Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this telescope to gain some experience with telescope optics before spending "real" money on a more powerful instrument. In that capacity, this really is the perfect thing to buy. Celestron really did go to some trouble to design a decent telescope, but for under $50, you can expect to bump into the limitations fairly quickly. If you are trying to learn about telescope optics, this is actually a good thing -- you will learn as much from what this telescope cannot do as from what it can. However, if you buying it to do astronomy (rather than to learn about optics), some advice : 1) Do *not* buy the accessory kit. There is no way you can get your head into a position where you could use the spot finder. Unless you are a squirrel. 2) *Do* buy some better eyepieces and a Barlow. With the included eyepieces, Jupiter is a fuzzy orange circle. With a better eyepiece and a Barlow, I could see the bands, the Great Red Spot and the poles. The weakness of this telescope is the included the eyepieces. However, in my opinion, you could throw them in the garbage and the FirstScope would still be a bargain. Eyepieces are replaceable, and you can use them on just about any other telescope.