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Ranking All Tabletop Dobsonian Telescopes Aperture-wise
Tabletop Dobsonians in the 4-6” aperture range are ideal for those who are tight on budget or storage space. They also make a superb complement to a larger telescope on those nights when we don’t feel like setting up the bigger one. Some people we know even have three Dobsonians or a combination of multiple telescopes to fulfill their different requirements. We’ve also had the luck to test out almost all tabletop telescopes available in the US in the last few years due to our Editor-in-Chief Zane Landers’ experience dealing with 400+ used and new telescopes.
- Planetary Imaging: This requires the largest telescope with tracking you can get your hands on. If equipped with tracking, Dobsonians are also superb planetary imaging telescopes. We recommend you head to our Computerized Telescopes Ranking Page for such scopes.
- Deep Sky Astrophotography: This requires a budget well in excess of $1000 USD and typically involves purchasing a separate optical tube assembly and computerized equatorial mount rather than the mostly-visual-focused all-in-one telescopes.
2024 August Update: Orion Telescopes & Binoculars’s retail website went offline on July 31, 2024, and their storefronts were all shut down by mid-July. We’re in the process of removing Orion’s and Meade’s (Orion owns Meade) telescopes from our recommendations and rank lists.
Rank Category: 3″ (76mm) Tabletop Dobsonians
The 3” tabletop Dobsonians are all f/4 focal ratio units with spherical mirrors that are unsurprisingly incapable of rendering sharp images. Their inherent wide field of view makes aiming with it easy, provided the eyepieces provided are also up to snuff. But even then, don’t expect high-resolution views. However, if it’s all you can afford, the tabletop Dobsonians still beat having nothing. Performance is roughly equal to a good pair of astronomy binoculars, which we would probably recommend instead if you are on a very tight budget.
List Price: $79
While not particularly useful overall, the FirstScope offers a super-cheap introduction to the world of telescopes in a diminutive package. It’s not a serious observation tool by any means. The views through this instrument at even low powers are mushy, and the eyepieces feel like looking through a drinking straw. The FirstScope Moon version is identical but with a different optical tube decoration.
List Price: $94
National Geographic 76mm Compact Reflector
Little more than a rebadged FirstScope with low-quality Huygens eyepieces and a higher price, the NatGeo 76mm is a poor deal when you can get FirstScope versions that come with acceptable-quality accessories (though the same flawed optics) at its price range.
Rank Category: 4″ (100mm) Tabletop Dobsonians
Most 4” (100mm) tabletop Dobsonians have parabolic primary mirrors for sharp images in place of the spherical mirrors used in 3″ tabletop Dobsonians. But the 4″ versions too often lack collimation adjustment for the primary mirror, which can lead to sub-par performance. They’re capable of being mated to photo tripods for on-the-go use. Upgrading to nicer accessories with any of these scopes places you in a higher price bracket where there are better options. As such, it’s still worth considering binoculars or saving your money for a bigger scope if this is all you have to spend right now.
List Price: $159
Unfortunately, with Orion Telescope’s departure from the astronomy world, the only 4″ option available in the USA is the Zhumell Z100. The Zhumell Z100 has a truly parabolic primary mirror that allows for sharp images. Being a tabletop Dobsonian reflector, it is great for looking at the deep sky due to its inherent wide field of view, and returns okay results with planets as well. It’s also extremely portable, fitting into even a moderate-sized backpack. The Z100 is also capable of being mated to photo tripods for on-the-go use.
Rank Category: 4.5″ (114mm) Tabletop Dobsonians
4.5” tabletop Dobsonians are just a hair bigger than their smaller 4″ counterparts but offer a 30% gain in light-gathering ability and a 14% gain in resolving power, with the ability to adjust collimation (the alignment of the telescope’s mirrors) provisioned for as well. Generally, these scopes are also subject to a higher level of quality control than more inexpensive options when it comes to optical and build quality as well.
List Price: $239
With a 4.5” high-quality primary mirror that’s easy to collimate, a simple Dobsonian mount, and quality accessories, we declare the Zhumell Z114 as one of the best beginner scopes available, especially for its price, and is a significant step up from the smaller 100mm dobsonian unit, the Zhumell Z100.
List Price: $349
Essentially a Zhumell Z114 with the StarSense phone dock added to the optical tube, the Celestron StarSense Explorer 114mm Dobsonian includes the same 17mm and 10mm Kellner eyepieces as supplied with the Z114. It is as capable as the Z114, but it is a pricey pick. You could get a larger scope for the money, but at the same time, we need to clarify that the StarSense Explorer technology is extremely helpful in locating targets throughout the night sky.
