31057 Omni XLT 150 Reflector Telescope, Dark Blue

This was my first telescope. The mount and tripod it shipped with are solid quality that strike the right balance between being sturdy enough and not so heavy that you won't want to pull it out for some star gazing. It's a good beginner EQ mount. Some would say this mount is a bit under sized for the weight of the scope. Out of the box, it's fine. However, if you throw some heavier eye pieces on it like a Tele Vue Nagler 22, or a Tele Vue Delos 6mm with a Powermate, then yes... things start to get a bit shaky when you're looking through the eye piece. The actual telescope is a blast! It's great quality; it looks great; it feels great! I upgraded the secondary mirror collimation screws with some thumb screws you can find at some of the big online astronomy stores. Aside from that, I have been using it stock and I've been enjoying looking at the planets and the stars. The 25mm plossl eyepiece it comes with is good to get started with. Note: if you plan to hookup a dedicated astronomy camera to this scope, you may not be able to pull in the focuser far enough to achieve focus. I found this to be the case with the ZWO ASI533MC camera. The scope can be modified with a lower profile focuser or the primary mirror can be brought forward, but out of the box, if you're planning on doing some electronically assisted astronomy, you may want to do some research before jumping in. There's a video reviewer named Ed Ting that gives this scope a great review and he managed to hookup his DSLR to it without issue. So perhaps your milage will vary depending on what you're trying to do. Overall, would I recommend this setup for a beginning Newtonian for visual astronomy? Absolutely! I love it. What would I do differently? If I knew at the time that I was going to end up buying a mount for astrophotography / EAA, I would have purchased the Celestron Omni XLT 150 telescope without the CG4 mount and I would have just started off with the mount I wanted. But that will push you into a much higher price point. These days, I use this scope on my ZWO AM5 Mount. It's much lighter than the CG4, and it handles much more weight -- but we're comparing apples to diamonds. The AM5 will cost you 6x the price of the CG4 mount (if you bought it alone). If you know that you're going to get into Astrophotography later, and you can afford it, I'd recommend you just spend the money up front to get the mount you want and by the Celestron Omni XLT 150 OTA without the bundled mount. If you do end up going this direction and you don't think you'll end up with a heavier telescope in the future, you might also look at the ZWO AM3 mount.

I had to go through about 5 telescopes to find the "perfect" one for me, including a few that I returned after purchase (I kept 3), ultimately finding that this telescope satisfies my observation objectives (viewing deep sky objects). The price was a deterrent at first so I did try a couple less expensive scopes. For comparison also purchased two 10inch Dobsonians (kept one). For me, the usability of this EQ-4 mount is the real winner for searching and tracking (over the Dobsonian), and using a range of higher quality eyepieces purchased separately I am able to view to my heart's content. Just purchased a carry bag, as this will probably be my forever go-to telescope for stargazing.

This was advertised as a used very good Celestron omni XLT 150 with a cg4 mount however the claimed it was the telescope only which could be bought for 100. 00 less brand new from Celestron. The used very good was only 156.00 off the price of new with the cg4 mount. this item will be returned

Great for amateurs wanting to get into astronomy for under $1000. Started with the PowerSeeker series but I should have skipped those and started with this one. It Is a manual control mount which is great for learning the celestial sphere and getting used to how an EQ mount works. The the XLT 150 OTA compared to the 127eq PowerSeeker is significantly better; the mirror is parabolic instead of spherical and it doesn’t have the corrective Barlow. Also, this telescope can be used with 2” and 1.25” eyepieces. The 1.25” adaptor is included. The adaptor can be unscrewed and used with a T-ring for beginner astrophotography, but you will need the dual axis motor kit for most objects. Overall I would recommend this for any new casual users who want a good telescope without spending $1000s.

Fortunately, the mount doididn't arrive. Returned, and bought a better Sky Watcher 200p from First Light Optics, for a little more money.

