Overall Rating: ( 1 reviews )

1. ( 0 of 2 found this review helpful ) Posted: Mar 8 2008

   First time I have ever seen the Moon. Would highly recomend it to anyone.

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Overall Rating: ( 3 reviews )

1. ( 1 of 2 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jan 3 2007

   I bought this telescope for my husband for a Christmas gift. It wasn't quite the one he wanted. So I began looking into the return policy and they want to charge a "restocking fee" of 10%. That stinks!!! Plus, I have sent two emails to the company asking if they extend their 14 day return policy because of Christmas, and they have not responded to me yet!!!

2. ( 10 of 11 found this review helpful ) Posted: Dec 31 2006

   The NexStar 60 is better than the numerous trashy scopes on the market in that the manufacturer has chosen the eyepieces reasonably and omitted the ridiculously high power ones along with the exaggerated claims. The scope also has the convenience of computerization. But the fact remains that a telescope is only as good as its optics, and this is a low-end model. What, then, should you expect with this scope and what should you not expect? What you should not expect is an easy ticket to stunning views like those in picture books. Those pictures were taken with time exposures. In an amateur telescope, most celestial objects are dim smudges whose vague glow is barely visible against the sky background. This is especially so for a scope as small as this one. In it, some star clusters will show up dimly but decently; most galaxies and nebulae will be barely visible, if at all. What you can expect is a partial bypass of the often frustrating process of finding objects in the sky. Given how miserable that task is with the inferior eyepieces and finders so prevalent on mass-market telescopes, there is something to be said for go-to scopes like this one. But finding is only one of the challenges you face in stargazing. Looking through an astronomical telescope is a learned skill, less like playing an MP3 file and more like playing a guitar. The more time you spend training your eyes to see detail just barely at the edge of visibility, the more you will get out of observing. You will also see a lot more if you take the time to get to a relatively dark observing spot and dark-adapt your eyes for a half hour or more. If all this disappoints and deters you, do not even consider this scope. If, instead, you are fascinated by this prospect, this scope may possibly be for you. But before buying it, think about what you really want from astronomy and consider the alternatives. If computerized finding attracts you, is it because you simply want to see the wonders of the sky without investing too much effort? Maybe a better alternative would be to contact your local astronomy club and attend a star party. The members love sharing their hobby, and their scopes will show you far more than you will see in a 60mm model like the NexStar 60. Or are you attracted by the price and see this scope as a way to get started in a fascinating hobby without spending too much? Consider instead dropping the computerization and concentrating your limited resources on better optics. Manual finding must be learned, but it is fairly easy with good quality finders and eyepieces. For about the same money, you could get a new noncomputerized 150mm (6") Dobsonian--available here on Amazon from Celestron and other manufacturers--that would offer nearly 3 times the useful magnification, (more importantly) gather 6 times the light, and keep you busy for years. You could even get a used one on the Astromart website for less than you would pay for the NexStar 60. Another affordable alternative is 10x50 binoculars with a tripod and mounting bracket. For most objects, they will show every bit as much as a 60mm scope like this one. In fact, binoculars are the best way to get started in astronomy. The Amazon website offers some good choices in binoculars. Maybe you want computerization and money is not an object. Then I suggest you skip the low-end stuff and get a computerized 125-200mm (5-8") scope. Amazon also sells these. Have I flooded you with too many things to think about? Well, this is precisely the point. You need to do your homework before you buy. Buying a telescope without prior experience is like buying a car without knowing anything about cars or driving. I suggest you start by learning the sky with your unaided eye, a chart, and a night-vision-saving red flashlight. Your local astronomy club is a valuable source of experience and advice. Learn how to view with binoculars. Before you buy a scope, try out different ones. For more information on buying telescopes, see my encyclopedic guide on Amazon: "So you want to buy a telescope."

3. ( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Dec 25 2006

   So I ordered this for my husband for Christmas and in the process of putting it together we find it is missing parts. Important parts. Like the scope and the scope mount. Merry Christmas. It's a great looking sciope. Too bad I can't review it any further!! If you buy one don't put it together until you lay out the parts and make sure they are all there because the set up and take down took hours.

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Overall Rating: ( 14 reviews )

1. Posted: Jul 22 2008

   This is my first telescope i bought. It was easy to assemble, only took about 10-15 min. The power is good for a beginner. You can see jupiter's moons and the shadow on venus. If you buy this telescope i suggest getting a new barlow lense because the one that comes with it is terrible. Also get a new finder scope. It may look cool but its a piece of junk. The bottom line is that it is an overall good telescope

2. Posted: Jun 3 2008

   The first piece was poor in visibility and has to get replaced with a another one. The other one was having very good visibility since beginning. Difficult to collimate if one does not have proper experience and/or tools. But very good for the price offered and for the people who know how to use the Equatorial mount. The new piece contained an erect view 20 mm eyepiece but is not as comfortable as the the old piece had 20 mm eyepiece with inverted view. The erect eyepiece I did not find good for astro-photography as well. So I retained the old eyepiece and returned the new eyepiece with the old telescope. I would have given 5 stars if the first piece were working good and would have given 1 star if both would not have worked good. I'm giving 3 stars as the first one has to return and second is working good.