Rank Category: 130mm Tabletop Dobsonians
A 5” telescope gives you another 30% gain in light-collecting power over a 4.5” (or 70% over a 4”) and is still extremely portable and easy to set up. The longer focal ratios of most of these scopes also make them more forgiving of cheap eyepieces like the ones provided with these telescopes, as well as laxer collimation tolerances.
The Virtuoso GTi 130P includes a pair of great eyepieces, a collimation tool, and also features a collapsible tube that allows it to fit into a smaller space. The Virtuoso GTi 130P also has a computerized tracking (GoTo) functionality that doesn’t hinder the ability to move the telescope manually if you want to—even when the GoTo system is powered on and aligned. But we think that the usefulness of the ‘computerized’ feature with a wide-field and relatively small instrument like the GTi 130P is questionable, especially when its larger aperture version, the Virtuoso GTi 150P, is only a bit more expensive. You can’t see much of the deep sky objects with a small aperture, wide-field telescope even if there is a computerized system there to help you find it. The manual 130mm version, Heritage 130P that we’ve ranked just below, might be a better bargain, if you want to save some money.
List Price: $275
The Heritage 130P is essentially a the non-GoTo version of the above mentioned Virtuoso GTi 130P, with the same user-friendly tabletop Dobsonian mount and collapsible tube. This collapsible tube feature does create the disadvantage of stray light being able to easily enter the tube, which can be (mostly) remedied by creating a foam shroud. However, we believe that the compactness and light weight are more than worth this minor inconvenience.
List Price: $349
The Z130 is the best of the Zhumell tabletop Dobsonians, featuring even more aperture than the Zhumell Z114. Its slower focal ratio of f/5 makes it less demanding on collimation and the quality of eyepieces that can be used. When compared to the Heritage 130P, the Zhumell Z130 comes with tube rings and a nicer focuser. Also, unlike Heritage 130P, Z130 doesn’t need a light shroud due to its closed tube design. The downsides are that, at over 20 pounds, we’re often hard pressed to find a suitable surface for the scope to rest on, and also, the pricing is sometimes a turn-off when compared to that of the Heritage 130P.
The Celestron StarSense Explorer 130mm Dobsonian has the exact same optical tube as the Zhumell Z130 and and its optics are also similar to the Sky-Watcher Heritage/Virtuoso 130 models. It also has the same tabletop mount and similar accessories as the Z130. The only difference whatsoever is the inclusion of Celestron’s StarSense Explorer technology, which helps us locate objects using our smartphone but does not track them afterward. However, at the price Celestron is asking, you could almost get the far superior fully computerized Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi tabletop Dobsonians.
Rank Category: 6″ (150mm) Tabletop Dobsonians
A 6′′ tabletop Dobsonian is great for those who need an ultra-portable scope with a decent aperture, but it will really need a custom support or a permanent solid surface, not a table. You get a lot more portability compared to freestanding 6” f/8 Dobsonians, and the faster f/5 focal ratio of these tabletop scopes allows them to achieve a similar field of view to even a 6” f/8 freestanding dobsonian equipped with a 2” focuser.
The Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 150P is a fully computerized 6” tabletop dobsonian telescope in a compact, lightweight package. With quality optics, well-made included eyepieces, and the ability to be used manually even while the mount’s electronics are powered on and aligned with the sky, it’s hard to argue against this fabulous instrument, especially at its price. Remarkably, this computerized 6″ scope is priced similarly to a manual-only 6″ aperture telescope. Besides the Apertura AD8 freestanding Dobsonian, this is the second most popular telescope choice among our beginner group of readers.
The SkyWatcher Heritage 150P is the non-computerized version of the SkyWatcher Virtuoso GTi 150P, with no other significant differences. The requirements, compromises, and benefits are all same, except for the absence of the computerized system.
List Price: $559
The Celestron StarSense Explorer 150mm Dobsonian uses a standard 150mm f/5 optics similar to the SkyWatcher Heritage/Virtuoso 150 tabletops and has a similar single-armed tabletop base. Considering that this scope is very close to the price range of most 8” Dobsonians and the similar-optic fully computerized Virtuoso GTi 150P is quite a bit less expensive, we can’t really think of a good reason to go with the StarSense Explorer 150mm Dobsonian over the dozen picks ahead of it, though it certainly delivers excellent views and is aided by the easy-to-use StarSense Explorer smartphone app and technology.