This is a pretty solid beginner telescope. It's light, and very transportable, which makes it easy to bring out and set up quickly. It does provide great viewing. The magnification is excellent, which provides for great images. There are a few small drawbacks I have found, and the reason for only three stars. The setup instructions leave a little bit to be desired, especially for someone who is not familiar with the operation of this type of reflector telescope. The site setup is somewhat of a challenge and takes a bit of effort to get lined up correctly. Finally, the phone mount is a great idea, but it does not seem to work well with any of our phone cases, so I would definitely recommend removing your case before trying to use the phone attachment for risk of damaging your phone, and even then be very cautious of the suction cups holding an expensive device. Overall, its a decent started telescope for the price point.

The new Telescope had been previously used, scratched, broken, returned and then sent to me. I bought it on sale so it was a decent price for an amateur scope. Whenever, you adjust the scope where you want it and then tighten it down it, it changes to position of scope.

Excellent product--does just what it says it will do

I cannot see anything but blur.

Very cool! I have bought my kids many of these but this is the best by far. Love how you can use your phone to take pictures. Not too difficult to setup or get the hang of. Woukd definitely recommend as a great christmas or holiday gift!

We just got this telescope this week. It was very easy to assemble. Very little to do yourself which was very helpful. I wish the assembly instructiins were better but it really wasn't hard to figure out. My kids really loved looking at the moon and the stars. We had an amazing, detailed view of the moon. Can't wait for Saturn to come into view so we can see it's rings! I am confident this telescope will give us a clear view of that, and much more once we figure out how to really use it. I wish the legs had those tabs you pull to adjust instead of a tension screw. Would make that part easier, especially in the dark. I accidentally unscrewed one too much and dropped it. Definitely be careful as every part that can be adjusted, works with tension screws and some are small! I did not find the cell phone holder to be particularly helpful. It took me forever to figure out how to get a photo. Placing my phone onto the holder did not really help all that much. It could just be user error, I'm sure with more practice we will figure this out. I did eventually get a picture but it's not crisp like what I was seeing when looking through the telescope. My trual and error pictures are posted. The one shot I got does not show as much detail as what I was actually seeing in the telescope so do not judge based on my photos. Over all, I believe this will serve us well once we get a better handle on how to use a telescope and take pictires.

The National Geographic NG114mm telescope is a good starter telescope. I was excited to have the option to shoot photos through the telescope with my iPhone. However, that has been challenging. With multiple lenses, it is difficult to line up, focus, and shoot. I got it to work, but I had to hold the phone the whole time. Maybe it will get better with practice.

The directions are tiny and mine were faded so it was extra hard to read. I still don't know if I have the right assembly. I'm going to look for a PDF online so I can hopefully get a better idea of what to do. Also, a small but crucial part broke off when I attached the viewfinder. Hope it superglues well.

My family has really enjoyed this telescope. It has been a great entry-level telescope that comes with two different lenses, a red dot viewfinder, cell phone holder and tripod. I haven’t successfully used the phone holder, since I use a bulky phone case and the multi-camera lens iPhones seem to have a hard time focusing through the telescope lens. I also ran into an issue setting up the telescope, since the instructions are not super detailed, and the dust cover did not pull off as easily as I thought it would. Word of warning- don’t touch any of the screws, they aren’t part of the dust cover, and will mess with the mirror alignment. A quick search online found a video that walked me through it though. The other issue I had was with the tripod not being particularly high quality. One of the inserts for the tightening knob was not secure, so that when I tried to turn the knob to lock the leg, the threaded insert came out instead. A little glue to keep that in place would have been appreciated, but it was a quick and easy fix. Other than that, I advise not taking any dogs with you when using this telescope in the dark- mine ran full speed straight into the tripod, bent a leg and broke one of the supports. I still really like the telescope and my whole family has been excited to use it!

Not very good for viewing stars but much view for the moon. Stars look brighter and nothing else noticeable, just a brighter looking star. Moon was more visible and looked like crater edges were noticeable on the half moon. Nothing really special was really seen with this telescope. l