Orion Skyview Pro 100

Orion Skyview Pro 100mm, f6 Achromat

Let me begin this review with a short background about my experience as a visual astronomer. The Orion Skyview Pro 100mm is my first "real" telescope. I'll explain "real" a bit later. For the past 9 years I've been a binocular observer. Living in New York City, I was hesitant to purchase a telescope because of all the light pollution. Having recently moved to a slightly less light polluted area (eastern Long Island, NY), I felt the time was ripe for a telescope. My first scope, a Christmas gift from my parents when I was 10 years old, was a department store brand. What this scope lacked in optical quality, it made up for with being the gateway to an interesting and fulfilling hobby.

The telescope arrived in early autumn, 2005. The packaging consisted of 1 large box, which contained the OTA, SVP mount, tripod, 6 x 30 finder scope, 2 Sirius Plossol EP's and instructions. A smaller box contained a single axis motor drive and an Orion Shorty Plus Barlow (optional). Everything was neatly packaged, nothing missing. It took me about 45 minutes to assemble the scope. Everything fit together perfectly. A very minor problem with the conical cap for the polar alignment scope housing. It fits too loosely and sometimes falls off. With steel tubular legs and a re-enforcing eyepiece tray, the SVP mount is quite sturdy. The entire assembly weighs about 40 lbs (18 kg), give or take.

First Light

Guess what? No NEW SCOPE CURSE! That's right. I was observing the day (and night) that my scope arrived. During the day, I set my latitude, polar aligned the scope and aligned the finder scope.

Enter the darkness, well except for that annoying mercury-vapor streetlight that glares into my yard and pollutes my sky. Being late September, I referred to a sky chart for that time of the year. For my 1st target, I chose M15. I've only seen photo's of this globular cluster. Now, I've actually observed it. Through the scope at 60X it was a circular fuzzy patch. I couldn't resolve any of the stars, but it looked great none the less. Then I moved on to Albiero. The SVP 100 did a fine job of splitting this double into it's golden and bluish components at 25X. My final target for the night was Epsilon Lyrae, the double-double. It seems that here I reached the scope's limits (allowing for variables such as seeing conditions, eyepiece selection, etc.) The first double (splitting the 2 pairs of doubles from each other) was easily split at 25X. I could not completely split them again. The 2 stars where "touching" even at 120X (barlowed). More magnification may help, but at the expense of image degradation.

In subsequent observing nights, I've viewed the following: The double cluster in Perseus was breathtaking. I observe it every chance I get; M31 looked like an elongated oval patch not much different from binocular views, except through the Orion SVP I also spotted it's companion, M110; Mars, some nights I've seen good surface detail and other nights it was a bland rusty sphere. I blame Mars itself and seeing conditions for that. Yes, there was a fair amount of chromatic aberration. I was aware of that when the scope was ordered and have learned to tolerate it; The Moon. This is where the scope excels (so far). Through this scope the moon is beautiful at any magnification. That big potato chip in the sky now looks like another world. The views of the craters, maria and mountains are astounding to say the least; Various stars. I would go as far as to say that they look pin-point, but not tack-sharp. This is only because I've viewed these stars in an Astro-Physics Apochromat at a star party. Now that's tack-sharp.

Throughout my observations with the scope in the past 2 months, I have noticed a flaw or two. These do not included the flaws that are inherent with this type of scope (CA for example). The focuser knobs have too much "play" in them. This prolongs focusing an object, especially at high power. I've read some CN posts that provide a fix for this. Second flaw is the finder scope. I don't mind the power (6X) so much as the awkward bodily positions that I have to make when trying to look through it. I highly recommend a right-angle finder.

The Orion 100mm SVP is a fine telescope. If you're looking to purchase your first scope, it should be one of your top choices. For the price (approx. $500 w/shipping) I feel it's a great value. Good optics, sturdy mount and decent portability.

Gilfester