Review on 🔭 Celestron - AstroMaster 70EQ Refractor Telescope: Perfect Choice for Beginner Stargazers - With Fully-Coated Glass Optics, Adjustable-Height Tripod, and BONUS Astronomy Software Package by Donald Waller

I bought this telescope to use with my 9 year old son. I knew the EQ setup was going to be a bit tricky to set up, but figured he could easily work with it once I got it right and showed him. Overall we were very impressed. along this route. This is a fairly small telescope by astronomical standards, although non-astronomers would find it quite large and intimidating. That worked well for us. We live in the country, so we tend to have dark skies. Obviously, the moon is stunning through the scope, and that's a goal I keep coming back to. We could easily see Jupiter in winter, as well as its four satellites. Be realistic, it will still look like a small dot, but it's still impressive. On a good night I thought I could make out a few faint cloud bands on Jupiter. Around the same time we were also able to see Venus, which is rather inconspicuous but still beautiful to look at. The same applies to Mars, which we also observed. When summer came Saturn rose and it's quite a sight! Although the planet is small in the eyepiece, you can clearly see the ring structure. Every person I showed it to gasped when they saw the picture. We also saw the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula. A nebula basically looks like a cloudy area in the sky. I've tried looking at other "deep sky" objects with no success, although I think it has more to do with my lack of skill than the quality of the scope. -Point finder. I think it's absolute crap. The first few nights I took it out, tried to use it but found it completely useless. If I had just left my son to try, he probably would have been so discouraged that he would have given up - I almost gave up! I've since installed a green laser pointer mount on my scope and it's a huge improvement. I wish the scope's included finder sight was a bit more premium to be worth it - as it is it's a total waste of money and a terrible thing for a beginner to do. The EQ bracket works well. I'm guessing it's not a super high quality mount, but it definitely doesn't look or feel cheap. It works well for tracking once you've aligned the mount in polarity. It's a little tedious at first, but if you read a few guides online or watch videos on how to do it, you'll quickly see that it really isn't that difficult. If you're often observing the action from the same spot (e.g. your backyard) then it's really trivial to reset and realign the scope every night - it only takes me a few minutes now. I feel the tripod is strong. enough, and it keeps vision stable even in light to moderate winds. I mounted my DSLR on my scope and while I think it's probably heavier than the mount it was designed for, despite all the weight it worked. Overall I think this is a great scope for beginners and most people will be very happy with it. We enjoyed this scope so much that I am now considering buying a larger 8 inch reflector which would give us slightly brighter and better images. If you are looking for a quality scope to start with in astronomy, I think this is a great choice!