Seben 114/1000 EQ-3 Star Sheriff - reflector telescope for astronomy, including parallactic mount and accessories Big Pack

The telescope is exceedingly well packaged, consisting of an outer box, with an inner box, that in turn contains about ten smaller boxes that interlock with no movement between them. The small boxes contain the components within their own plastic bags. The packaging is excellent and well thought through, fit for purpose, as the product is shipped from Germany. Delivery was well within the quoted time. This is my first astronomical telescope and only wanted to spend about £ 100 to see how I got on with a new hobby. The instructions were average, with adequate wording, and some errors such as referring to diagrams that were obviously incorrectly labelled. However the assembly was straightforward, taking about an hour, and requiring no specialist skills. An allen key is the only required tool and that was provided, so it came complete. The product has a higher build quality than I expected for £118 (a price that includes the delivery). The tripod is especially sturdy, damping vibration almost instantly following positional adjustment. The equitorial mount which is by far the heaviest component moves smoothly. I used UTube videos for guidance on the setup and usage of the mount. The weight of the mount gives stability to the relatively light telescope on the sturdy but again relatively light tripod. Clamping is via winged nuts at the top of each leg. The accessory tray is adequate. Once assembled the telescopy can be convemiently dismantled into these three basis components for transportation. I put the scope in the plastic bag it came in on the back seat of the car with the mount and collapsed tripod without problems. As this is my first telescope I have nothing against which to compare the image quality. Having said that, I was truely surprised by the clarity of bright "nearby" objects, the moon and stars seen with the naked eye, and of course seeing far more than with the naked eye alone. As this is only a 114 mm mirror instrument I am not expecting to see faint deep space objects, and have not yet tried to do so, as there's enough to keep me busy for months as it is. The only downside is the sighting scope. It has tree fine threaded postioning screws for alignment but no clamping mechanism. This means the screws act as the clamps, so if the sighting scope is knocked, even just slightly, realignment is required, which is not quickly accomplished. I found transporation always requires realignment. In all I'm happy with my purchase and have far more quality than I expected for £118 - a suitable "starter" package that is excellent for a newbie.

This was a gift for someone new to astronomy and I have to say it's rather good value for a novice machine. I was a little concerned that it was being shipped from Germany but I needn't have worried, it was well packed and arrived without a scratch, or more importantly, without a break. Assembly was relatively easy and the product feels solid and well built. The manual gives the impression the spotter scope features a right-angle eyepiece, which it doesn't, which led to double checking all the packaging. The manual is the only let down, it could really do with a re-write. For a complete novice it's not always clear. For example, it doesn't explain how to set up the spotter scope with the main telescope which results in mis-alignment. But these are minor issues and once you take the time to familiarise yourself with the telescope you'll discover it is actually very easy to use and offers a good starting point for would be Patrick Moores. The components fit together well but remember it is heavy and the tripod should be properly locked. Once you get the hang of the spotter scope fine tuning is easy to maintain. A good selection of lens are supplied and help ensure a clean, crisp image. All in all a good quality telescope at an economical price that beats many other similar priced but smaller scopes.

I bought this telescope jointly with my daughter as I was interested when I was her age, she is doing an astronomy project at school and is interested, and it was a more educational way to spend the amazon voucher she got for Christmas, before it all went on music and games! It appeared to be great value compared to the competition, so after much reading of reviews, we went for it.... Delivery - ordered late last Thursday night, arrived today (the following Tuesday). Impressive! Quality - all components nicely made and finished, with a pleasantly weighty feel. Looks the business when all set up. Assembly instructions - ok, so these could be better worded as per other reviews, but I had no problems after reading carefully, looking at the pictures and using some common sense. Use - I was lucky enough to have a clear-ish sky tonight, so managed some good views of the moon, literally straight out of the box - but it was definitely more by luck than judgement. I don't doubt that practice and using the proper adjustment methods will give much more consistent results. I can't wait for the next opportunity! The fact that my wife had to drag me indoors at 10.30 suggests I will be getting a lot of practice.... Happy to give a good review - it's a great product.

View finder n telescope lens are hard to align as view finder keeps moving. I received the telescope with faulty body clamp but was replaced by the seller. 5 star for seller but only 3 star for the product.

