I really awaited this scopes arrival. I wanted amazing views of the cosmos and this scope did not hesitate to please. The only issue I really found is its not good for visual use. While the scope is optimized for imaging and it works well there, for visual it's a problem. No one seems to carry the 353 mile long ladder to reach the eyepiece or a 353 mile long extender for the focussor . They really need to include these as part of the kit.

I phoned up and said it would cost $4.7 Billion a bit over budget but my wife said no So I had two problems That I was a bit short on cash and then my wife would not let me get it, So the solution was to sell her to some Mexican dude so it was a win win I got the telescope and got rid of my wife. But then another issue occurred since I had to sell my house so I cannot store it but on the bright side I could stare at other galaxies looking for a new home 10/10 Would sell wife again

Very funny, thanks. Cheered me up no end in the midst of all the terrible weather we have had in York. Best wishes. Keep up the good work.

When this first arrived, I thought it was too good to be true, but I perservered with it since it was a canny owld bargain. Anyway, it's a bit small what with it only being 2.4 meters and all that. You can get whales bigger than that, can't you? So I was a bit circumspect on the size, though it does fit in my kitchen and that's the main thing.

The portability is tricky and I had to improvise with a shopping trolley I borrowed from Tesco and one of them forklifts from Black & Decker. Those two things coupled with borrowing my dad's tool kit made assembling a wheeled cart quite an exhilerating experience. I can't speak to how it's all going to fit into my dad's Fiesta as we haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it won't be much of an issue. I mean, a couple of bungee cords and carabinas would make transporting this a doddle, surely.

The view on it was quite disappointing, though. I was expecting to at least see something of Jupiter, and even Saturn at a push, but all I saw were pink clouds that were the cause of some arguing over what they looked like. I swear I saw one that looked like the head of a horse, but my dad said he saw a rabbit. It was a bit of a head scratcher to say the least.

It is a good telescope by all accounts, though I don't know why it's wrapped in BacoFoil when clingfilm might have been a better choice. Still, it does need to a bit of DIY here and there, so it might be an idea to shop around a bit more and see if you can't find something better.

Obviously grey import as all instructions in Chinese. No lens cap or batteries in box

First off, please don't be put off by the negative reviews on this scope. Collimation issues in the first batch have been sorted and now it works rather nicely.
I bought this scope as a present for myself at Christmas as the wife said we needed money to eat and live rather than taking snaps of the stars. FLO do a rather nice finance deal if you ask nicely enough (Cheers guys!)
Faced with the option of an EQ2 mount fitment or an LEO mount I chose the LEO and my God, I was certainly not disappointed - It was totally worth the extra cost of delivery - the resulting images have been nothing sort of extraordinary. It was a bit of a fiddle with the reaction wheel controls (it's a little counter-intuitive) but once I found Polaris and found the sidereal tracking button located on the side of the telescope I was more than happy with my images of the Orion nebula. I managed nearly 15 mins of exposure which is a big improvement on what I was using before.

I suppose I should add some cons by way of counter balance...

I struggle to find the right size of Bhatinov mask which was a little disappointing - surely FLO, if you sell the scope you should have a mask to fit.

There was no adaptor to fit my canon 60d. (The CCD already fitted in the scope is more than up to the job regardless, but still nice to have the option).

Expect some whinging from universities and NASA and other space based institutions about want to play with it (I suppose I could rent out some time to recuperate some costs, but I don't need all that hassle).

Overall I was more than happy with my purchase, I would totally recommend the LEO mount as it virtually guarantees clear skies, (except for the time that Jupiter crossed my line of sight).

Don't be shy of the cost - buy it and chuckle to yourself while everyone else whinges about clouds!

Regards,

Mike.

..still relatively happy with my purchase. However I have now moved to Australia and although the HST still performs, all of the images are unfortunately coming out upside down. I can't find Polaris to align it properly either.

Don't buy this scope , money better spent in a good refractor

The little flip out video screen on the back was broken, sent it back and FLO gave a full refund (they even reimbursed the cost of the rocket fuel DHL used.

But if you like tinkering with second hand broken gadgets this is for you.

I bought this as an upgrade to my 90mm refractor in the hope of getting some decent planetary views and the occasional DSO. Overall I am very happy with the views I received from this scope.

On the down side I couldn't find anywhere suitable to mount my Telrad. I tried the riser bases but just didn't work so I had to return these.

Also, by the time I had flown up there and actually found it to have an observing session and returned I had missed a whole week at work and the wife wasn't happy about having to pick me up from Cape Canaveral. Not to mention the catastrophically ruinous cost. I had hoped this would fit across the back seat of my Fiat 500, but it turns out I needed a specialist truck and police escort if I wanted to take it anywhere on land.

Overall I give this 4 stars, it would have been 5 but for the above impracticalities. My advice would be to spend a little bit more money and go for a set of televue eyepieces for your current scope.