Explore Scientific FirstLight AR90mm White Tube Refractor Telescope with Alt/AZ "U" Yoke Mount, 500mm f/5.5 Focal Length

Can’t get an image through the lens. It’s far too short does not extend up high enough.

Great beginner's telescope, flimsy tripod though.

It seems like a great price for a 90mm coated glass doublet, but it's very frustrating to use.PROS:Mine has a nice objective lens. Views of the moon were surprisingly clear and sharp, if using good eyepieces. I mostly used wide and sharp Explore Scientific 15mm 72 degree and a SvBony zoom (surprisingly great performance for the money).CONS:It has the worst focuser I've ever used (and I've used many low end $40-100 telescopes). It wobbled like a broken wagon wheel when I received it. Tightening the focuser screws kept the focuser knobs stationary, but there's a lot of slop and backlash in the rack, even for a $50 scope, which it isn't. This can be improved by adding a helical fine adjustment focuser (for an additional $45). But there's no way to lock the focus without significant mods.The fine altitude adjustment rod connector has a TON of slop in it, which makes altitude adjustments annoying. You can work around it, but you're constantly reminded that you spent $200 for a telescope that feels like a $50-100 telescope. I tried adding tape to increase the diameter of the screw attaching it to the OTA but didn't see noticeable improvement.The tripod legs are a mix of cheap plastic and extremely thin aluminum extrusion. I planned to fill them with epoxy/rebar to stiffen them up, but haven't done that yet because they're designed in a way that requires drilling out rivets to access the inside. The tripod is also extremely short for a refractor where you have to get underneath it to sight through the finder, which should have been mounted higher. I plan to move the finder to the dew shield (requires opening the scope) and make some longer wood legs for it.The geometry of the mount puts the eyepiece out on a long lever arm from the yoke, so all the flex and slop of the mount+tripod gets magnified into huge wobbles in the view every time you touch the focuser.The end of the altitude adjustment locking bolt is bare metal and doesn't have a piece of plastic to protect the surface of the adjustment rod. Adding a piece of rubber from a garden hose gasket under the locking knob protects the rod from being marred by the bare bolt head. It also improves the feel of the altitude adjustment motion.I would return it except I don't want to pay ES's restocking fee and return shipping, which would be the cost of another cheap scope. Maybe one day I'll try to 3d print a focuser locking ring for it and/or a dovetail for a different mount.Overall, I wouldn't recommend this telescope. I consider any of the Zhumell table top dobs a better option, or even one of the other (appropriately priced) toy scopes provided that they take standard 1.25" eyepieces.

Bought this from Hyperion Astronomy as my first telescope. I'm happy with it especially for the price. The eyepieces provided aren't the best for viewing planets upclose but it's good enough to still be very interesting to look at. Many telescopes have 80mm aperture and the bigger 90mm aperture on this helps with image quality. The phone mount has a unique design that confused me at first, but figuring out how to use it wasn't that difficult. However, it still could use a better phone mount. I will also have to get some more eyepieces for viewing planets. Overall a good telescope I just have one question regarding the metal circular thing in the picture. You can turn it clockwise and counterclockwise but I don't know what it does. The manual provided is pretty lacking in information about the telescope itself but the information on the manufacturer website makes up for that. Some more detailed documentation provided with the telescope would be neat and helpful for beginners learning to use a telescope. Perhaps some diagram explaining how the the zoom with the different eyepieces works, instead of just assembly diagrams with no words. 4/5 would buy for the first time again.