20 Best Scope For Mini 14 (2023 Updated)

I’ve only had this scope (my first since I was a middle schooler in the early ’90s) for a few days, and I’ve only had a chance to use it under tree-obstructed, light-polluted skies, but nevertheless, I’ve enjoyed some great views so far.

Saturn is in a good position for viewing right now, so of course that was one of my first targets. Polar alignment was quick and easy with the scope included in the mount, and lining up Saturn in the 6×30 finder scope was a breeze.

Saturn and a couple of its moons popped into view – the image was clear and primarily limited by atmospheric conditions, and I could plainly make out the Cassini division. Nice! I popped in a 2x Barlow and 7.

5mm Plössl to get a closer look at 200x. The tiny TFOV of roughly 15 arcminutes meant that Saturn flew across the field of view fast! But that’s where the German equatorial mount comes in handy – with a slow twist of the RA slow motion cable I was able to keep it in view for as long as I wanted.

Let me add that I was getting awesome views despite less-than-perfect collimation out of the box. (It took me a while to find an appropriate allen key to perform the collimation – would have been nice if this were included along with the multiple little wrenches – or if the secondary mirror had thumbscrews for adjustment like the primary does) The moon was within a few degrees of Saturn that night, so I swung the telescope over moonwards to have a look.

Such crisp details on the craters and maria. Another target I wouldn’t mind observing all night. Of course, targets like Saturn and the moon are easy and bright, and could easily be observed in a much smaller scope.

I plan to point this telescope at some DSOs when I get a chance to get to a darker site – not that I didn’t try, unsuccessfully, at my house: there weren’t many naked eye stars visible to guide by, and the setting circles are a total joke (not a surprise on this class of mount).

It’s possible that I had the telescope pointed in the right place to find M81 (M31 was too low on the horizon and behind some trees), but I wouldn’t have known, thanks to how washed out the sky was. I’m confident that this telescope will deliver pleasing views of the brighter DSOs when given a chance.

Since the sky proved too bright for deep sky observations, I turned my attention toward splitting doubles, and just panning around the sky and marveling at the countless field stars too faint to be observed with the naked eye.

The included finderscope was also able to reveal fainter stars than I could see unaided, which will be a benefit over a reflex sight when used in conjunction with a good star atlas. Finderscope alignment was easy, and centering an object in the finder’s crosshairs reliably put objects into view of even the 15′ TFOV of a Barlowed 7.

5mm eyepiece. Okay, now it’s time to briefly talk about the things I wasn’t crazy about with this scope. The mount does its job, and performs respectably, considering the low price. However, the low price doesn’t leave it immune to criticism.

Vibrations from the focuser take a few seconds to settle – not a huge deal at low to medium magnifications, but at 200x it’s distracting, especially since targets only stay in the sweet spot for a few seconds.

There’s a bit more play than I’d like in the bearings. As mentioned before, the setting circles are next to useless: the DEC circle has indicators on both sides, but one of them is glued 170° away from the other one instead of a perfect 180° opposite, which means you can effectively use only one of the two indicators.

The RA setting circle has the audacity to sport a Vernier scale – too bad the indicator is impossible to read! The screws for adjusting the tripod leg height feel incredibly cheap: I fear there may be a limit number of times I can tighten and loosen these before they fail.

The finishing cap that slopes from the eyepiece of the polar alignment scope to the RA setting circle doesn’t seem very well made, which doesn’t bother me too much when the protective cover is installed – but this cover is made of thin cheap plastic and, at least on my unit, falls off at the slightest suggestion of movement.

Anyway, I probably shouldn’t be too hard on this mount: after all, an actually decent mount would cost more than the total price of this telescope plus mount. To be fair to it, I’ll talk about some of the things I like.

As mentioned earlier, the polar alignment scope is a nice touch. The reticule makes it easy to quickly identify the proper position of Polaris, and the altitude/azimuth adjustment bolts work as they should.

The dovetail system makes setup and breakdown easy and quick. The mount performs well for its weight – I would hesitate to call it “light”, but it does fall short of “too heavy”. Balancing is easy, and once balanced, the scope swings easily on both axes.

