a room. The SpaceProbe 130ST would be a fantastic telescope if not for the mount choice. For your hard earned money, you can do much better and get a telescope that your child will take to college with them in a few years. These Equatorial mounts will only frustrate you and anyone using these as a first telescope. This same telescope is available as a tabletop unit, for roughly the same price and is a MUCH better telescope/mount combination. Orion itself is a fantastic brand with a well established reputation and a very large online community that can help you with accessories, modification etc down the line. In the $300 range there are much, much better choices on better mounts that will not frustrate you. The Orion 10016 StarBlast 6 Astro Reflector Telescope is $40 more, has better eyepieces and a table-top Alt-Az mount. It is easier to use, align and once you are ready, can be moved to a better mount with motors later. For $100 more you can get a Celestron NexStar 5" with GoTo and tracking. Meade's beginner telescopes are in this price range as well. For $100 more you can get an 8" Dobsonian telescope from Orion, Explore Scientific, Meade, SkyWatcher that will grow with you, be big enough to see faint objects yet light enough to be portable. And finally, please look up your local Astronomy club. Most of them will have people willing to help a beginner, have used equipment for sale, will have people that can help with technical questions, and almost all of them have access to a dark site with regular member nights. Most organizations have an inexpensive family membership, on the order of $50 a year, or about the cost of a family outing to a single movie.