Zhumell Z8 Deluxe Dobsonian Reflector Telescope

Comments about Zhumell Z8 Deluxe Dobsonian Reflector Telescope:

Finder objective and lock ring both cross-threaded. Providing a laser collimator and no instructions for use (as there is a clear vision safety issue involved)is probably CRIMINAL by U.S. consumer labelling standards. Perhaps it doesn't matter on Taiwan?

Comments about Zhumell Z8 Deluxe Dobsonian Reflector Telescope:

Unfortunately, we have had cloudy days since I gave this to my husband for christmas so we haven't been able to test it much yet. We did get to see the moon and Jupiter clearly one night. The instruction videos on YouTube have been very helpful.

Service and delivery comments:

Delivery was amazingly fast!!! Shipping was pretty high, but the discounts offset that cost a bit.

Comments about Zhumell Z8 Deluxe Dobsonian Reflector Telescope:

For Christmas, we decided to make a family purchase and this year we decided to purchase a telescope. After a couple weeks of research, we decided to give the Zhumell Z8 a try. The telescope arrived a day earlier than estimated. The box was beat up a little but contents were fine.

I've read a lot of complaints about no directions included but I downloaded the directions and had it set up in less than 30 minutes. Not sure about all the complaints considering how easy it was to set up.

It did take me a couple times to get the collimation right but that was me working ahead. There is a great video on-line for collimation. Once set up and out side, I calibrated the spotter scope which works OK.

Now my favorite part, both included lenses worked fine. The moon filter puts a green tint on the moon but you can see great detail of moon craters and I did find Jupiter albeit small. Great first night viewing. I wood recommend buying a 2" moon filter from the start; the 2" allows you to see the entire moon and it would be nice to see it filtered. After our first night, I'm really glad we didn't go cheaper.

I'm sure we'll purchase many additional lenses filters etc. but out of the box appears to be a well made telescope that is very capable of offering stunning views.

Service and delivery comments:

No complaints on shipping. Box was beat up a little but contents were fine.

Comments about Zhumell Z8 Deluxe Dobsonian Reflector Telescope:

Disappointing amount of undercorrect spherical aberration which reduces contrast and resolution on moon and planets, also a bit of 'kink' in the collimated star image, possibly due to overtightened clips on main mirror. Not unexpected at f/5.9 in a low cost telescope. Will still give excellent low power views of star fields,star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. Comfortable to use while seated. Awkward to insert or remove the Tube from the Mount, because of the need to align the Alt.bearings to the slots in the mount. Bad that the primary mirror collimation nuts lie outside the Tube, making it impossible to set the tube down on its end without risk of misaligning the optics, or at worst, causing the tube to accidently tip over. It would be good to have all adjustment components inside the tube.

Comments about Zhumell Z8 Deluxe Dobsonian Reflector Telescope:

Very nice scope, easy to use and really brings in the sky... So many stars that are not seen by the naked eye.

Just one negative comment, the scope needs to come with a manual.

I will also say that given the size and weight of the scope it is not any easy one to move from place to place. I don't mean this in a negative sense because the scope is what it is, and buyers should know this from the product info before buying. But, a scope this big and easy to use makes this a small issue.