Review on Explore The Night Skies With The Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic Dobsonian Telescope by Cameron Head

Hello,Everything arrived in excellent condition and putting the base together was very easy using the youtube videos; Last night was cloudy at first and then it cleared up around 1am, beautiful views of the moon and later on I got my first glimpse of Jupiter, had to wake the wife up for that one.

Have I mentioned how this thing looks like a canon or rocket launcher?so I researched for a couple of weeks before buying; I bought the following accessories:1)Telrad and 4 inch riser held on with some hook and loop straps that I had, works well.2)32mm Q70 orion 2" eyepiece3)Celestron 2x barlow4)Orion 13 percent moon filterStuff Ive made from learning off the internet:1)Lybar chair.I have some carp skills, made my version in an hour2)Dew cover for the TelradThis scope is very nice for a beginner,(me).It is not small and even though I searched the internet for pictures to get a gist of size, I was still surprised by how big the tube is; my wife is used to my antics, but she did give an exclamation when she first saw it.I heartily recommend this scope to anyone who wants to go "full power" for a beginner scope; The portability is a consideration and it did help to have the wife as wingman to set the base while I carried the tube, but I did bring it in on my own last night @ 3am.The movement seems good and relatively smooth; I may do the "fifth wheel 12 inch disc" insert if I care enough in the future, but otherwise, it held everything including the 2 inch eyepiece with no balance problems so far; easy enough to make a counterweight if I need too.