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Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this scope
Review: As much as I hate to say it, avoid this telescope. I bought it expecting very little, and was still disappointed. In it's defense, it is a small, very portable scope. Also, if it broke, I wouldn't be heart-broken. Also, it isn't too bad for showing kids about different types of telescopes. It also isn't too bad to look at the moon with, but I recommend buying a moon filter. And, you can see the rings of saturn in the scope, which quite honestly is almost worth the $99 price tag, despite all the flaws. And this scope has a lot of flaws. Just looking at the box, I know I'm going to be disappointed. Lots of cool pictures of planets and galaxies that I know will never be seen in this scope. Set up was quite easy, but without even looking through it I notice that the cheap high power eyepiece might as well be thrown away. The low power eyepiece is fairly good, however. The single arm mount was a neat idea, but unfortunately the thing vibrates like a tuning fork anytime you touch it. Looking through the scope, the optics need some adjustment to correct flaws, and this is a routine matter with reflector scopes, but there is no way to correct this scope easily, and no instructions on how to do so. Buying a better medium power eyepiece and moon filter helped considerably into making this a usable instrument, but then the final flaw really kicks in...unless you're really, really short, be prepared for significant back strain. You have to either get on all hand and knees, or carefully lean over whatever table you put this on to see through it; if you touch the scope or the table, forget about looking through it due to excessive motion (like most scopes, but this one has a "table top" mount). Overall, not a great scope. There are certainly worse ones out there (some for sale here at Amazon, so I would give this a 1.5 star rating if possible, but...), but for under $300 I would recommend going for an 80mm refractor with a good mount. I also have the 70mm Celestron firstscope EQ, and to be honest, despite more effort to set that scope up, use it a whole lot more!
Rating:
Summary: Avoid this scope
Review: As much as I hate to say it, avoid this telescope. I bought it expecting very little, and was still disappointed. In it's defense, it is a small, very portable scope. Also, if it broke, I wouldn't be heart-broken. Also, it isn't too bad for showing kids about different types of telescopes. It also isn't too bad to look at the moon with, but I recommend buying a moon filter. And, you can see the rings of saturn in the scope, which quite honestly is almost worth the $99 price tag, despite all the flaws. And this scope has a lot of flaws. Just looking at the box, I know I'm going to be disappointed. Lots of cool pictures of planets and galaxies that I know will never be seen in this scope. Set up was quite easy, but without even looking through it I notice that the cheap high power eyepiece might as well be thrown away. The low power eyepiece is fairly good, however. The single arm mount was a neat idea, but unfortunately the thing vibrates like a tuning fork anytime you touch it. Looking through the scope, the optics need some adjustment to correct flaws, and this is a routine matter with reflector scopes, but there is no way to correct this scope easily, and no instructions on how to do so. Buying a better medium power eyepiece and moon filter helped considerably into making this a usable instrument, but then the final flaw really kicks in...unless you're really, really short, be prepared for significant back strain. You have to either get on all hand and knees, or carefully lean over whatever table you put this on to see through it; if you touch the scope or the table, forget about looking through it due to excessive motion (like most scopes, but this one has a "table top" mount). Overall, not a great scope. There are certainly worse ones out there (some for sale here at Amazon, so I would give this a 1.5 star rating if possible, but...), but for under $300 I would recommend going for an 80mm refractor with a good mount. I also have the 70mm Celestron firstscope EQ, and to be honest, despite more effort to set that scope up, use it a whole lot more!
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best choice
Review: When Tasco bought Celestron a while ago, there were two immediate results. One was that Tasco brought a large cash influx to Celestron that finaiced the development and production of a number of excellent new scopes, like the Nexstar series. The other was the relabeling of a number of Tasco scopes as Celestrons- including the unit under review. This scope is a 3" short focus Newtonian scope on a flimsy tabletop tripod. It's an attractive looking little package, but as an astronomical telescope it lacks both a stable mount and sharp, contrasty optics. The various 60mm refractors sold by Celestron and Meade for a similar price are a better choice for the beginner on a budget.
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