Customer Rating:  
Summary: 1st night a total bust
Comment: Ok. I don't know how you guys are doing it.
I assembled the telescope ok with the supplied directions. I attempted to align the sighting scope with the mirror. It was way off and very difficult to adjust. It is so unhelpful that the spotting scope shows a world upside down and backwards. It constantly makes you move the telescope the wrong way to find what you are looking for.
I also had difficulty with the up-down (latitude) adjustment. Why are there two locks for that? If one is locked up you can't move the other one. Not user friendly for fine tuning. Not intuitive to me.
I had no success finding a single object in the main viewer. I wasn't trying to use the magnifying eyepiece.
If the spotting scope is no good and the eyepieces are no good, why have this thing?
OK, I am frustrated at the moment and will try again tomorrow. Other people have had better results so I will assume I just need more practice. I will change and delete this post if I figure it out.
BTW, I have no telescope experience but have read scores of books on astronomy and I know, sort of, where good stuff is and what it is. I found the Andromeda galaxy easily in binoculars, but couldn't even get the scope on the Orion nebula, seeing all the stars around it with the naked eye easily.
Later: Well, I have managed to find the moon and the Orion nebula. The spotting scope keeps getting bumped out of position so it is necessary to aim the whole telescope. With total manual controls, it is most difficult to find an object even if you are very close to it. But practice is helping. I don't have especially dark skies, so the potential of my viewing is unknown. The moon looked pretty good. With the Orion nebula, I could resolve only 2 of the 4 central Trapezium stars, but some nebulosity was visable. It looks nothing like long exposures from a big mirror under dark skies, but better than my big binoculars and much harder to find.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product
Comment: I got this telescope to replace my old 60mm refractor which had fungal growth at the objective lens. Unlike the other customers, I bought this telescope at a local store with a 2-year warranty. Thus, the telescope was unbroken and packaged properly. The instruction manual was detailed and the telescope came with a software known as theSky, which is a useful program that allows you to locate celestial bodies at the place and time which you are at.
The telescope itself is a sturdy unit, and was properly collimated. With its 127mm aperture, I could easily view planets, stars, and also the moon with great ease. The telescope mount is german equatorial, which was useful as it allows you to track down the star you want to find in the night sky by countering the earth's rotation. As this type of mounting also causes the telescope to move in a slow motion, it is easier to pinpoint a star as compared to an alt-azimuth mount.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not a bad telescope
Comment: This is my first telescope i bought. It was easy to assemble, only took about 10-15 min. The power is good for a beginner. You can see jupiter's moons and the shadow on venus. If you buy this telescope i suggest getting a new barlow lense because the one that comes with it is terrible. Also get a new finder scope. It may look cool but its a piece of junk.
The bottom line is that it is an overall good telescope
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good if the piece is good
Comment: The first piece was poor in visibility and has to get replaced with a another one. The other one was having very good visibility since beginning. Difficult to collimate if one does not have proper experience and/or tools. But very good for the price offered and for the people who know how to use the Equatorial mount. The new piece contained an erect view 20 mm eyepiece but is not as comfortable as the the old piece had 20 mm eyepiece with inverted view. The erect eyepiece I did not find good for astro-photography as well. So I retained the old eyepiece and returned the new eyepiece with the old telescope.
I would have given 5 stars if the first piece were working good and would have given 1 star if both would not have worked good. I'm giving 3 stars as the first one has to return and second is working good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good - not great -
Comment: This is a good scope - not great. Would not recommend. The focuser was sloppy, too much play. Disassembled it, added more teflon shims, relubed it with silicon and tightened the gear. The tripod, despite it's rugged looks in flimsy. If you have even a moderate breeze expect your image to be shaky and blurry.
The finder scope is cheap, awkward and poorly mounted.
As an aside - I bought a 70MM Mead refractor ($50). Is easier to use, less bulky and gets just as good an image.
Lesson learned: A large diameter refractor is great if you are not in an urban lighted area. It is good for deep sky, if you do not have light pollution.
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