Orion SkyView Pro 127mm Mak Telescope Review:
Here’s Orion SkyView Pro 127mm Mak Telescope for the enthusiast who appreciates the practicality of a compact scope, yet wants the best features and performance available for the money. In a market flooded with Maksutov telescopes laden with plastic parts, wobbly mounts, and iffy optics, it’s nice to know you can still get a serious telescope that puts optical and mechanical quality above all else. The “SVP” 127’s high-resolution 5″ optics and 1540mm focal length (f/12.1) excel for high-magnification study of the lunar surface and the planets. And it’s got enough aperture to display excellent images of a wide variety of deep-sky gems. The tube assembly is just 14.5″ long, making it wonderfully portable and easy to stow away when not in use. The SVP EQ mount is as fluid in its motions as it is solid in its stance. This impressive telescope package comes with a padded carrying case for the tube assembly, an 8×40 finder scope, 90° star diagonal, and two Sirius Plossl eyepieces. The eyepiece holder accepts an optional camera T-ring for prime-focus photography. The SVP 127 can be upgraded to GoTo computerized control at any time.

Orion SkyView Pro 127mm Mak Telescope Features:
* 127mm aperture and 1540mm focal length for great views of deep-sky gems and solar system detail
* Includes sturdy tripod and equatorial mount for hands-free celestial tracking
* Includes two eyepieces, finder scope, diagonal, case, and FREE Starry Night astronomy software
* One-year limited warranty

Orion SkyView Pro 127mm Mak Telescope User Said:

I bought the Orion SkyView Pro 127mm Mak Telescope as my first telescope a few months ago, and it is as great as I had hoped. Since this is my first scope I don’t have much basis for comparing it to other options, but I’ve been very happy with it and if the specs meet your needs I highly recommend it. It’s well- made, the size is a good compromise between aperture and portability, the mount is sturdy and operates smoothly (I have manual controls, no computers), and I’ve been very pleased with the views. I’ve seen boulders on the surface of the moon, the phases of Venus, found Uranus and Neptune (faint blue dots, but I saw them!), the color bands of Jupiter, and easily split the stars of Albireo and Mizar and the Trapezium. The scope is a bit small for many deep space objects, but I have still enjoyed looking at M13, which looks like a faint smudge with pretty speckles, and M42 which is bright and easily visible. The tripod and mount is sturdy and heavy, a bit of an armload to carry, but easy to set up and very stable. I’ve leaned in with my hands on the legs while I look through the eyepiece at 150x power, and gone out when the wind was gusting 10-15 mph, but no matter: the thing is steady as a rock and just doesn’t shake at all. It takes about 15 minutes to set up or tear down, and uncapping the ends of the polar axis and peering through the hole to see Polaris gives a good enough polar alignment for visual observing, and that takes just seconds. I was concerned about getting an equatorial mount as a first scope, but in practice I have found it easy to work with and appreciate how easy it is to track objects just with one slow-motion control. My only criticisms of this package are that the big plastic cap at one end is flimsy and easily dislodged, and the latitude adjustment scale is inaccurately aligned. I’m at 45 degrees north latitude, but the scale points to 38. Minor quibbles, as you only set the latitude once (unless you take a serious road trip), and I’ve just learned to deal with that cap. In all, I absolutely made the right choice and if I could go back and buy any other scope, I’d still get this one… or maybe the 150mm!

—– By Joe Montgomery

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