The mount is rock solid. Finish quality is very high. The cell and focuser are metal. The GOTO system is the most advanced yet with loads of extra features for visual observations and CCD imaging. So far, three star alignments center my targets in a 32 or 24 mm eyepiece to, at least, the manual's claimed 10 arc minute accuracy. The optical tube has a 2-1/2 second damp time from a sharp tap despite the tube's great moment arm. Field weight is 75lbs assembled. Tube 19lbs., Mount 16lbs. Tripod 18lbs. Quick assembly. Frankly, I was a little taken aback, if not impressed, by its huge stature and sheer bulk as it stood assembled for the first time in the living room.

The cradle ring dovetail makes attaching the OTA easy and safe, but adding a large $6 handle from the hardware store to the top of the cradle rings makes it a breeze to carry and attach to the mount.

Its 6" aperture performs amazingly well on deep sky objects like open and globular clusters and nebulae. In fact, its light gathering is on par with an 8" Schmidt-Cass due to zero obstructions of the light path. M13 and other globulars can be easily resolved to their core down to 8mm due to the superior image contrast that only a refractor can produce. Last night I glimpsed a 10th magnitude galaxy NGC7331 in Pegasus. It was a single, irregular smudge 50 million light years away, but I saw it for the first time. M31, the Andromeda galaxy, was brilliant and dominated the expanse of my 32 Konig. M110, its companion galaxy, was also easily detected. M42, the Great Nebula in Orion, is guaranteed to knock one's socks off due to the refractor's superior contrast!

The f/8 ratio is surprisingly free of expected gobs of chromatic aberration. Only very bright objects at high power show minor blue fringing. But the Baader Fringe Killer and Moon & Sky Glow filters stacked together in the diagonal makes short work of that issue and boosts planetary/Lunar details. But even without the filters Lunar and planetary images are impressive. One night of exceptional "seeing" I caught fleeting glimpses of Saturn's Enke Minima in the ring ansae. Cassini's Division and 4 of Saturn's moons are regular features. Mars' ice caps and Syrtis Major, &etc., are easy targets with proper color filters.

April 17, 2015 I finally recovered Jupiter's much faded Great Red Spot that had eluded me for nearly three seasons. It was encircled in a whitish cloud plodding along in a faint and most irregular South Equatorial Belt (SEB). A sharp black dot was also easily observed crossing in the NEB. Likely IO's shadow though I neglected to find the moon itself crossing Jupiter's face. I was more interested in Callisto's occulting Ganymede at the time. A very short event! That night's "seeing" was exceptional for my locale, though far from perfect.

After a 3-star alignment on a partly cloudy night I easily snared both Ceres and Vesta, our largest asteroids, in the same 32mm field of view! A once in a lifetime occurrence. I simply keyed in the R.A. and Dec. as determined from Stellarium and the GOTO slewed exactly to where they were.

The GOTO is loaded with features and utilities which will aid you, especially if imaging is your forte.

The only real shortcoming of the instrument is the focuser. It could use one of better quality, but it keeps the package selling price low. I disassembled the focuser, removed the gum they call focuser grease and lubed it with Plumbago grease (70% petroleum jelly, 30% No.2 flaked graphite homebrew mix). Then I adjusted the two tiny Allen screws atop the focuser casting, and also eased up on the focusing knob tightness. Voila! No more image shift and it racks in and out butter smooth. To make the entire package absolutely perfect though, I may someday upgrade and replace the stock focuser with an Orion 2x Crayford focuser for $147 through Amazon. That would give a "research grade" feel and performance to the refractor. But it is no longer a necessity.

I am a veteran amateur astronomer of 34 years. This is one of the best overall (commercial) instruments I have owned. Not one second thought or regret. If you can handle the size you will not regret your purchase either. I promise you will also be "King of the Walk" at any star party with what has been affectionately referred to as the "yard cannon".

It is truly a spectacular value for the price.