I really don't have much of a review per say of this 'scope. But...it does have an odd story of how it came to be in my possession.

One day my ex-wife came over to my house and she told me she had found something I might be interested in. She said she was driving down a street and saw this little telescope sitting out on the curb with somebody's trash. So, she stopped and picked it up.
When I looked in the bed of her truck, I saw this little battered 'scope that looked like it would be nearly worthless. Still, it was a 'scope so I picked it up and brought it inside.

The first thing I did was to look down the tube. I could see spider webs and dried leaves all inside the tube. When I tipped it down, sand poured out the end! The focuser was frozen in place, the worm gears and tripod were bent like somebody had taken a hammer to them and the tripod - well - it was missing the height adjusting bolts and one of the supports. There was no finderscope either. It looked like a project in the works if even that was possible.

After a few days of leaving lay on the floor, curiosity got the better of me and I wondered how the mirrors had faired. The whole think looked like it had been sitting out in somebody's backyard for a while and used for target practice. It has some pretty good dents in it. Anyway...I decided to take the 'scope apart.

Well...the primary mirror looked like somebody had cleaned it with brillo pads and Windex. The secondary looked even worse. Regardless, I took it all apart and let the rusty pieces soak in some oil for a while and knocked the dents out of the tube. The focuser was easily fixed (once I got the sand out) with some white lithium grease. Now it moves (fairly) easy. I cleaned the whole thing with hot water and soap and took special care with the mirrors. For those I used distilled water and dried them with a blow-dryer. Before putting the primary mirror back in I added a center dot to it so it could be collimated properly.

The tripod was another story. The worm gears were bent beyond hope and the altitude adjustment on the mount was stripped. As for the missing support, as you can see, I used a piece of nylon string to hold it into place. Hey...it works! Now all I needed was the night.

To be honest, I have not tried to view anything other then the moon with this 'scope. But surprisingly, considering its history and amount of damage, the moon looks pretty awesome! It holds the image up to about 120x then it starts to break down and blur.

Having no finderscope is the main reason I haven't tried it out on anything else. Plus the fact that the mount does not work. I kind of have to 'eye-ball' through where the finderscope goes and then hunt in the eyepiece while moving the 'scope with my hands. It's rather a challenge I must say. If your lucky, the 'scope will remain in place before it losses its balance! Oh, did I mention it also has no counter-weight? Funny little 'scope!

Anyway...someday if I ever fix it up more, I'll write a proper review. Maybe I can turn it into a finderscope for my 16" Starfinder!

Thanks for reading...take care