CelestronAdvanced Series C6 R-GT 354 x 150mm Telescope

The heavy duty mount makes viewing a joy. Any vibration dampens almost immediately. Couple this with a wide angle eyepiece, and it's like looking out of a window.

First of all this scope is big. If you are hoping for something portable, this is not the scope for you. there are some really excellent things about this setup. For example the scope itself has great optics, creating pinpoint stars and showing great views of the moon, planets, open and globular clusters. And does an exceptionally nice job on splitting double stars. If you want to look at deep space objects such as galaxies and nebula, the 6" aperature does not have the power to see most of them.Also the mount is very good. when I first ordered the scope, I was concerned that the CG-5 mount would not be able to handle the heavy tube. But in reality, the mount is quite beefy and has no problem slewing the big scope around. Once the mount is completely leveled (critical), polar aligned, and aligned with three stars, it will very accurately place objects within the eyepiece for the rest of the night.Now for what is wrong whith this setup. On my first night out with the scope, I quickly realized that the scope was almost completely unuseable. With the tube balanced on the mount (critical for protecting the gears in the mount) the eyepice at zenith was about 2 feet of the ground. So unless you like sitting or lying on the cold ground, the best part of the night sky is unseeable. To solve this problem I was forced to buy an extension mount (orion skyview pro extension mount will fit the cg-5) costing $82. Do not the experts at Celestron not know that the scope can hardly be used at zenith and if so, why not package in the extension for the mount?Also the focuser that comes with the tube is a rack and pinnion type with very cheap plastic knobs. Its movement is very course and adjusting at high magnifications is very difficult. To fix this problem, I purchased an electronic focuser($72)with fine, shake-free movement. Other telescope companies offer as standard on their scopes nice dual speed crayford focusers. Why can't Celestron do the same?In line with the cheap focuser, comes the cheap plastic diagnol. I felt the need to upgrade to a good alluminum one ($70). The finderscope is just adequate. But again you are often so low to the ground, that it is very dificult to get your eye close enough to see through it. A right angle one would have been more appropriate. I upgraded to a red dot ($65). Finally the eyepiece that comes with the scope is also low grade. Other competing companies offer a mid grade eyepiece standard with their scopes, again, why won't Celestron?So in summary, I would not purchase this set up if I could do it all over. However, now that I have spent an extra $300 or so in upgrading the scope I enjoy using it.