I have recieved this telescope, as a beginner, and have found it very easy to assemble and use. The tripod stand is robust, yet light. The overall unit together is a bit heavy due to the counterbalance, but this makes it all work together nicely. The controls for moving the telescope up and down, and left to right are conveniently placed for easy access. The instructions were easy enough to follow for assembly, and the online manual is very descriptive. It comes with 4 eye pieces + other bits which allows you to see different magnifications. I believe this is suitable for intermediate users, not just beginners like me. Overall a good quality telescope.

I bought this item through Amazon advertised "used as new"- it still had a "new" smell about it -(that should have told me a lot), however, I bought it on impulse after reading all the rave reviews where I read about the "crisp,sharp images", etc. After I had submitted the purchase I decided to look at other reviews on the net outside of Amazon only to find such advise as to have nothing to do with these units as they are of the Dept. Store type of product and are of inferior quality.(see sites like "Stargazers Lounge" for honest reviews.) The focal length is not a genuine 1000mm. - it is in fact a lot shorter but uses an in-built Barlow lens at the bottom of the eyepiece holder in order to double the focal length....(the mirror is still a concave type). The quality of the lenses is extremely poor, in fact the lenses are designated As H20mm, H10mm. etc. the letter H is an indication that this is the cheapest (and worst) type of eyepiece you can get; I replaced them with Plossl eyepieces and though the image was bigger, brighter and slightly sharper it was still fuzzy...and that was on the lowest power eyepiece, it only got worse as I increased the power.....forget about the high magnifications quoted - they're correct on paper, e.g. the Magnification = 1000/4 = 250times, and when you add the x2 Barlow the magnification is doubled to 500times - the only problem is that the optics are so bad that these magnifications (and lower ones) are completely useless. Another problem is that the finderscope is extremely unstable no matter how much you tighten it. One reviewer said that having this scope is better than not having any scope....NOT SO in my opinion, the cost to you of not buying this unit = £00.00 while if you do buy it you will still not have a telescope and it will have cost you about £120 for the privilege. I honestly don't know why this unit has been given 4/5 stars,there does seem to be a lot of comments regarding the packaging and ease of assembly but not very much on optical performance, I do have my doubts about the authenticity of the reviews in Amazon for this unit ....you'll notice that the reviews for the Seben "Big Boss" are completely different and in my opinion reflect the true performance of these units. I later purchased a used Skywatcher scope (tube only) and used the Seben tripod and head,,,,,a difference between night and day.....a costly exercise!! Some reviewers have suggested how the telescope tube could be put to a good use, one suggested drilling holes in it and hanging it up and using it as a bird feeder, another suggested filling it up with compost and growing strawberries in it.....I would suggest that it could be used as a fancy toilet roll holder in the bathroom....If you bought one of these I'm sure you could see the connection between it and toilet rolls!!!! Please take my advice DON'T BUY IT.....stick to recognized brands, I would hate to think that some child would be all excited waiting to get one for Xmas or a birthday only to have their expectations dashed when they tried to use it. PLEASE NOTE: THE ABOVE IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF MY EXPERIENCE OF THIS UNIT.

My husband (whom I bought it as a birthday present) says that he is very pleased with it. He says: The instructions are not as clear as they could be for a complete novice, as other people have mentioned. However this was not an issue as there is not much assembly required anyway and it is designed so that it goes together easily. It is easy to put together and comes complete meaning that nothing else is required to get started. He has already managed to find Jupiter and some other stars in the sky with it in the five minutes that we have been able to see any stars due to cloud cover, although he was not able to align the mount properly as Polaris was covered by cloud. He, along with our children, are looking forward to some clear skies so that they can get started with it properly.

This item arrived beautifully packed In a surprisingly small and compact box considering the size once assembled. I I found the telescope very easy to assemble there were no problems and I had it up and running within half an hour. The telescope and other component parts is of Excellent quality and very sturdy. I also found the the adjusting controls really easy to use Unfortunately at this time the weather decided to cloud over where it has been most of the time since purchased. On the few occasions when The cloud has cleared I have had no problem in using the telescope but have found it somewhat difficult to Line up and focus at times. I must say however that I have been using the scope through my bedroom window as it has been too cold to take it outside and there is street lighting which must interfere with the focus. I have now ordered some accessories which I hope will enable me to make full use of this excellent equipment. I can't wait for the better weather when I can take this into a more secluded place and enjoy its full potential