Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you are into astronomy, and you want to purchase a first telescope, you might want to consider another. I have bought this scope, and was really excited to use it. When I set it up outside on my porch to observe Venus, I found something that made my totally regret ever buying this telescope. As the planet moves across the sky due to the earth's rotation, you have to unlock the handle bar that makes the telescope pivot. When you go in to tighten it again, the telescope tends to move out of alignment. You have to hold the telescope upright to make it go into the correct position. When I finally managed to do that, the image I got was horrible. Venus was all blurry and very difficult to make out. When I looked at the moon, there was this red and purple halo surrounding it. This is due to the refractor telescope. The lens in the telescope is used to focus the light into a single point. It doesn't really work that way. It focuses the red light and the blue light in different areas. Also, the finder scope tries to trick you into buying something that looks high tec. it has a little red dot in the middle so you can point it at the stars. The thing is as you move you head, the red dot doesn't do you much good. The AZ in the products name is the kind of tripod they use. The AZ mount as I mentioned before is strictly used for cameras, not for telescopes. In fact, the locking of the movements is a very large disaster as I said before. When you buy a beginner telescope, you want a tripod you can depend on. Look for the telescopes that have a EQ in the name. The EQ tripod system is a lot easier to use. LATER: Scrap what I said in this last paragraph. The mid to higher end celestron telescopes give excellent views. The AZ kind of mount is only good if you have something like a dobsonian, in which the telescope moves slow with no jerky movements. Overall, just get the EQ. It is a acceptable refractor optics wise, but the mount must be 10 bucks. The eyepieces are also quite cheapy. If you don't want to bust the bank, but still get good views, I recommend the AstroMaster accessory kit that is about 40 bucks. It will be a wise investment for the beginner.