Orion SkyView Pro 8 GoTo Reflector Telescope

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Orion SkyView Pro 8 GoTo Reflector Telescope

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Our 8" reflector telescope and SkyView Pro equatorial mount with GoTo computerized control automatically locates targets from a 42,900 object database
Big 8" aperture parabolic mirror and 1000mm focal length (f/4.9) reflector telescope with 2" Crayford focuser is ideal for viewing deep-space objects
The GoTo system will even take you on a guided sky tour or show you the best sights of the month!
Sturdy SkyView Pro equatorial mount with stainless steel tripod for excellent stability and smooth control
Includes 8x40 finder scope, 25mm and 10mm Sirius Plossl 1.25" eyepieces, telescope tube rings, Starry Night astronomy software, and more!

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Item # 24731

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A popular classic is now easier to use than ever before. The Orion SkyView Pro 8 GoTo Reflector Telescope with the computerized GoTo system, pushing a button or two is all it takes to swing the optical system automatically to any one of 42,900 celestial wonders. Dual internal stepper motors slew the telescope at up to 3.4° per second right to your target, placing it directly in the eyepiece's field of view. Using the intuitive menus on the hand controller, you will see more incredible celestial sights than you ever dreamed possible. The GoTo system will even take you on a guided sky tour or show you the best sights of the month! A simple two-star or three-star initial alignment is all that's needed to begin easy, accurate GoTo operation!

The Orion SkyView Pro 8 Reflector has long been admired for outstanding optics and a rock-solid mount. The telescope features an 8" (203mm) parabolic primary mirror, which gives you a whopping 73% more light grasp than a 6" scope. And more light means brighter, sharper images. You can go way beyond the Messier catalog with this telescope! And for the moon and planets, the SkyView Pro 8's 1000mm focal length (f/4.9) gives you the ability to resolve fine detail at high power.

Other features include an upgraded 2" Crayford-style focuser with a 1.25" adapter and focus lock knob, an 8x40 finder scope, and two Sirius Plössl telescope eyepieces (25mm and 10mm). It even has a center mark on the primary mirror for easy collimation! The stalwart SkyView Pro equatorial mount and steel tube tripod provide a stable platform that's so smooth you'll think the telescope is floating on air.

The GoTo system consists of a computerized hand controller and two stepper motors that attach to the SkyView Pro telescope mount. With intuitive menus and easy-to-use pushbutton controls, the GoTo system allows you to locate and track any computerized object in its database of 13,400+ objects including the entire Messier and NGC catalogs. You can use the GoTo controller to take a guided tour of the night sky or to pinpoint celestial highlights for the month. The GoTo system requires an external 12-volt power source.

For owners of the SkyView Pro Equatorial GoTo Mount whose version of the GoTo hand controller is 3.0 or greater, the GoTo hand controller's firmware can be updated over the internet.

Warranty

Limited Warranty against defects in materials or workmanship for one year from date of purchase. This warranty is for the benefit of the original retail purchaser only. For complete warranty details contact us at 800-676-1343.

Warning

Please note this product was not designed or intended by the manufacturer for use by a child 12 years of age or younger.

Product Support

Visit our product support section for instruction manuals and more

Specs

Best for viewing

Brighter deep sky
Best for imaging

Lunar & planetary
User level

User level

Beginner - Suited for a wide range of uses, Level 1 telescopes are simple to operate and set up. Some initial assembly may be required. Very good optical and mechanical quality. Great for families, young people, and folks who don't want to mess with equipment but just want to take a look. Any of these scopes will show you countless lunar craters, Saturn's rings and a myriad of star clusters and nebulas! Referring to the manual is recommended.

Intermediate - These scopes offer higher performance and more advanced features than Level 1 models. They typically take a bit longer to learn and need some set-up or adjustments. But anyone with the slightest technical bent will have no problem getting familiar with these models. Referring to the manual is recommended.

