Orion SkyQuest XT8i IntelliScope Dobsonian
Although the large, 8-inch Orion SkyQuest XT8i IntelliScope Dobsonian telescope offered great views of faint galaxies and nebulae in our tests, its time-intensive setup and many moving parts made it feel less accessible and portable than our top pick. And though it offers a computer database of more than 14,000 objects, this telescope instructs you to position the scope manually instead of moving on a motorized system. This method has its pros and cons, but we’d like the accessibility of motorized mounts if we’re going for GPS functions.