Celestron - PowerSeeker 127EQ Telescope - Manual German Equatorial Telescope for Beginners - Compact and Portable - Bonus Astronomy Software Package - 127mm Aperture

Ok so a few things, the first with collimation. This is the first reflector telescope ive owned, I read a lot of reviews about how difficult this telescope is to collimate before I bought it and decided I was up for the challenge anyway. It turned out to not be as difficult for me as others suggested it would be. I used both a chesire collimating eye piece and a laser collimator. I was afraid to take the focuser out of the tube and remove the lens to laser collimate it as many people have suggested, so I used the Cheshire collimator first and then used the laser to confirm it was collimated. Next I shined a flashlight through to focuser tube and aimed the telescope directly at the wall to see if the light came out Evenly and it did. The final test was the star test aiming the telescope at a star and two planets (saturn and jupter) and zooming out to show the crosshairs of the main tube lining up with the image perfectly. So all in all, the collimation process for this telescope isn't the monster a lot of people make it out to be in my experience. Due to the primary mirror's shape being spherical rather than curved like true Newtonian reflectors, the trick to collimating this telescope is to have the primary mirror as straight as possible rather than tilt it, then adjust the secondary mirror accordingly to line up with both the focuser tube and the primary mirror.The second thing I want to address is the view which was nice I was able to see the planets saturn and jupiter relatively clearly, but was somewhat obstructed due to the atmospheric distortion between the temperature inside my room and the outside air as its the middle of November and its already quite cold. Something I learned about reflector telescopes is in order to get the best image, the air inside the telescope must match the temperature outside. This telescope is said to max out at 300x magnification, but I was able to push it to 480x magnification using the 3x Barlow lens that comes with the telescope, another 2x barlow lens, and a 12.5mm eye piece before everything became too blurry to see. At that point I could make out a few of Jupiter's colored bands but again the atmospheric distortion hindered the view. The 20mm eyepiece it comes with is ok up to 150x magnification with the 3x Barlow lens but after that the quality drops sharply, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to purchase additional pieces, I haven't really used the 4mm eye piece because the lens is so small it would be a pain to look through so I just stack Barlow lenses with wider eyepieces.Finally the finder scope isn't too bad despite the negative reviews. Mine isn't even perfectly aligned and I had little trouble finding objects in the night sky.Also, this may be a nice "beginner" scope for budding astronomers, but I certainly wouldn't give it to a kid to put together, mainly because of its size and weight. It does take a little tinkering, time, patience, and the right tools to get the most out of it. You'll need a size 2 allen wrench to collimate it. All in all, I'm satisfied for the price I paid for it. I'm glad I ignored all the nay sayers who bash this telescope and its particular design in general.One last thing, be careful with the telescope cap for the main tube, its not as sturdy as it looks and is really the only complaint I have about this product. I've dropped it once or twice and a nice sized crack appeared in it

This scope catches a lot of flack in the forums and here. Let me demystify some of the bad reviews.1) CollimationThis telescope can be collimated easily by eye, if you want to collimate with a laser, you'll have to remove the corrective lens in the focuser tube. If you love to tinker knock yourself out however, this isn't the most powerful scope you can buy so, eye collimation is more than enough to be happy.2) The finder scope is unusableWhile I agree, it's not the best finder scope out there and lining it up with the telescope can take a long time but, it is possible with time and patients. It's also replaceable so if you don't like it, get another one. (note: it is a scope and not a finder, the image is reversed in the finder)3) I can't see anything out of this thingYou need to collimate the scope and line up the finder scope, the instructions are in the manual for eye collimation (tip: back the focuser tube all the way out when you collimate, doing this will let you see both the secondary mirror and the primary, also note, this went through shipping and if it arrived with all the mirrors aligned and ready to go, get a power ball ticket because you'd be the luckiest person on the planet4) The Barlow is uselessPlease google and youtube what a barlow is and how to use them, it's not a true lens and once you find out its true purpose, it'll make more sense5) The 4mm lens is uselessSee my comment on the barlow, using the barlow with the 4mm will tame things a bit, also, get a lens and filter kit with a 15mm and a 9mm lens.6) The Telescope doesn't stay put on the tripod.The counterweight on this telescope is not for looks, you need to use it to balance the telescope on the eq mount. when the counter weight is properly balanced, you can put the telescope in any position on the right ascension axis and it'll stay put. The Telescope itself also has to be balanced front to back in the mounting hoops (youtube it, there are a billion tutorials on how to do this.) One last comment on this issue is, do not try to push the telescope into position with the clutches locked, use the controls on the tripod to position the scope, if you need to make big adjustments, loosen the clutches (should be OK because your telescope is balanced) position the scope to the general area of viewing, lock the clutches and use the controls to fine tune. If you push the scope around with the clutches locked you're manhandling the gears that the controls are attached to and you can push them out of whack, don't do this.Here's the deal, this is a marvelous telescope for UNDER 200 American green backs!!! When properly set up, balanced and overall ready to view, it's a great scope and it's a lot of fun. Buying upgrades for the scope will add to your viewing pleasure. Yes you can see our planetary neighbors, the moon looks fantastic, in a dark place, you can see some deeper space stuff.Is this a good scope for beginners? Yes I think it is, backyard astronomy is not a plug and play out of the box and looking at Jupiter kind of deal. A telescope is a pretty sensitive thing that takes a little love. If you're just starting out and collimation, calibration and generic tinkering is not your thing, this may not be your hobby, heck aside from sitting on the couch, I don't know what hobby doesn't require a little hands on setup and tinkering.Finding stuff in the sky is hard, small movements at the scope have a huge impact on where you're looking in the sky, youtube is your friend, so is google.