I bought this for use as a quick set up telescope for looking at the Moon and planets when I don't feel like setting up something bigger. I like this telescope,its optics are very good and the overall build has a very solid feel to it. I bought this directly from Orion telescopes. (In fact if you look on their web page, you will see my review). This scope comes with a nice carrying case, a 25mm eyepiece (61x) and a polar alignment scope as standard items. If there is one accessory that I absolutely recommend is a Flexible Dew Shield for around $17 to keep the corrector lens from fogging up, and to act as a light shield.

When I opened the package and got my first look I must say that I was impressed on just how "solid" this telescope appeared. When looking through it I was pleased with the optics, and surprised on just how well it takes higher magnification. When the atmosphere is stable and seeing conditions permit I routinely use 256x on the Moon and planets. I was also pleasantly surprised by the smooth focus. Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes can suffer from something called image shift, but I didn't detect any. If there is a weak spot it is somewhat excessive vibrations noticed when using higher powers of magnification. It isn't terrible, but eventually I replaced the aluminum tripod legs with wood. Still all-in-all this is a very nice telescope. Again,I also recommend purchasing a flexible dew shield as an accessory. While not necessary, I did upgrade the diagonal, add a RA Single-Axis drive and a better finder.

Unfortunately no telescope is a jack-of-all trades and there are compromises to be made. While this scope is a very good choice for looking at the Moon, planets and The Sun (with a solar filter), it really isn't great for looking at faint objects like galaxies. Deep Sky objects require a larger telescope and dark skies miles from cities. A minimum size for looking at galaxies would be 8 inches. However this scope does a nice job for what it was designed for.