Orion 27191 StarBlast 6i IntelliScope Reflector Telescope

I have previously had a 70mm refractor on an equatorial mount, I found this difficult to set up and would often catch the tripod in the dark. So, many years later I decided to get back into astronomy and researched the ‘best’ scope for a beginner, sub £500. This is the one I chose and I couldn’t be happier with it. Whilst the base comes assembled in the box, the Intelliscope parts need to be retrofitted which requires some disassembly first. The instructions are very clear and make this process easy enough, but still makes me wonder why this can’t be factory fitted? Took about 45mins to get the base ready for action. Once the optical tube is on, you will need to align the tube with the finder scope (best done in daylight), this is a simple 5 min job. Both the finderscope and handset come supplied with batteries.Then, at the beginning of each session, you will need to align the tube with two known stars, again easy enough (if you are a complete beginner there are many phone apps that can help with identification). Setup complete!With no battery hungry and noisy motor drives to contend with, the scope can easily be pointed within seconds to the required patch of sky, the finder scope helping this process of course if you are not using the Intelliscope handset. No waiting for a motor drive, no furious turning of thumb wheels, you can go from one side of the sky to the other in a flash. The ‘push-to’ nature of this scope is perfect, a good balance of getting a personal feel and knowledge of where objects are found in the sky, with the precise backup of the database to get them in your eyepiece and not getting frustrated in the process. The tube gathers a lot of light and I’ve already been impressed at what I’ve seen already in my heavily light-polluted back garden, can’t wait to take this to a dark sky area. That brings me to portability - the base is 45cm diameter, the total height is approx. 87cm, this takes up very little space in the corner of the room. At around 10kg, the whole thing can be easily lifted and carried outside, placed on my patio table, and within three minutes I’ve done the alignment and I’m stargazing. It really is as quick as that. Rain? Clouds? Getting cold? Stick the tube cover back on, carry inside, done. As the saying goes, the telescope that is easy to use is the telescope that will get used. When I go further afield with it, if there isn’t a convenient raised place to put it (and it sits on the floor) I would recommend getting a low seat as an alternative to bending/kneeling down or getting a cold bum on the grass. I went for this one which is the perfect range of heights and very transportable (https://amzn.to/38crCyD). In terms of upgrades, the telescope and eyepieces will keep beginners going for a good while; you get Starry Night software supplied to assist your experience and there is a ‘tour’ feature on the Intelliscope handset which will guide you through the best of a particular months opportunities. No need to start looking at expensive add-ons until you’ve had the scope for a while and know exactly what you need. My only addition so far other than the seat is the excellent book by John Read ‘110 things to see with a telescope’ (https://amzn.to/38qeqq7), this will keep me going for some time! If the moon is your thing he does an excellent book on that too.Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase and glad that after all my deliberations I didn’t go for a ‘goto’ model - very expensive, with most of that expense on the goto mount rather than the optical tube itself. You will ‘learn the sky’ better with the more involved push-to method employed here, you will enjoy the total silence and won’t need an Amazon subscription for AA batteries. Everyone will have different requirements and expectations from a telescope, but for a quality beginners model that will serve you well into the future, with the ability to add eyepieces, filters, etc., as required, you certainly should have this one on your shortlist.

L'ho acquistato per mio figlio di 6 anni, ma lo utilizzo spesso anche io. Il montaggio non è immediato e va curato abbastanza bene per permettere agli encoder di leggere correttamente. Dopo un pò di tuning però, il puntamento è piuttosto preciso e consente di vedere immediatamente centinaia di oggetti celesti. Lo strumento è davvero trasportabile pesa poco più di 10kg. Non necessita di livellamento nè di batterie esterne, basta la 9V presente nel telecomando (batteria inclusa). Il software di gestione è semplice ma ben fatto, permette di selezionare gli oggetti da vedere per costellazione. L'ottica non è male, forse un pò sottocorretta, ma una volta collimata è molto luminosa e consente immagini contrastate. L'ho messa fianco a fianco al mio Evostar 150ED Skywatcher e non ha per nulla sfigurato. Il puntatore laser nella sua semplicità funziona bene, meglio dei classici cannocchiali. Nel complesso direi promosso a pieni voti!!!

I wanted a telescope that was reasonably light, easy to transport, and quick to set up. The Starblast 6i turned out to be the ideal scope for me. The telescope is a f5 scope which makes it great for wide field views. The 10mm and 25mm Orion Sirius plossl eyepieces that came with the scope are good eyepieces, but have a limited 52 degree field of view. I recommend replacing them with at least three high quality “wide field” eyepieces to cover low, medium and high magnification to get the most enjoyment out of this scope. After spending weeks researching eyepieces for the Starblast 6i based on the scope’s aperture size and focal length, I bought three eyepieces from Explore Scientific: the 6.7mm and 14mm eyepieces from their 82 degree series and a 24mm eyepiece from their 68 degree series. The 6.7mm seems to be the optimal high magnification for this scope. With higher magnification eyepieces 5mm or lower, you lose image resolution due to atmospheric effects on most nights. The 14mm is great for spotting nebulas and other faint distant objects. The 24mm (my favorite eyepiece) provides the widest field of view for the scope’s 1.25 inch focuser. It’s field of view is equivalent to a standard 32mm plossl, but with higher magnification and smaller exit pupil. The Explore Scientific eyepieces gives you the most bang for the buck on really excellent optics. If money is no object and you want the very best, then get Televue eyepieces. I recommend the Nagler 7mm, Nagler 13mm and Panoptic 24mm, but you will be paying twice as much for eyepieces that are roughly 5% better.On the negative side, I wish the IntelliScope system had a built in GPS so you can skip the two-Star alignment process every time you use it, but it does the job. On the fence about the red dot spotting scope right now. May eventually replace it with an optical finder scope. Overall though, it’s a really fun scope to use and I highly recommend it!BTW The stand that the scope and mount sit on in the photo is a Orion Dob Pod and is a separate item that you can buy on Amazon. I prefer sitting on a outdoor folding stool when using this scope instead of standing and using a table.

We purchased this model and it has been fun manually finding stars and looking at the moon. We had a problem with the encoder. I contacted Orion and they sent us a replacement right away and without asking. Great to see a company stand by their product and provide excellent service. We replaced the chip and magnetic ring and now it’s connecting. Thank you Orion. We’re not experts but we are learning amid this scope has really been inspiring my kids to learn more about the galaxy.

Osservato il cielo dal centro città, ho scoperto che si riescono a vedere tantissime stelle nonostante smog ed inquinamento luminoso. Semplice, adatto anche per i principianti come me.