Slow motion cables work nicely, though I wish they had thumbscrews to make switching sides easier (a problem easily solved at the hardware store). The included Starry Night Orion Special Edition software is nice for planning observing sessions, if a little bare bones, as far as planetarium software goes.

The software download includes a useful 200-page “Companion” PDF that is a good read for beginning astronomers. Anyway, I have yet to prove it at a dark sky site, but given the limited observation I’ve done with it so far, I’m very pleased with the optical performance of this telescope.

The included eyepieces are of good quality, and offer a useful range of magnification out of the box. The mount has its shortcomings, but is still a good value. It’s definitely better than other cheap mounts I’ve had the “pleasure” of using in the past.

I think the AstroView 6 OTA is near the top of this mount’s load capacity, so I wouldn’t recommend adding too much more weight to it. Overall, this is a great value for a beginner scope, and I highly recommend it.

I’m looking forward to many years of observing under dark, clear skies with this telescope.

I had my last telescope back in 1967- and it was very “beginners. ” This telescope is definitely a huge step up from my first. Everything assembled properly- I watched the you-tube video to help. We have not had a clear night sky since the day I put it all together, Anyway, it’s a very nice, quality beginner’s telescope.

Having ordered the Orion GoScope III 70mm Refractor Travel Telescope as my first telescope and attached the EZ Finder II Finders Scope and the Orion Tritech LT – 1 Travel Tripod my GoScope III is a great Telescope I then ordered for my 2nd Telescope and all I can say it’s Great.

I love it because it was easy to set up and easy to search the night Sky. I like that the Telescope came with 2 Eyepieces a 10mm and a 20mm Kellner Eyepiece and the Moon Map is a very handy item to use.

I like everything about it and the Instructions are easy to follow and easy to read. The Instructions are very handy to use. Orion has Excellent Telescopes for beginners like me to use. Orion has great Telescopes for people to learn about Astronomy.

Everything is great but the Finders Scope is really fun to use. I like to say Orion has all types of Telescopes for every Budget. Get Telescope Orion Keep up the great work.

This telescope was a gift. It was easy to assemble. I started using it on day one. It provides clear images of the craters on the moon, the rings of Saturn and Jupiter with the four Galilean moons. Just remember the images of the planets are very small as this is definitely not the Hubble Space Telescope.

I still have not mastered the finder scope so I recommend using the lower power (25mm) eye piece with the wider field to locate objects. Also, I have not yet aligned and calibrated the equatorial mount.

I will play with that once I have satisfied my initial delight of just looking at the features of the moon and planets. So far, I found the scope easy to use and good for looking at the moon and planets.

It is lightweight and easy to assemble making it very portable. Definitely a great value for the price. This is a beginners telescope with a low price entry point, but enough power for viewing many objects in space.

The scope and mount have all the manual features of larger more expensive scopes making this a great scope for learning,.

I was quite impressed when this lens arrived about a month ago. First, the lens came in it’s ‘original’ packaging. The lens was secured enough in the packaging. The lens was shipped overseas, and made it to me in less than a weeks time, after ordering.

I bought this lens ‘used’ from Adorama, and was skeptical about, A: buying used, and B: anytime a company uses a grading system for their used merchandise, how accurate will it be?? In my case, the merchandise’ condition EXCEEDED what had been listed for a grade for my lens – greatly satisfied!! I have read a lot of reviews about this lens and many comments are out there regarding it’s size.

This lens is not quite the behemoth that people make it out to be, in MY opinion!! It looks good attached to my D750 and seems to help me look like I may even know what I am doing when I am out shooting.

I carried this setup around with me for 4 days in Barcelona, on a Black Rapid Sport Strap and had no issues with weight. Like any other equipment, there will always be adjustments with regards to handling it.

These adjustments will train the ‘muscle memory’ and like anything else, done with enough repetition, will become second nature. While bulbous at the end, this lens is comfortably slim, the closer it gets to the camera body, and ergonomically felt fine.

I do not shoot under vast amounts of pressure, so I cannot comment on weather or not any of the adjustment rings get bumped, accidentally, when using this lens. I tend to think that the more this lens is used, the more ‘muscle memory’ would prevent that from happening anyways! The lens cap will more than likely loosen up with time.

