If you've wanted to get a first-time telescope, look no farther. I got this for my 4-year-old son and he loves it (I'm the dad and I love it just as much). Think of this as the gateway into telescopes. Get this one as your first and then go from there. I can attest that you can see Saturn's rings and marvelously watch the moon. Defiantly get a tripod or you won't maximize your experience.It's rugged enough to survive my boys (and my) fascination with it and I feel better prepared for the day I take the plunge and get a more expensive telescope.One more viewing tip for stargazing in general, bring a chair outside as well. I find it makes for a more enjoyable experience vs. standing up, crouching down, and/or craning your neck.

We returned it after struggling mightily with assembly. My husband even tried to follow the instructions on how to assemble on YouTube and gave up. Many small parts (ie. lens) are hard to handle/install. For a marginal item, not worth the hassle of assembly.

I purchase this for my 4-year old. He didn't participate in the build, though I certainly think he could have. For the price paid, the regular 25X optic is really pretty clear and impressive. And few things beat the first time he looked at a 1/4 moon through it and said 'WOW! All I can say is wow!.'Easy to build, inexpensive, robust, and easy to use - I think it's a great starter scope for kids 4-8, with plenty of room for history and astronomy lessons to be taught around the build, and use of the scope. On our build, the Barlow/Gallilean eyepiece is either misaligned or mis-assembled - and I'll investigate further, but honestly, I'm perfectly happy with it and just the regular 25X eyepiece.Am I going to use it for astrophotography, or my own viewing? No. Will I be pleased to have my son alongside, viewing what I'm viewing with his very own first scope, especially for this price/performance - Yes.

Very difficult to see anything through this. Better of spending a little more and get a quality product.

I've assembled and reassembled it several times - to no avail. All I can see is a black blur as if a piece of cloth is sticked to the outer side of it. As an educational instrument I would have expected it to be easy to use and somewhat functional.

Don't buy this, save your $ and get a real telescope. I used it once and gave it to my 6 yr old niece who used it twice.

However I've watched the video and see no problem with putting it together. When my daughter finishes with my tripod then I'll look at puting it together with the (anchor) tripod assembly piece thingy. You got it. That my daughter is using to attach her camera to my tripod.I think the concept behind this product is fantastic. Indeed what better way to get an idea how Galileo Galilei ventured forth.