Advanced - These scopes provide the best performance but may require more skill to master and appreciate. They have exceptionally fine optics and mechanics. Some are easy to use but are but on the large or heavy side. Some are intended for specialized uses. These scopes will appeal to the more technically inclined. Referring to the manual is highly recommended.

Expert - Expert telescopes offer uncompromising optical and mechanical quality for the most demanding amateur astronomer. They may be technically involved or designed for specialized use, such as astrophotography or detailed deep sky observation. They carry a premium price, but are designed to provide the ultimate performance in the field. Referring to the manual is highly recommended.

Advanced
Optical design

Optical design

Reflector telescopes use a pair of large and small mirrors to direct incoming light to the eyepiece. Refractor telescopes refract, or "bend" incoming light to a focus by means of an objective lens. Cassegrain telescopes, such as Maksutov-Cassegrains, "fold" incoming light using two mirrors and a front "corrector" lens.

Reflector
Finder scope magnification

8x
Optical diameter

Optical diameter

The optical diameter (also known as aperture), is the size of the telescope's main light collecting lens or mirror, measured in millimeters or inches. As the diameter increases, more light is collected and the resolution increases.

203mm
Finder scope lens diameter

40mm
Focal length

Focal length

The focal ratio of an optical system is the ratio of a telescope's focal length to its aperture. Short focal ratios (f/5, f/4.5) produce wide fields of view and small image scales, while long focal lengths produce narrower fields of views and larger image scales.

1000mm
Focal ratio

Focal ratio

The focal ratio of an optical system is the ratio of a telescope's focal length to its aperture. Short focal ratios (f/5, f/4.5) produce wide fields of view and small image scales, while long focal lengths produce narrower fields of views and larger image scales.

f/4.9
Optics type

Optics type

Newtonian reflectors will have either a spherical shaped mirror, which is less expensive to produce, or a higher quality parabola, which does not result in spherical aberration. Cassegrain telescopes routinely use spheres in addition to other lenses in the optical path to correct for residual spherical aberration. Refractors use a series of lenses to provide a clear image. Designs range from a standard air-spaced doublet (two lenses in a row) to exotic designs such as oil-spaced triplets and 4-element multi group lenses.

Parabolic
Glass material

Glass material

Refractors use glass lenses to focus the light, and the glass material plays an important role in the quality of the resulting image. Standard achromatic refractors routinely use Crown and Flint for the two elements, but more expensive apochromatic refractors can use ED (extra low dispersion) glass for one or more of the lenses. Reflector mirrors are made from glass with different levels of thermal expansion. Standard mirrors are made from material such as Soda-Lime Plate glass and BK-7 glass. Glass with Pyrex or other low thermal expansion material will not change shape as dramatically during the cool-down period, resulting in more stable images during this period.

Soda-lime plate
Eyepieces

Sirius Plossl 25.0mm, 10.0mm
Magnification with included eyepieces

40x, 100x
Resolving power

Resolving power

The theoretical resolving power of a telescope can be calculated with the following formula: Resolving power (in arc seconds) = 4.56 divided by aperture of telescope (in inches). In metric units, this is: Resolving power (in arc seconds) = 116 divided by aperture of telescope (in millimeters). Note that the formula is independent of the telescope type or model, and is based only upon the aperture of the telescope. So the larger the telescope's aperture, the more it is capable of resolving. This is important to keep in mind when observing astronomical objects which require high resolution for best viewing, such as planets and double stars. However, it is usually atmospheric seeing conditions (not the telescope) which limits the actual resolving power on a given night; rarely is resolution less than one arc-second possible from even the best viewing locations on Earth.

0.57arc*sec
Lowest useful magnification

Lowest useful magnification

Lowest useful magnification is the power at which the exit pupil becomes 7mm in diameter. Powers below this can still be reached with the telescope to give wider fields of view, but the image no longer becomes brighter at a lower power. This is due to the fact that the exit pupil of the telescope (the beam of light exiting the eyepiece) is now larger than the average person's dark adapted pupil, and no more light can fit into the eye.