Until then, I will be sure to make a conscious effort, and build the habit, of ensuring that it does not fall off, or get lost, thereby exposing my glass when I least expect it, even if it means ‘cradling’ my camera by the lens cap – small price to pay for piece of mind.

That is just me though, and I think alot of the issues some other reviewers have talked about, could be solved with just a little bit of conscious effort. Someone may have even come up with some other means of retaining the lens cap other than it’s original means.

Just had this lens out for its first photo safari and I can’t express how incredibly satisfied I am with it. It performed better than I could have expected. Images are crisp side-to-side, top-to-bottom, at all focal lengths.

Auto focus was fast and precise. My real test was on night sky photos. The light gathering capabilities were superb, and the lens provided absolutely pin sharp stars. I also saw zero coma at the edges, something I had struggled with on other lenses.

I primarily use a tripod for landscapes and especially for night sky shots, but there are times I just want to quickly pull out the camera and capture an image. This is a very hefty lens, so in hand-held shooting it was a challenge at first, but I quickly got use to it.

I am more than happy with this lens and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to shoot landscapes and night skies.

Outstanding ultra wide focal range lens. Excellent optics in terms of clarity and sharpness. Shooting in the sun will yield some lens flare which may be desirable for effect on some compositions, but not others.

Very fast on focusing and produces exceptional close-up results with nice bokeh. My only gripe is that it doesn’t offer an option for attaching filters such as ND for long-exposure shooting. Granted, it’s a super wide angle lens, so the screw-on type filters wouldn’t work anyways due to vignetting, but it certainly could have accomodated the slide-in type filters if a special accessory attachment were made for it.

I’m sure a DIY solution will present itself, but it would have been nice if that was factored into the design. Overall, I’m very impressed with the output of this lens. Pictures are tack sharp, and colors/contrast render beautifully.

Since there is no option to attach a protective lens (i. e UV/haze), my one suggestion, if you already own, or decide to purchase this lens is to take extra care of keeping the lens cap on when not in use, and to store the lens in your camera bag in such a way that if the cap were to detach, the lens won’t come into contact with any abrasive elements (e.

g. particles/dust at the bottom of a camera bag, other hard-surfaces).

The Seiren Mini is an honestly wonderful microphone for personal computer usage. It picks up voices accurately and clearly while often successfully ignoring background noises such as large summertime fans.

This mic is about the size of a 355ML soda can, which makes it easy to relocate on your desk when in or out of use. Unfortunately, this size comparison makes it easy to accidentally attempt to drink from your microphone out of reflex if you’re a habitual soda drinker.

My only real complaint is that the microphone’s top half is designed in a way that’s very easy to collect dust or other stray particles that you wouldn’t want on your mic. Cleaning has been easy, though it may concern messy eaters or people who work with paints or other craft materials.

I’d happily recommend this product, though do be very careful to keep the space it’s in clean!.

Received this for Christmas and I am after trying it out in SoundTrap and the audio is clean. It looks sleek and is not bulky. The packaging is nice and I really like the stickers that came with it. It was easy to set up, just put it in the stand and plug it in and you are ready to go.

My friends have commented about the audio within seconds of joining the call. It’s very affordable and a great starter for Gamers, Singers and even Podcast Hosts if they are not sure what they want. The only ‘con’ is that it is wired so If you don’t have enough USB ports get an adapter.

But it isn’t really that big of a deal so if you want a microphone that doesnt break the bank, choose this.

I own a Razer Seiren X and have been using it for close to 1 year now. I love the mic and the quality, however, as part o my living now comes from using my voice online, naturally, I began looking for an upgrade after my business began to accelerate.

After looking around at different products and reviews, I came across the Seiren mini. At half the price of the Seiren X that I own, I could hardly believe what I was reading and hearing. The hardest to believe was the claim that it was “The best USB mic money can buy”.

Well, my wife and my teenage son were both in need of an upgrade from the cheap mic they were using, so I decided to pull the trigger and get 2 of these mics. Oh My Lord. Every I had heard was true! I was expecting to plug this mic in and have some decent quality and to have to apply layers of filters etc but no.

This was not the case. Day one, out the box this mic absolutely demolished my expectations! From the better build quality to the increased vocal clarity. Better range, pitch, and gain. Buy this mic for anyone that needs a mic.

