Celestron NexStar 90SLT Maksutov-Cassegrain Portable Telescope for Planets | Sharp High-Contrast Moon & Planet Views, Easy-to-Use SkyAlign Technology, Great for Backyard Stargazing & Camping, Portable

I have use this to view the Sun (with a Bader solar filter), Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Albireo, Andromeda, and Pleiades. You get stunning views of the moon and sunspots are very distinguishable with this scope. Saturn is pretty small, but the rings are distinct and some moons can be spotted around Saturn. I was able to faintly see the bands of Jupiter and the Galilean moons are pretty bright. You would need a bigger telescope to get more detail from the planetary objects, but the views you get in this scope still makes anyone who looks pretty amazed at what they are viewing.I love the fact this has a computerized tripod mount. This takes the frustrations away of trying to keep an object in view as well as trying to locate something in the vast night sky. The setup take some practice, but it does get easier after a few attempts. My neighbor has an 8” Nexstar SL with the StarSense Automatic Alignment Accessory and I still usually beat him to having an aligned telescope by doing it with the built in SkyAlign method. The tracking is good as long as you have fresh batteries, but I highly recommend using an external power source because the batteries get drained in a few hours. I also recommend using an app to help locate objects. I am planning on getting the WiFi modules so I can use my phone to control the telescope. The included hand controller does take some time to learn, and the menu navigation can be clunky. You can use the free Celestron SkyPortal app for control your scope if you have the WiFi module.Once you have the telescope aligned it is pretty accurate on its tracking. One night I centered Saturn and went inside to watch TV for 2 hours and I was amazed that Saturn was still in the eyepiece when I came back out! You will want to make sure you have the tripod level, fresh batteries, the correct latitude/longitude, time, and date to help ensure your tracking is accurate.This Telescope has made me excited to get out on clear nights and discover the night sky and has also helped get me into trying astrophotography. I was able to use my Olympus E-PL5 the other night piggy backed on the telescope which helped me get a decent shot of Andromeda. I took an hour of exposures it was nice to have the tracking of the telescope available so Andromeda stayed centered in my camera.I also bought a T-Adapter so I could photograph objects using the telescope as a prime lens. My sun and moon shots came out very clear using this method. The sun and moon shots attached are not cropped, and you can see almost the entire frame is consumed by the sun or moon which give a great amount of detail.I highly recommend this telescope! If you can afford a larger telescope, then get the biggest one you can afford, but even though this is only a 3 1/2" scope it can give you some great views of the night sky.

I bought this for my wife, as a birthday gift, because she always wanted a telescope and never had one before.It's really difficult to find out what telescope buy, so many reviews over the internet and very different opinions on brands and types. After some research, I take the decision on this one.We received it about a week ago, and we have really enjoyed these past days looking at the stars.I will try to describe step by step our experience:1. The assembly was very easy, no tools needed and this process take us about 10 minutes, and it can be quicker, because we take time to review everything twice, as neither of us has experience with telescopes.2. We bring the telescope to our backyard (just about 5-6 meters away from home, basically, because we just wanted to tasted and because we were using an Ac adapter to power the telescope.3. Aligning was not an easy task to us, the "skyalign" process it self is very simple to follow up, but we have some difficulties centering the stars in the finder scope and in the eyepiece (due to our un-experience).4. However, about 30 minutes later, we were able to look and some stars, constellations (sadly not the moon as we have to go to bed a little earlier that we expect because of a long work day)We're steal learning how to use it, how to get the better focus on the objects, to be able to see their "better look". However, for someone who haven't previous experience with this, the telescope is very friendly and easy to use, and the fact that you can just watch to an object looking on a catalog is very nice and simple.One of my hobbies is photography, so, I'm expecting my T-ring/adapter to try on some pics.I'll be updating this review as the time passes and have more to say. Until now, we are very happy with our new "toy"