Great out of the box scope spying the planets/moon and beyond. Jupiter and Saturn are especially stunning! Everything came securely and nicely packaged with no problem assembling. After trying out the Celestron 8SE, the Evolution 8 certainly comes in a class of its own as the ability to manually move the mount without powering the scope is fantastic. I primarily control my scope from my laptop making the built in Wi-Fi a very nice addition vs needing the sky portal adapter. Along with 4 aux ports, there is no shortage for plugging in your accessories and not having to mess with a splitter or unplugging one accessory in favor of another. Since i have the GPS/Starsense/focuser/and the hand controller for back up purposes i make use of each port. I would also be remiss ... MoreGreat out of the box scope spying the planets/moon and beyond. Jupiter and Saturn are especially stunning! Everything came securely and nicely packaged with no problem assembling. After trying out the Celestron 8SE, the Evolution 8 certainly comes in a class of its own as the ability to manually move the mount without powering the scope is fantastic. I primarily control my scope from my laptop making the built in Wi-Fi a very nice addition vs needing the sky portal adapter. Along with 4 aux ports, there is no shortage for plugging in your accessories and not having to mess with a splitter or unplugging one accessory in favor of another. Since i have the GPS/Starsense/focuser/and the hand controller for back up purposes i make use of each port. I would also be remiss if i did not mention the built in lithium battery which does not disappoint with the advertised 10 hours run time. This additional upgrade over the 8SE not only makes it environmentally friendly (8SE takes 8 AA batteries, which does not last long while constantly tracking) but recharging only takes a couple of hours. For the cost I would have liked to have seen this kit include a x2 Barlow lens. I would recommend a couple of additional eye pieces, a Barlow lens, a moon viewing filter, and if budget permits an upgraded star diagonal to increase the enjoyment of your Evolution 8 and provide years of amazing views!

This is my first telescope, and I have been impressed. It was easy to set up, and the skyalign three bright star alignment procedure is very easy. You just point the telescope at any three bright stars (you don't have to know what they are) and the telescope will figure it out and give you a good alignment for the rest of the night. I can put the system together and get aligned in less than 15 minutes. It is easy to use the hand-held controller to find objects in the sky. I was able to have a good time looking at the moon and deep sky objects on my first night of use. My one complaint is about the red dot starfinder. It was so far off line when I mounted it that it couldn't be aligned with the scope within the limits of the adjustment screws. I had to make shims ... MoreThis is my first telescope, and I have been impressed. It was easy to set up, and the skyalign three bright star alignment procedure is very easy. You just point the telescope at any three bright stars (you don't have to know what they are) and the telescope will figure it out and give you a good alignment for the rest of the night. I can put the system together and get aligned in less than 15 minutes. It is easy to use the hand-held controller to find objects in the sky. I was able to have a good time looking at the moon and deep sky objects on my first night of use. My one complaint is about the red dot starfinder. It was so far off line when I mounted it that it couldn't be aligned with the scope within the limits of the adjustment screws. I had to make shims with toothpicks to get the starfinder in close enough alignment that I could then use the alignment screws to achieve good alignment. Everything about this scope seems first rate except for the starfinder and its mount. I am very happy with my purchase.

The 'Swiss Army Knife' of telescopes. Others are better at some particular thing, this is good at everything but Astrophotography, which needs a better, bigger, Equatorial mount. What i have is inexpensive enough, transportable enough, big enough, simple enough, powerful enough, and configurable enough for visual and EAA astronomy for both Solar System and Deep Space Objects. Manual clutches, WiFi, and on-board power, are icing on the cake. With Barlows and reducers and HyperStar, it can go from more than f/20 down to f/2 with enough aperture and FOV to see most things, and a small wide-field triplet which would ride on the same mount and with EAA would almost everything else. I have yet to do more than observe the moon with it because of my heavy work and travel ... MoreThe 'Swiss Army Knife' of telescopes. Others are better at some particular thing, this is good at everything but Astrophotography, which needs a better, bigger, Equatorial mount. What i have is inexpensive enough, transportable enough, big enough, simple enough, powerful enough, and configurable enough for visual and EAA astronomy for both Solar System and Deep Space Objects. Manual clutches, WiFi, and on-board power, are icing on the cake. With Barlows and reducers and HyperStar, it can go from more than f/20 down to f/2 with enough aperture and FOV to see most things, and a small wide-field triplet which would ride on the same mount and with EAA would almost everything else. I have yet to do more than observe the moon with it because of my heavy work and travel schedule.Celestron's documentation and hand control menu tree could be better. I'm glad YouTube exists.Arrived on time, well packaged and a day earlier than promised.