Trust me, its the best buy you can get without going into XLR mics.

This good scope was recommended by an Optic Expert at Binoculars. com. I use it every weekend in the shooting range, and I use it for precision shooting at 50 meters. The magnification is powerful. Bright images at good lighting conditions.

*But under some cloudy day, the images are not so bright and the holes at the target are not easy to distinguish. However, I’m very pleased with the C-70. It looks “chubby” and a little bit heavy, but it worths.

Is short enough and easy to handle and carry. The box containing the scope was received inside a corrugated strong carton. When I opened the box, I saw the scope very well secured with duroport mouldings, and another rectangular box containing the table tripod and also was found the soft carrying case with a soft cloth to clean the lenses.

The small soft arrying case has the anathomical shape of the scope; has a small sling, is very practical and can be carried inside every backpack as well. But the table tripod must be carried separatedly because the soft carrying case has no room for it.

Talking about the table tripod, is provided with the scope and it has fine adjustment knobs for height and horizontal fine adjustments. is great, The head of the table tripod allows you to put the scope in a very comfortable position when shooting at prone.

(but you have to find the correct way but it can be done for sure. ) For standing position, I switch from the table tripod to another one that I purchased here in binoculars. com, such tripod is a tall one which is a perfect combination with the C-70.

The tripod head can be moved into a comfortable position as well, I use it a little bit inclined; but it does not mean any trouble at all. For kneeling position, the combination between the C-70 and tall tripod works better yet.

I will recommend it to any range shooter due the great magnification, good focus, bright images and unpaired table tripod. My advise is to buy the tall tripod as well. But be advised that under rain, a dark or cloudy day or at dawn the impacts could be difficult to distinguish; and of course, as any new piece, the focusing knob could be found a little bit stiff, but will loosen with the constant usage.

Anyway I’m satisfied and happy with this C-70, and I need to mention again that was a great recommedation from the Optics Experts at binoculars. com.

The scope has a quality look to it, but I can’t say the optics are very good. My intention was for birdwatching and possibly an astronomy application, which are my personal interests. I found it tricky to achieve a good focus during the day, and at night the unit was plagued with an assortment of oddball distortions.

Stars would show spikes and the moon and planets ghost imaging and poor focus. I suspect the 45 degree diagonal has something to do with the poor nighttime performance, as I have heard that suggested before.

Nice looking unit, but.

It’s a good small scope. I don’t like the mounting dovetail piece, because it is small and doesn’t fit my standard dovetail mounts. I had a lot of trouble getting it mounted to my main scope, but eventually was able to rig it up.

(This may just be me). Focusing is sometimes hard because small changes cause big differences in the actual focus. Still, given the price, I’d say it was worth it.

Lightweight and easy to mount. Mounted on L-bracket with arca clamp to camera body. Used with ZWO AS120mm mini. Took some time to get the focal length right. Extended the front focus out nearly to the end and added the extension tube for the camera.

Once I had that setup, I was able to focus just fine. Using with PHD2 and tracking went very smooth. Next test if the weather will cooperate is to use SharpCap to perform polar alignment.

Purchased this scope to use as a guidescope when imaging with my camera with a lens rather than a telescope. Paired this scope with an ASI120mm-s CMOS camera and attached it to a universal L bracket.

the camera and guidescope work well together using PHD II guiding software. Once the initial focus is set the scope needs no further adjustments. The scope/camera combo is light and portable adding very little weight to my main camera and lens set up.

This makes the whole rig easy to balance and the tracking is very accurate.

I started researching telescopes only 2 weeks before the Jupiter Saturn Conjunction, and everytime I found something I liked it was out of stock everywhere. Eventually I found this one, and it was the only large Newtonian I could find anywhere.

Digging deep into research there aren’t many reviews but I discovered it’s mirror is the same factory component used in the Meade Polaris 130mm, which is highly respected, and the main selling point.

The mount is super sturdy and easy to control too! I haven’t tried yet but believe I can mount my DSLR onto it safely and without causing any movement. The shipping was very fast, the product was so easy to assemble and use right away, and the included 26mm eyepiece is crisp.

The included phone adapter is a poor design so bought a different one for $20. It’s also white, which is perfect for seeing it when walking in the blackness!! And it looks high-end, it is high-end. I have zero experience with other telescopes, but so far I give it 5 Stars all the way!.