The Galileoscope is easy to assemble with no tools required. I was very pleased with the quality of the design, manufacturing and the optics. With the included 20mm eyepiece, the telescope provides nice 25x views of the Moon, and you can see Jupiter's moons (not that hard to do -- almost any pair of binoculars will show them) but also, if conditions are dark and clear, the faintest hint of banding on the planet's disk. You can clearly see Saturn's rings, though it's very tiny! If you have a barlow lens, use it! The one included with the telescope works better than nothing and is a good match for the general quality of the telescope.The drawtube focusing works fine for me. You can pull or push for coarse focus and twist it for very fine focus. I don't find it much more difficult to focus than a conventional rack-and-pinion focuser and I'm entirely satisfied with it.In lieu of a finderscope, the telescope is sighted like a rifle using sights along the top of the barrel. These work fine. I've considered putting some dots of glow-in-the-dark paint to help see the sights in the dark, but so far it's really not been an issue. There always seems to be enough ambient light to do the job, and I appreciate the utter simplicity of the design.The included tripod-nut works perfectly with my heavy-duty tripod; I put an extra quick-release base on the telescope, and now the telescope just rests on a top shelf on its included little stand (two simple blocks with wide "V"s cut into the top.) When I want to use it, I just clip the telescope on the tripod and go outside! When I'm done, the scope goes back up on the shelf and the tripod folds up and goes back into the closet. Much less space required than a fully equipped refractor with an equatorial mount tripod and all that.Of course, the lack of an included tripod could also make things tricky. I experimented with various ways of supporting the telescope, and part of the fun of the instrument is that it lends itself to such experimentation. Galileo himself evidently slung his scope on a ribbon and hung it from a simple stand (look it up for yourself.) I tried this and it works okay with the low power, but obviously has a lot of motion whenever you touch the telescope. Galileo revolutionized astronomy with this kind of set up -- what do you mean it's not good enough for you ;-) ? You can also fashion a workable support from a cardboard box, or make something in the shop if you are handy. I thought those were all fun to do with the telescope, and if you had no access to a tripod, you could still observe with something like this, albeit less conveniently. I've settled on a heavy-duty Manfrotto tripod that I already own, and it works great that way too, and much easier to assemble, use, and store.I have several eyepieces from another telescope I own, and I recommend you get some to go with this scope. The included 20mm eyepiece yields 25x. I have also use a 16mm eyepiece, yielding about 32x, and a 9.8mm yielding about 50x. Just to see what the scope is capable of, I loaded the 50x eyepiece into a 2.5x barlow lens, yielding about 125x, the theoretical max for the 50mm objective of this telescope. I was very pleased -- I saw no color diffraction at all. The Moon moves very quickly at 125x, though, so you'll need a tripod that can keep up! But I find the best view overall is probably with the 16mm eyepiece at about 32x (a Meade Series III Plossl) It's noticeably clearer than the included 25x eyepiece, and will show Saturn's rings, bands on Jupiter, and impressive views of the moon. If you get this telescope and decide to keep it, I strongly recommend adding another good quality eyepiece or two. I have also a 28mm eyepice (18x) to get a "wide field" view -- this is a nice way to look at the Orion nebula, Praesepe, the Pleaides and big stuff like that . They look great through this scope.The scope comes with an 18x "Galilean" eyepiece, which I've found to be useless as an eyepiece other than to show how tough it must have been for Galileo to see anything! I guess it's part of what makes it a "Galileoscope". Very cleverly, though, the scope also comes with a small tube that lets you turn this eyepiece into a 2x barlow lens. This lets you get bigger, though dimmer, views using the 20mm/25x eyepiece (included) or any other eyepiece.The biggest design issue is there is no star diagonal, so you have to really crane your head back to look at things overhead. And you have to find a way to cram yourself under the tripod. If you are a Yoga master, you'll have no trouble, but otherwise, it's the same problem you have with binoculars. On the other hand, there are lots of things to see in the sky at any given time, so it's not like you always have to look straight up. The telescope is entirely useful just as it is.If you already have a star diagonal, you may be able to use it if you also use a barlow at the same time. Either the Galileoscope barlow that comes with the scope or one of your own may work. The barlow is need to adjust the focusing range of the telescope -- as built, there is not enough "in focus" travel to make use of the star diagonal; with the barlow, I was able to get it to work. Note the inner diameter of the Galileoscope barlow was a smidge too narrow for standard 1.25" eyepieces, though it fit the included eyepiece. A few minutes' work with some sandpaper increased the inner diameter enough to get a snug but acceptable fit.The biggest drawback is the price, which is why I show four stars instead of five. Given that you can buy a 60mm refractor for a few dollars more, that will come with a tripod, star diagonal, and maybe a few other freebies, this really needs to be less expensive. The Galileoscope has a great "fun" factor, and the experience of actually building the scope yourself is certainly of educational value, but it's hard to recommend the scope at this price point, when other good-quality scopes are just a few dollars more. If you are only going to have only one telescope, and you can afford the Galileoscope, you can afford a more complete system that will be easier to use. At this price, I see this as a niche product where the value comes from the "do it yourself" aspect more than the quality of the scope (and it is good quality.) It would be terrific for teaching about optics and as an introduction to history and science via Galileo Galilei. As a standalone telescope product, though, I find it is overpriced. At 3/4 of its current price (I paid $50), it would be competitive as a good "only" scope. I am pleased with it because I already have another telescope and this one is fun to play with, and I really didn't want another tripod to have to store and all that, but it's really hard to justify the higher cost in the long run.Pricing aside, my hat is off to the fine team of folks who conceived of, designed, and manufacture this telescope. It's a terrific idea that I think works just as intended. I've enjoyed playing with and observing with it. If the DIY factor appeals to you, or if you have an interest in history, I think you'll find this an enjoyable project that yields a very functional and good-quality telescope when you are done.ADDENDUM 4/29/2013: A word of caution. Yesterday I used the Galileoscope to do eyepiece projection solar observation -- you project the image of the sun onto a piece of paper using the telescope. This is how Galileo made his famous sunspot drawings. I monkeyed around with the set up for at least half an hour, trying different things. At the end of the session, I found I had melted the field stop ring inside the 25mm eyepiece! The lenses seemed to be fine, but the inside edges of the ring were melted. So, if you use it this way (and it's the only safe way to observe the sun, other than buying an expensive solar filter)limit your sessions to a few minutes at a time!