Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope for Adults Kids Astronomy Beginners, Sarblue Mak60 Catadioptric Compound Telescope 750x60mm, Compact Portable Travel Telescope, with Tabletop Tripod Phone Adapter

First off, this is NOT a “beginner” or “child’s” telescope. Though it certainly CAN be. Rather it is an astonishingly portable and highly competent instrument. For anyone. The optics are first rate and the ease of use is nearly unparalleled.I have been a mainly visual stargazer for 8 years and own and have owned some high end ED refractors,, including a Tele Vue 85, Takahashi 76, and Stellarvue Access 80, among others. Is this little Sarblue their r equal? No. Of course not. But for 1/8th to 1/20th the cost, it is still a joy to use and the night sky images it serves up are, well, surprisingly sharp and snappy.The PROs:1. It’s polycarbonate body (OTA…Optical Tube Assembly) is super lightweight yet sturdy. I am impressed with the overall build quality. And the focuser is smooth and precise. No problem achieving sharp focus.2. The included 20mm eyepiece (a Kellner, I think; possibly an aspheric) is quite good with a nice large eye lens.3. The smartphone holder is the easiest to use of the 4 I own.4. The fully multicoated optics are excellent…and not just “for the price”. Excellent, period. I had it out last night for the first time, and had only an hour or so. The seeing was okay, but not great. In that time I enjoyed bright, sharp, contrasty views of 3 double stars (Sigma Orionis, Iota Orionis, and H3945 in Canis Major (two near perfect pinpoints, pale red primary and pale blue secondary). Also, the Orion Nebula (Messier 42) and open clusters Messier 47 in Puppis, NGC 1981 in Orion, NGC (a “bent hour glass core shape) 2244 in Monoceros. And Messier 41, an open cluster 4 degrees south of the super bright Sirius.5. The price-to-performance ratio.6. The little tabletop tripod is both lightweight and rock solid. The latter quality surprised me. Would be easy to use at a park picnic table where the seats are a couple of feet lower that the tabletop.7. The portability. I mean, it’s like carrying around an 8” sandwich.The CONs:1. Ummmm…..I’m thinking.2. I’m inclined to say that this is not a wide field instrument, so not suited to lower power wide field observing. But this is NOT a flaw, rather it is just part of the ( folded long focal length) Maksutov design which is best suited for higher power lunar and planetary observing. Still, based on my first light experience, it DOES a decent job on brighter compressed open clusters such as those alluded to above. Ditto double stars, another Mak plus.3. There is no finder included other than the two little questionably useful pointed “gun sight” bumps on the OTA. But this is easily correctible. Keep reading.4. The smartphone holder can be used only with the included 20mm eyepiece, and not standard 1.25” eyepieces whose top diameter is too large.RECOMMENDED UPGRADES:1. Buy a green laser pointer (all over eBay for 5 bucks) and attach it (riding up next to the 2 gunsight bumps so it is directly aligned) to the OTA with 3M double-sided tape (see photo).2. Use a photo tripod as a mount which you extend part way or all the way (about 4 feet high) which allows you to use a patio chair or whatever so sit and observe in comfort. Amazon Basics offers an excellent one and it comes with its own carry bag, so like 16” or so long when fully compacted:https://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Samsung-Panasonic-eCost-Microfiber/dp/B00J8RM35Q/ref=asc_df_B00J8RM35Q/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198070155062&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15082464307572345082&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032854&hvtargid=pla-385574432337&psc=13. Consider getting a zoom eyepiece such as the 1.25” SvBony 7-21mm which will give you a wide range of magnification options. This is especially useful in lunar oBserving where one short barrel twist at a time will bring you closer, closer, and closer still to the Moon’s craters and mountain ranges to the point where you get the feel of looking down at the lunar surface from an orbiting space station.4. If you plan to do a lot of photography with this telescope, get a 2x Barlow lens which doubles the magnification of any eyepiece. So it turns the included 20mm eyepiece from 37.5x to 75x. To see the effects here, look at the two photos of a distant (about 100 yards) tree branches; the first taken with the 20mm EP, the second of the same area of the tree with the 20mm plugged into a Barlow (which I have attached in the first photo in this review).

I have wanted a telescope for a while now, and I came across this little guy. It was a reasonable price to start out, and looked cute, so I thought I would give it a try. This little telescope did what was promised: light weight, easy to use, clear, upright images both day and night. The little tripod it came with is sturdy, but I didn't have a table near a window to put it on, so I grabbed an older, taller photo tripod I have with the 1/4" bold and was able to attach the scope to it just fine. Viewing through the scope was easy. During the day I used this little scope to see across the valley were I live, with your naked eye you can't see much detail, but with this telescope I clearly saw freeway traffic, including being able to make out individual cars and trucks, and about 12 miles away, the magnification and clarity were fantastic. I also could see the aerial tram tower, cables, and restaurant building on top of Hidden Peak at the Snowbird ski resort nearly nearly 20 miles away and 6,200 feet higher in elevation. The cell phone attachment is easy to use. You may have to set a timer on your phone's camera to allow the tripod movement to settle down. If you do that you can get some very nice distance pics, I was able to capture some great pictures of Lone Peak using this technique. So during the day I would rate this telescope as very impressive! At night I took it out to look at Orion as that is the brightest constellation in our light polluted sky this time of year. The only challenge I had was figuring out how the focuser works from terrestrial to celestial viewing - at first I struggled, but then I realized you have to turn the focusing nob many times, like 30 half turns or more to get to the right focus for the stars. Just a learning curve issue with my new toy:) Once I had stars in pretty good focus in the viewfinder it was easy enough to fine tune the focus every so slightly to bring out pin point stars, not bad for an inexpensive telescope. I was able to see the nebulous glow of the Great Orion Nebula, and the Pleiades star cluster. You don't get Hubble like views, but you can see enough to stimulate your imagination of the universe! The moon is approaching new in a few days, and I don't wake up early, so it will be a few nights before I can view the moon through this little scope. And there not much in the way of planets to view right now, just Mars, but It was just too cold outside to spend time tracking down Mars. I can't wait to see the craters of the moon, other planets, and the moons of Jupiter through this little guy. Since I can see the moons of Jupiter with my 8X magnification binoculars, that the 37x+ magnification on this telescope will make seeing Jupiter's moons much more impressive than the freeway, aerial tram, Orion nebula, or Pleiades star cluster. The telescope says for kids 13+, and this pentagenarian "kid" enjoyed his first telescope as much as any 13 year old would!

If you’re looking for a simple, cheap scope to peek at the moon, birds, or neighbors this scope will do nicely. The build is plasticky, especially the ocular mount, but the optics are good. When looking at the moon, for instance, you’ll notice very little chromatic abbreviation. The view is sharp and clear.The included tripod is useless. I’d recommend a tripod with a video style pan head. Doesn’t need to be expensive, just something that allows more control over where you point it. Even with that don’t expect to do any planet viewing. Without a spotter scope or wide field eyepiece, finding a planet, even Venus, is trial and error. Mostly error.The phone mount is close to useless as well. It works, but you’ll have to fiddle with it to get it to take a decent picture. If you’d like to use this scope for birding, which is feasible, I’d recommend a dedicated eyepiece camera. A good one can be found on Amazon for about US$50. These will send video to your phone remotely allowing you to take stills and video.In all, this is a decent piece of kit. Not great, but good for the money. Be prepared to spend more to get it to be more useable.