Another company promised delivery of a telescope by December 11 after I ordered in September. After extensive searching, Red Carport Telescopes was the only company that had any available telescopes & promised to deliver before Christmas.

You did & I was able to keep Santa’s promise to my 6 year old grand daughter. You saved the day. The telescope Is great. The only negative is the assembly instructions provided by the telescope company was pictures only, not any written instructions.

I found an excellent UTube video that provided all the needed instructions.

This is not true night vision like a starlight scope or pvs, it is a IR illuminator, so keep in mind, the higher you crank it the more the red beam can give away your position, however if you are mindful of this and keep your ir signature low at closer ranges you can still use this with relative impunity.

And at well under even a quarter of the price of anything truly night vision this fits the bill for me just fine. Now lets get down to nitty gritty of the features, the add says it has 3x zoom however on the item received it only has 2, thats fine for me at least.

Distance is good 300 feet plus as advertised. Does take pictures and video at a pretty decent quality too, like a 2013 era digital camera not too bad honestly. If you use this carefully it can a valuable budget tool in your toolbox for 120 dollars I am not only impressed but happy with my purchase.

Ok here is what I wish I would have got from other reviews. I have bought 6 mono ir optics in the past year in the under $200. 00 range and NOTHING beats this model so far. 1. THE 7 IR BRIGHTNESS LEVELS IS MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR AS FAR AS THE LENS ON THIS UNIT CAN SEE WHICH IS ABOUT 300 -500 YARDS.

2. RECORDING FEATURE ADDED PLUS. 3. COMPOSITE VIDEO OUT ANOTHER BONUS. 4. LOTS OF MENU FEATURES 5. BATTERIES LAST A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME LIKE 4 HOURS CONTINUOUS WITH GOOD BRANDS. 6. EASY TO HOLD AND ACCESS BUTTONS.

7. TRIPOD MOUNT SCREW ON BOTTOM 8. SD CARD AND USB CABLE IF U DO NOT WANT TO REMOVE SD CARD. 9. DIOPTER 10. 3 ZOOM LEVELS AND BACK LIGHT LEVEL ADJUSTMENT. 11. RESOLUTION AS GOOD AS ANY OTHER IN THIS PRICE RANGE BUT BEST AROUND 100 YARDS.

12. WHEN USED WITH A AFTER MARKET FLASHLIGHT ILLUMINATOR (T-67) i CAN SEE OUT TO 1000 YARDS , BUT THE BUILT IN ILUMINATOR IS AWESOMELY BRIGHT OUT TO 200 YARDS. Bottom line is I do not see how anyone could complain when comparing the functionality of this unit to ANY other in this price range.

If their is something better out thier for $140. 00 i will buy it to. TELL ME WHAT MODEL THAT IS BETTER FOR THE PRICE!.

I have purchase over 6 different mono IR night vision units in the past year in hopes of finding something that actually works for what i need and this one fits the bill. Sure people will complain about anything but for the $153.

00 I paid for this unit I cannot complain. 1. 7 adjustment IR levels provides customized condition for viewing situations and the illuminator is very powerful for out to 300+ yards. Using a after market iluminator gets me out to 1000 yards although clarity/resolution suffers.

No video lag like other units that i have purchased. Did i mention the outstanding power of the IR iluminator? 2. lots of features to include video/snapshot recording. sd card/usb file transfer to include compositie video playback (not live view capable) bottom line is a good set batteries last over 4 hours ,tripod threads, and easy grip make this unit then best in class for the price range.

A month ago I scraped up enough money to buy a C8 edge. I had already had a C11 edge for over a year and was very impressed by the optics. The only down side of the C11 is the field of view is a bit narrow for some of the more interesting astronomical targets.

The C8 has a shorter focal length and with the reasonably priced focal reducer I could get all of almost any target in the sky into my photos. I am still waiting for my focal reducer but I have been enjoying my new scope anyway.

I have had it out 4 times this month and so far I am as happy with my C8 as I am with my bigger scope. I have taken photos of the moon and the Orion Nebula and the scope has a wide enough field to get each target into the photo missing any parts.