33x
Highest useful magnification

Highest useful magnification

The highest practical limit is different from the often used "highest theoretical magnification" specification. The "theoretical" limit generally is 50x the aperture of the scope in inches (2x the aperture in mm). So for example, an 80mm refractor is capable of 160x, and a 10" telescope is theoretically capable of 500x magnification. But after approximately 300x, theory breaks down and real world problems take over. The atmosphere above us is constantly in motion, and it will distort the image seen through the telescope. This effect may not be noticeable at lower powers, but at higher powers the atmosphere will dramatically blur the object, reducing the quality of the image. On a good night (a night where the air above is steady and the stars aren't twinkling), the practical upper limit of a large telescope is 300x, even thought the theoretical limit may be much higher. This doesn't mean the scope will never be able to reach those higher "theoretical" powers - there will be that rare night where the atmosphere is perfectly still and the scope can be pushed past it's practical limit, but those nights will be few and far between.

300x
Highest theoretical magnification

480x
Limiting stellar magnitude

Limiting stellar magnitude

The limiting stellar magnitude is a measure of the faintest star you can see through the telescope.

14.2
Optical quality

Optical quality

"Diffraction Limited" means that the limits of image detail are determined by the physical properties of light, and not by optical defects in the telescope.

Diffraction limited
Finder scope

8x40
Focuser

2" Crayford
Secondary mirror obstruction

2mm
Mirror coatings/over-coatings

Aluminum & Silicon Dioxide
Mount type

Equatorial
Astro-imaging capability

Astro-imaging capability

The astro-photographic capability of the telescope is based on the style, stability, and accuracy of the mount and tripod. Telescopes on either very lightweight mounts or non tracking mounts (such as Dobsonians) are capable of only very short exposures such as lunar photographs. If a motor drive is attached to an equatorial mount, even a small lightweight mount is capable of capturing some planetary detail. Larger EQ mounts that utilize very precise tracking and excellent stability are capable of longer exposure deep-sky photography.

Lunar, planetary & long exposure
Computerized compatibility

Computerized compatibility

Some mounts are compatible with a motorized Go-To system for fully automated computer finding of objects in the night sky. Others mounts are compatible with computer finding systems which require the user to manually move the mount to the object's position as indicated by the computer finder.

Go-To included
Alignment procedure

3-Star Alignment, 2-Star Alignment, 1-Star Alignment
Number of objects in database

42,000+
Tracking rates

Sidereal, Solar and Lunar
Motor speeds

3.4°/sec, 600x, 500x, 400x, 64x, 32x, 16x, 8x, 2x, 1.75x, 1.5x, 1.25x
Motor type

Microstep driven stepper motors
Bearing material

Sealed ball bearings
Power requirement

12-volt DC - 2A (tip positive)
PEC

PEC

Periodic errors are inherent in almost all worm gears due to slight eccentricities and misalignments. PEC (Periodic Error Correction) training function provides a manual correcting method to reduce the amplitude of the worm gear errors. By recording a full cycle of guiding actions, the mount can compensate for drifting in the R.A. sidereal tracking caused by periodic errors. The PEC training function is recommended for advanced users with interest in long-exposure astrophotography only. Standard sidereal tracking is sufficient for all casual visual applications, and PEC training is not required. Also, PEC is typically not used in conjunction with an autoguider.

Yes
GPS

GPS

A GPS module automatically sets the date and exact time and location for the mount, relieving the user from the need to look up coordinates on a map or manually enter perfect time. This can be very beneficial when traveling with the scope as locations can quickly be automatically entered into the hand control.

Sold separately
Backlash compensation

Yes
Setting circles

Yes
Available ports

Available ports

Ports allow the mount to connect to devices such as autoguiders (for long exposure photography without tedious manual guiding), PC's running planetarium software (via the RS-232 port) and GPS receivers (through the Aux port).

