Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The 130SLT + the $75 Celestron wifi module = awesome. As a beginner, after a couple times I was able to do a 3 star alignment quickly (under 5 min) with this scope using my iPhone. Optics are great, split double stars and Hercules cluster looked great, can see the bands on Jupiter and it's moons. Earth's moon looks incredible!! Pro's: -light weight easy to travel with -good optics even with 5" primary mirror -great Goto accuracy with 3 star alignment -super easy to collimate primary mirror -easy setup, 10x easier than a GEM Con's: -the OTA is bit much for the mount to handle. If using on a deck you will need to get vibration suppression pads! -Alt az mount is limited to like 70 degrees up so no looking near the zenith of the sky. -need lots of extra parts for a good setup, see recommended list below. Recommended need to have extras: -Celestron Skyportal app (free) -Celestron power tank ($60) for use at dark sites -Celestron Power adapter ($20 if using near a power source) -Celestron Wifi dongle ($75) -2x Barlow for planetary and moon -moon filter so you can observe the moon ($20) Nice to have accessories: -Orion Accufocus $80 (stops shaking of OTA when you manual try to focus and dials in precise fine focus) -Skyglow light pollution filter if using in a light polluted area -Mead 12-24mm zoom eyepiece -vibration suppression pads ($25) -reticle laser eyepiece for centering stars during alignment ($40) Tips n tricks: -the "grease" that comes stock on the focuses is terrible, practically glue like. Carefully disassemble focuser (easy) clean and re-grease. I used Phil Wood's bearing grease I already had for my bikes. Removes most of the "slop" and "stiction" in the focuser. -make a 4" dew shield if viewing in areas with stray light pollution to improve contrast -place a 5lb weight on the tray to stabilize the mount -get vibration suppression pads if using on a deck or concrete!!! -my wifi module or AUX port was not making a good connection, not sure which so I returned the scope and upgraded to an AVX with CN8. If you get this problem, use a rubber band to pull the wifi module tighter into the AUX port -instead of getting a $50 illuminated reticle eyepiece for centering stars during alignment, you can defocus the star instead and make it large to center in the FoV In the end I upgraded to an 8" reflector with an AVX GEM mount. However, the 5" 130SLT was like 10x easier to use and setup... if I had to do it again for visual use I would look at the 8 or 10" Orion GoTo Dobsonian's for sure! A GEM + Newtonian scope don't mix, bad combo. For the price tho and ease of use, the 130SLT scope is awesome. However, for it to be fun to use you need to spend about $100-150 in extras.