I was a little apprehensive that my new C8 edge wouldn’t compare well to my C11 edge. I was relieved to find that the optics in the C8 were every bit as good as they were for My C11. If I could only have one scope I think it would probably be the C8 edge.

It is powerful enough, versatile and the optics are very very good. So far I am quite happy with this new scope.

The tube arrived in great shape, carefully packaged, and is collimated well as far as I checked thus far. (For instance, it produces clear and sharp images of terrestrial targets like a distant sign or tree, incl.

eben and natural colors. One warning: this tube comes with an extended visual back preinstalled, which is great – except that it means that it will not fit into the Celestron case that it should fit in (the smaller one that takes tubes up to and including 8? SCT?s like this one.

Since no port cover is included, I ordered a short visual back that I can close with the included 1. 25? plastic cover that did come with the tube for its extended visual back.

I am very impressed with the capability of this SCT so far. The 8″ SCT combined with the CGEM II mount has been a great combination for my introduction to deep space photography. I still have a long learning curve to overcome but the telescope has provided some breathtaking observations already.

This instrument combines the functions of a general-purpose 300 Mhz dual-channel analog scope with a 16-channel digital logic analyzer and protocol decoder all in one, at a price point and a packed feature set that is extremely competitive.

I purchased this unit for my home electronics hobby use and wanted to stretch the capabilities of the instrument as far as I could with my limited budget; this far exceeds my original goals and performs any function I could possibly desire within my range of interests.

Rigol offered a deal that included upgrades from the standard 14 to 56 million memory points in a single capture, advanced edge triggering capture, RS-232, I2C, and SPI serial protocol decoding, and CAN bus decoding all in a package worth over $1100 at no additional charge; total package was $1259.

I have only owned the unit for slightly less than a month but so far I have used this instrument to decode and debug RS-232 and I2C circuits on Arduino and Raspberry Pi projects, diagnosed a signal noise issue on my Ford F-150 using the CAN bus decoder function, used the 16-channel logic analyzer during design and testing of a stepper motor sequencer, and used the analog signal capture capability and triggering options in the 25 Mhz range to diagnose and repair a CB radio.

It includes a LAN network interface and I have experimented a bit with the remote computer setup and control – very nice feature. Basic controls are all clearly labeled, the menu structure is very easy to navigate, and setup is a breeze.

The unit feels surprisingly heavy for its size but sits well on the bench and is very quiet; it runs on AC only (no battery option) but has a carry handle and is portable enough to carry to the job site.

On-screen vertical and horizontal signal display options provide a ton of data supplemented by a very readable font to show and analyze the waveform characteristics. These can be pre-set for repeated captures, or the unit can be easily re-set to default conditions with a couple button presses.

Some advertising photos show a 16-channel breakout board as part of the 16-channel logic analyzer package; this breakout board is NOT included with the unit, but it is very easy to build one to suite.

One slight irritation is that the power switch is a soft switch and the unit remains partially powered up even when the power switch is in the off position; no apparent way to change this but Rigol can probably change that with a software upgrade.

These two items are about the only negative aspects I have found with the unit so far; otherwise I am extremely satisfied. For the price, this feature-packed scope package simply out-performs any other 300 Mhz competition.

I got it to view I2C communications in decoded trace through protocol analyzer. I was not putting a lot of hopes, but now I find it impressive as a replacement of any analog scope in everyday lab for signals running at below 50MHz.

The feature and measurements included are great, the analog persistence on display is appealing, and best of all, it can be remotely controlled through National Instrument tools over Ethernet. A less convenient remote scope panel is also available and may be very handy.

The scope does not have a trigger input and operates its triggering exclusively from the samples of ADC. When not all memory is used for a single shot, the scope combines several traces for “better resolution”.

They are using some post-acquisition trace alignment, so in this mode one may see weird pictures on display in some corner cases, but for baseline measurements it is fine. I thought it was using a more sophisticated front end amplifiers as in other 1xxx series, but this one is pretty baseline.

The sampling rate with 3 or more channels is 250Msa. s, so it is good that the bandwidth is limited by ~70-100MHz. In summary – this is a great instrument for hobbyist, student, maker and everywhere when working with mid-speed analog and digital circuits and Arduino-style microcontrollers.