So far this scope has performed well. The weather has been my main complaint. It comes with a 25mm ocular which gives you 30X magnification. This is fine for viewing the moon but not the planets. I would recommend purchasing a second ocular or a good Barlow. Although Saturn was very small with the 25mm the resolution was great. It is a good scope for the money and comes with a very solid CG 4 equatorial mount. I have since purchased a 2x and a 3x Barlow with a 32mm Plossl. Now all i need is good weather.

Superb optics. Razor sharp. Mirrors needed slight collimation out of the box, which is expected. The included instructions were pretty straight forward on this process. The CG-4 EQ mount is very sturdy and seems to be very well built. Pictures don't due this scope & mount package justice. I was very surprised when I pulled it out of the boxes as to how beefy the whole setup is. Packaged very well. Scope comes in it's own box & mount in it's own box. Boxes are heavy duty & double boxed. Couple of reasons I didn't give it 5 stars. 1. The Right Ascension setting circle I think could be of a better design. It is somewhat awkward to use. It seems to have too much play in it and wouldn't hold the setting accurately. Haven't actually tried using it in the field yet. Now I am NOT referring to the RA gearing & axis itself...it is very smooth & tight in the gearing. 2. Now the declination gearing did seem to have a little too much play or slop in the gearing, but I was able to adjust this utilizing the four mounting bolts & one set screw that mounts the declination worm gear to the DEC axis. Couldn't get all the play out because this would cause the DEC slow motion adjustment to be too hard to turn. Had to find a happy medium between play & ease of adjustment. The eyepiece holder is excellent. It is a Crayford style and is very, very smooth. The unit comes with both a 1.25" & a 2" eyepiece adapter / holder. Using the 25MM eyepiece the scope comes with, and a Celestron Omni 2X Barlow, which gives you 60X power magnification ( scope has a 750 MM focal length ), I could easily see the cloud bands on Jupiter in my fairly dark rural skies. And this was using NO filters. Haven't done a lot of viewing yet with this scope, as we haven't had much good weather since I purchased (live in Kentucky). All in all, this is an awesome medium level Reflector / EQ mount setup for the money. If I could, I would have given it 4 1/2 stars = ) I plan on buying the DEC & RA drive motors available for this scope to try some astrophotography = ) Buy the Celestron Collimation 1.25" Eyepiece. Works great. Thanks & enjoy = ) Scott S.

This is my first scope and I'm still learning my way around it and the sky. But I think it's a pretty good value and I would recommend it. Under suburban skys, I have a good view of the orion nebula, fantastic detail in the moon, and because it's f/5, it really shines for big star clusters, like the pleiades, where you can fit the whole thing in the eyepiece at once. I can make out 8.5 magnitude stars--9.5 I can see just barely with averted vision. (I should really test this again now that the moon is not out, but you get the idea.) This is a good starter scope, but you should expect to spend a little more money on eyepieces. The included 25mm eyepiece is acceptable, but I think you'll also want something in the 6-10mm range and a moon filter at a very minimum. This does not have goto capabilities or tracking motors, although you can get the latter. So expect to spend time hunting around the sky trying to find the thing you want to look at; this makes it much more satisfying when you do find it. I recommend the book "Turn Left at Orion" for instructions to follow to find things. The tracking motors make it easier to keep something in view but a bit harder to find things in the first place (see my review of them for more details). They're definitely *not* essential. Attaching a camera at prime focus is easy and gives good results, although you will actually want the motors if you want to take longer exposures. Attaching a camera via eyepiece projection is frustrating and not recommended, since the camera is cantilevered so far away from the telescope tube, the focuser and mount just really aren't up to the task. You do not need to buy any fancy collimation tools. Google around; you just need to adjust until you can see the entire primary in your secondary, and then you can fine-tune by looking at a slightly out of focus bright star. In summary, this scope is a jack of all trades, master of none. It's not optimized for photography, but it makes it possible. This means you have to use the included extension tubes with eyepieces, which makes it a bit awkward to put a barlow in. It includes a decent mount, and it's quite affordable. Overall it is a great scope for me to start with and I look forward to trying it in dark skys!