Skywatcher Telescopes

Reviews

This is my first telescope. It arrived in 3 well packed boxes. I did take the time to read the instruction manual first and I recommend you do the same. Assembly and set up was easy. There are many ways to align this telescope. I chose quick align so I could start playing with the controller. Don't worry about messing something up just get familiar with it. I then used the utility "factory settings" to reset everything back to the way it was out of the box. I then chose the alignment procedure and all the options I wanted to use and set them up correctly this time. The telescope tracks beautifully and the view is stunning. You will be very pleased with this telescope. The equatorial mount , which contains all the functionality, comes with an extra dovetail mounting plate. So you can mount another telescope you may have instead of this one and turn it into a computerized unit if you desire. I am setting my telescope up in a corner of a store room at my home that i have converted into a roll off roof observatory. The whole thing breaks down into a tripod, equatorial mount, and telescope for transporting if you desire to make it portable.

Reviews

I was a beginner astronomer and I must say that this christmas gift has done me right. It's an easy scope to use and gets great visuals of space. I really enjoy examining the craters of the moon, but you can also see some other great objects as well. Well worth the price and great for the beginner to intermediate astronomer. I brought it to my astronomy club and they all got a kick out of it and the sturdiness of the tripod. They all approved even with their 12-16inchers my 5 incher held it's own in their eyes. Great starter scope. -Reagan

Easy to setup, skyalign worked on my first try, really liked it, except maybe for the eyepieces, they could be ploss ones.

i have been watching the sky for a few months, and purchased this scope through amazon, im in the middle of a large nieghborhood, with trees and fences all around my back yard, that said, i have not had much luck w the go to function,it has taken me to saturn and the moon, but some targets will make it point at the ground. so i was kinda disappointed, then i ordered the 2inch eyepiece kit by celestron also from amazon, it is a huge difference, i was using a galileo, the two scopes are not that much different, outside the motorized mount,and 2inch viewer.; so for watching the sky, this is a great scope, i must admit, i had thought maybe it would identify the stars im looking at, but now i realize that would be a tall order even for nasa, in new orleans, this scope shows the sky to be full of stars. i say this is a good deal and a good scope, not many scopes have the 2inch option, and celestron seems to get better and more reviews than ioptron, for beginners, telescopes like this will take sum time, but your patience will be rewarded(alton brown) update, got the vixen 3856 3.5 eyepeice, ring of saturn was huge, and the moon was awesome, very cool eyepiece, makes my scope seem new again. 9-9-09, finally found juptier, with the vixen 3.5, it was very impressive, and its four moons were very bright, still enjoying the nexstar 130, looking into getting skyscout connect, which would connect my skyscout to the scope, making it gps, find a star with skyscout, and the scope w slew to the object w a touch of a button, for 99$ seems like the next step in my set up

A couple of negatives to start with. As others have indicated, once the electronics are turned off the current time is not kept. If you forget this important point aligning will not work. Next point. Double check that the tightening screw that secures the optical tube to the mount is tight every time you use the scope. I neglected to do this and the thing slid out of the mount and hit my patio. Unbelievably, nothing broke and the scope's collimation was not knocked askew. The good news is you can be using this scope in a manner of minutes after just a little practice. The optics are good and the tracking is too when you consider how inexpensive this machine is. Adding weight to the accessory tray helps with stability.

I'm still learning how to use it but so far the things I see with it are amazing.