Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For years, I've been wanting a cheap, wide-field, very portable 'scope. This one fits the bill perfectly. It's really inexpensive, has a really wide field, good optics, and is extremely portable. All of which -- along with its extreme ease of use -- makes it ideal as a first telescope for those just discovering the joys of astronomy. The eyepieces that come with it deliver good images. But, the 20mm Huygens low-power "wide field" eyepiece that comes with it simply won't do. It's a narrow apparent-field-of-view eyepiece (20 degrees) that only delivers a 1.3-degree field of view. This would make finding anything but the brightest objects (basically the moon, Jupiter and Venus) an exercise in frustration. The 4mm symmetrical high-power eyepiece, in contrast, is fine. It delivers good images in an adequate .4-degree field of view. Anyone buying this 'scope would be well advised to buy a better low-power eyepiece, such as a Kellner, RKE, or Plossl, in the 20mm to 28mm range. Most astronomy sales outfits grossly overcharge for these eyepieces, but you can find bargains at the surplus optical sites (run a search for "surplus optics") -- I just bought a 27mm Kellner for $12.50 plus $5 shipping from one. One of these better eyepieces will yield a 3-to-4-degree field of view, which makes finding an object easy just by pointing the 'scope in the general direction and sweeping until you find it. From my heavily light-polluted backyard, the views of the brighter nearby clusters (Beehive, Pleiades, etc.) are wonderful in this 'scope -- its field of view is wide enough to allow you to view the entire clusters. I can't wait to take it out of town next year to check out the summer Milky Way. Finally, don't bother with the accessory package. The eyepieces are almost certainly cheap Huygens eyepieces with very narrow fields of view; the finder 'scope is a toy that's useless if you have a decent low-power eyepiece; and there are good planetarium programs on the 'net (such as Stellarium) available for free. You'd be much better off buying a decent medium power -- roughly 10mm to 13mm -- eyepiece from a surplus optics site.