Absolutely love my moon lamp! It was everything I expected and a little more when I revived it and set it up. I love that I can change the color and adjust the brightness as often as I want, and anyone who visits my office compliments it every single time. It makes such a great gift for anyone and is a simple yet fun addition to your space. I recommend to anyone searching for a fun gift!

This was a gift for my sister; we're both in our late 60's, partially home bound, and many miles apart. She LOVES it!! This was an "upgrade" from the simple moon version that I gave her previously; which only comes in white or "yellow." She especially enjoys being able to change the colors from across the room with the remote. I think this is a great nightlight and great gift for people of all ages!!

Like most reading this review, I spent a good deal of time researching and reading about telescopes before ultimately deciding to purchase the XT8. Along with the telescope itself, I also purchased a 2x shorty barlow and 10mm and 7.5mm Sirius Plössl eyepieces - giving me a wide array of magnifications from 48x to 320x.I received my telescope and immediately began the assembly and collimation and finder alignment procedures. Assembly took about 30 minutes; I had watched the videos online prior and had the instructions handy. I didn't need to spend much time collimating out of the box, the factory alignment was mostly spared in shipping and I only had to perform some minor adjustments to the primary mirror.Aligning the finderscope was more of a challenge, however. I note that most people who "dock a point" on this telescope do so due to the finderscope. This is accurate, since I couldn't get the finderscope aligned far enough to the left to offset the pressure of the set screw in the bracket. However, I applied several thin layers of vinyl electrical tape to "shim" the rear left side of the bracket, so it would push the finder even more left when it was mounted. After that I was able to get a perfect alignment through the finder, with room to spare in any direction for any needed adjustments in the future.I am graduating to the XT8 from a 60x440mm Bushnell refractor, the best views from which can show the rings of Saturn and shadows in craters on the moon, but little else. Looking through the XT8 at these same objects is so much more revealing, I can't find an appropriate analogy that would be accurate. Looking at the moon used to be an "Oh, that's cool" experience. Now it's "Ohhhhh WOW.... look at that!".To look up at the skies and see and track objects in the eyepiece that you can't even see with your naked eye is very humbling. The XT8 does this amazingly well, even without a motorized equatorial mount. Because the telescope tube is so long, the slightest changes in position can be achieved easily and accurately with firm but gentle pressure at the eyepiece end.Moving the telescope from location to location can be a bit cumbersome - not solely due to the weight, but a combination of both size and weight. Getting the scope off the ground and into your hand via the handle is the tricky part and requires a bit of finesse, but once you've got it in hand it's relatively easy to walk with. This scope is about the biggest I feel I could comfortably handle (I'm over 6' tall). The 10" I think would be a little much.In my location, there is a decent amount of light pollution and I have yet to observe on a dark, moonless night with good seeing. However, that hasn't prevented me from being able to find deep sky objects or from seeing details in the planets. I can clearly see at least 4 distinct color bands on Jupiter and the 4 Galilean moons, 4 of Saturn's moons and the shadow cast onto the planet by its rings. Poor seeing and a low altitude prevented me from seeing the Cassini division, however. I have also been able to locate various nebulae (the ring and dumbbell nebulae for example), many star clusters (M11, the wild duck cluster is my favorite so far), and of course galaxies such as Andromeda. The most useful eyepieces in my opinion (in the poor conditions I've had to endure) have been the 25mm and the 10mm in combination with the barlow. 320x has only really been possible on the moon at dusk - the only time I can look at it without a filter. If you plan on looking at the moon at night however, a filter is a must. I neglected to purchase one initially and can't bear to look at it under any power; it hurts my eyes too much.As I said, I live in an area with a good degree of light pollution (near Cleveland) and have only observed on nights with at least 3/4 moon and below average seeing conditions. Even so, this scope has impressed me with spectacular views. I'm eager for a good night to take it to a darker location; I'm confident it will impress me even more. This is the scope every budding astronomer should learn to scan the skies with; not a cheap department store excuse of a telescope. Bravo, Orion!

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 It arrived quickly and was easy to put together—the only part I had a hard time with was setting up the phone attachment for the viewing, but eventually I figured it out. The kids love checking out the moon & stars now, such a fun family activity. I like how high or low you can adjust the telescope in height too. Super affordable and easy to use—highly recommend.

This is so cool!!! I did just get it yesterday so I'll have to update if anything changes, but so far, so good! I love how it it's actually textured and it looks so much like the moon that even my (not quite) 2 year old knew what it was immediately! She's asked several times for the "moon" since I opened it. I love the changing colors/modes and its very calming to me when I'm trying to just relax. I've used other lamps that only filter through like 3 colors in the fade or flash modes but this one goes through them all. Colors are beautiful and it's bright but not "blindingly" at its max. I haven't tried to see if I can read by the light yet but I feel like it would be fine on the correct color/brightness. I also like that I can dim it so that its not bothering my husband if he's going to sleep before me. Definitely cool that you can charge it and move it around wireless! AND set a timer for it to turn off after a set amount of minutes (multiple time options). If I could complain about literally anything it would be that you can't change the colors on the lamp it's self (you can power on/off though) and need the remote- but that's more of a "me" issue bc of my ADHD and tendency of losing remotes. I think I'll add a velcro strip inside my nightstand drawer, but if you are good at not losing your things its no big deal!

Adjustment ease, like to see a lock on the arm extension length.

First of all, I'm noticing a place for rating how easy it was to assemble. I'll put it this way. I looked at the pictures twice to find out if I had put it together right. Notice the word "had". I didn't need the instructions telling me that part A fits into part B. It just made sense to me. I had to look at the pictures to see if the tube clamp with the screw on top goes in the front or the back, and I was a bit confused by why the bolts on the tray would just poke down through the holes on the tripod brackets. Then I actually read that part of the instructions and had a 'DUH' moment when I realized that you have to take the thumb screws out and put them back in from the bottom.While I am still a total novice when it comes to using the equatorial mount, (I used it more like an altaz mount) I can already see that when I get used to setting it up properly, it's going to be much easier to track objects using this style of mount.The clarity of the image when looking at the moon was stunning. I originally wanted to get a telescope after having purchased a microscope. My girlfriend thought the microscope was really cool, and mentioned that she wanted a telescope for looking at the moon and stars. I never really had that much interest in looking up at the sky, but now I'm glad I did. We're going to be spending a lot of nights outside looking up from now on.While this telescope doesn't have the quality I would expect from a telescope costing thousands of dollars, it definitely has every bit of the quality I expect from one in this price range. Coming from me, that's saying something. Well done Orion.Over all, I would rate this as a first rate telescope for beginners, with plenty of quality, clarity of picture, and light gathering power, so that I don't expect to grow out of it for quite some time.

Love it! For the price, it’s the best little moon on the market. Changes color, can dim and brighten up, easy enough to pick up and put wherever you want it at the moment. Bigger than I thought (from some reviews) but it’s actually way bigger than my hand, so I’m not sure how using it as a moving nightlight will go. Doesn’t matter, I love it!