3. Posted: May 5 2008

   This is a good scope - not great. Would not recommend. The focuser was sloppy, too much play. Disassembled it, added more teflon shims, relubed it with silicon and tightened the gear. The tripod, despite it's rugged looks in flimsy. If you have even a moderate breeze expect your image to be shaky and blurry. The finder scope is cheap, awkward and poorly mounted. As an aside - I bought a 70MM Mead refractor ($50). Is easier to use, less bulky and gets just as good an image. Lesson learned: A large diameter refractor is great if you are not in an urban lighted area. It is good for deep sky, if you do not have light pollution.

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Overall Rating: ( 6 reviews )

1. Posted: May 14 2008

   PROS: lightweight, fairly rugged, included eyepiece will not fall out if it's screwed in, collimation (optical alignment) can be fixed by user, includes tripod adapter, focuser works smoothly, can be used with other 1.25" telescope eyepieces CONS: no finder and no place to mount one, collimation is not easy and included instructions will probably not be enough for first-time telescope users, tripod adapter hooks to telescope instead of base, focuser loaded with too much sticky grease, using other eyepieces requires some forethought Contrary to what many have claimed about this telescope in online forums, it does not have a non-standard eyepiece diameter. The included eyepiece is 1.25", which is the standard for most small amateur telescopes (some use 2" eyepieces). And 1.25" eyepieces from other manufacturers will fit the focuser tube. But changing eyepieces is not easy. Let me explain. The included 12.5mm (44x) eyepiece has a threaded barrel (like many telescope eyepieces, which are threaded for filters), and it screws onto a threaded ring that raises and lowers as you rotate the focuser knob. To use other eyepieces, all you have to do is unscrew the eyepiece and screw in another. But that's easier said than done. The threaded ring is real cast-iron you-know-what to screw anything onto. Part of the problem is that it is only held in place by two little metal pins on opposite sides, so it's free to rock back and forth just the slightest amount. It can't rock when an eyepiece is screwed into it, but it can and does when you're trying to thread a different one on. Which makes changing eyepieces an exercise in almost terminal frustration. That wouldn't be so bad if the scope had some kind of finder, even a non-magnifying peepsight. But there's nothing included, and no flat space to mount one of your own. So getting the scope pointed at anything other than the moon is pretty tough. What I usually do with small scopes like this is put in a low-power eyepiece that will let me see a wide swath of sky, use that to find my target, and then swap in a high-power eyepiece to show the details in whatever I'm looking at. For most telescopes that's a 2- or 3-second operation. But with this thing you'd have to rotate the focuser all the way out, unscrew the eyepieces, screw in a new one, rotate the focuser back in...by the time you get all that done, no way will the telescope still be pointed where you need it to be. There is another option, which is to unscrew the included eyepiece from the threaded ring, rotate the focuser all the way down to put the ring at the bottom of the drawtube (be careful that it doesn't try to rock sideways and get stuck), and just use the empty drawtube as a push-pull focuser for your other eyepieces. That's what I finally ended up doing. I also ended up taking apart the entire focuser assembly and cleaning off most of the grease, which was really gunking up my eyepieces. Be warned. There is a tripod adapter that can be bolted to the telescope, which is a terrible idea. First, it seems that about 50% of the time the nut will fall off inside the telescope, which makes the tripod mount unusable at a minimum, and might scratch the optics at worst. Second, the whole point of a ball scope is that it can be quickly, easily, and smoothly pointed in any direction. Not if you bolt it to anything other than a premium tripod, it can't, and I doubt many people will be putting a bargain telescope on a tripod costing 20 times as much. However, there is an easy solution. The bowl that the scope rests in has the same curvature as the bottom of the scope. So you can epoxy the tripod adapter to the bowl, put the bowl up on the tripod (even a super-cheap tripod), and rest the scope in the bowl. Presto, now you've got all the benefits of a ball scope but at a convenient height. Why they didn't just build the tripod adapter into the bowl in the first place is beyond me. Lots of folks have complained about the screw covers on the back of the scope interfering with smooth operation, but I didn't have any problems. They're pretty low, and if they do catch against the felt pads on the bowl you can just nudge the scope to get it unstuck. So much for the mechanics. How are the views? Well, if you're used to bigger telescopes they're small and dim. If you're used to binoculars or nothing at all, they're great. You'll be counting craters on the moon forever. The rings of Saturn are--just barely--visible with the included eyepiece, and easy with higher-power eyepieces, and the moons of Jupiter are a cinch at any magnification. All of the problems aside, it is pretty amazing that you can get a functional telescope at this price.

2. ( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Feb 20 2007

   Good telescope. I would suggest buying the extra lenses (only two others available for this model). Very light and easy to travel with.

3. ( 0 of 8 found this review helpful ) Posted: Feb 12 2007

   We have NOT received this item yet. Please let me know the current status.

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