RS-232, autoguider
Tube material

Steel
Tripod material

Steel
Tripod leg diameter

1.75 in.
Height range of mount

Height range of mount

The height range specification is a measure of the tripod itself - not the eyepiece height. Since telescopes come in all shapes and sizes, the eyepiece height will vary, even when using the same tripod. For an EQ tripod the mount is set up so the counterweight shaft is horizontal, and then the height is measured from the ground to the center of the mounting plate.

42.25 in. - 55.00 in.
Length of optical tube

38.0 in.
Weight, optical tube

16.5 lbs.
Weight, mount/tripod

25.0 lbs.
Weight, fully assembled

56.5 lbs.
Additional included accessories

Collimation cap
Other features

2" focuser, SkyView Pro GoTo system
Warranty

One year

In the Box

Orion SkyView Pro 8" with Crayford Reflector Telescope Optical Tube Assembly
25mm Orion Sirius Pl�ssl telescope eyepiece (1.25")
10mm Orion Sirius Pl�ssl telescope eyepiece (1.25")
Orion2" - 1.25" eyepiece adapter
Tripod
Orion equatorial mount
Computerized hand controller
8x40 finder scope
Finder scope bracket with O-ring
Collimation cap
Camera adapter
Tube rings
Tube ring mounting plate
Counterweights
Counterweight shaft
Tripod accessory tray
Slow-motion control knobs
Dust cap
R.A. axis rear cover
Declination GoTo motor assembly
R.A. GoTo motor assembly
12V DC power cable
Computer interface cable (RS-232)
Brass gears with 2mm socket-head set screws
Motor control box
Motor control box bracket
GoTo hand controller cable
GoTo hand controller bracket
Motor Cable (13")
Motor Cable (27")
Hand controller-to-PC cable (5')
Declination motor cover
Right ascension motor cover
Right ascension motor attachment screw
Declination motor attachment screw
Phillips screw (10mm)
Phillips screws (8mm)
flat washers
lock washer
4mm hex key
2mm hex key
Phillips-head screwdriver
Starry Night special edition software

Shipping Info

Orders received by noon Pacific Time for in-stock items ship the same business day. Orders received after noon will ship the next business day. When an item is not in-stock we will ship it as soon as it becomes available. Typically in-stock items will ship first and backordered items will follow as soon as they are available. You have the option in check out to request that your order ship complete, if you'd prefer.

A per-item shipping charge (in addition to the standard shipping and handling charge) applies to this product due to its size and weight. This charge varies based on the shipping method.

Standard Delivery: $0.00
3 Day Delivery: $315.00
2 Day Delivery: $315.00
Next Day Delivery: $399.00

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About Orion Telescopes & Binoculars

Since 1975 Orion Telescopes & Binoculars has been offering telescopes for sale direct to customers, with an unswerving commitment to best quality products, value and unmatched customer care. Our 100% satisfaction guarantee says it all.

Orion offers telescopes for every level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert. From our entry level beginner telescopes for amateur astronomers to our Dobsonian telescopes to our most advanced Cassegrain telescopes and accessories, you can find the best telescope for you. And you'll enjoy discount prices by buying your telescope online, direct from Orion. Not sure how to choose a telescope? Orion's Telescope Buyer's Guide is a great place to start.

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Orion's telescope and astrophotography accessories will enhance your telescope enjoyment without breaking the bank. Expand your viewing experience with accessories ranging from moon filters to power-boosting Barlow lenses to advanced computerized telescope mounts. Capture breathtaking photos with our affordable astrophotography cameras. And when you're stargazing, Orion's telescope cases and covers, observing gear, red LED flashlights, astronomy books and star charts will make your observing sessions more convenient, comfortable and meaningful.

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Why Buy From Orion

Advanced

User level

Optical design

Optical diameter

Focal length

Focal ratio

Optics type

Glass material

Resolving power

Lowest useful magnification

Highest useful magnification

Limiting stellar magnitude

Optical quality

Astro-imaging capability

Computerized compatibility

PEC

GPS

Available ports

Height range of mount

Why Buy From Orion

Why Buy From Orion

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