Review for Celestron Omni XLT 120 mm Refractor Telescope - 21090

Author: Scanner Eric from Chicago Il. on Jul 21, 2007
Would recommend:  yes

Scanner Eric wrote:

I received my new Omni XLT 120 refractor about 3:00 pm Friday, July 20th. I set it up to get familiar with this scopes features. Everything in the two packages arrived intact. First was the size, wow this is a large scope. The tripod and the mount especially the mount are quite heavy. This makes for a really stable platform. Considering the weight once fully assembled, slewing the scope was effortless. Just balance the scope as described in the manual. Note to Celestron: The box with the tripod and the box with the OTA both had manuals and software. The only problem I have to report is that I had to take apart the 1.25" star diagonal as the mirror was not positioned correctly. Two minutes to fix, no big. That night (last night) I took the new Omni out to the dark site to meet several astronomy club members and go for a test viewing. Another WOW! Everybody was impressed by the handling and optics. I have never seen the quarter moon so sharp and clear. Craters inside craters. The patterns of Jupiter were quite clear, after putting the light reduction cap on the lens though, as the light transmission is so strong. I was using eyepieces that are just to much for my 10" Dob; 5mm or 9mm on a 2X barlow. 25mm and 38mm really were the best for seeing open clusters. Even managed to spot that comet between Alkaid and Izar. This was my fifth or sixth viewing session with these new friends of mine and I saw more last night than all other nights put together. The Equatorial mount takes some study, but even so, try just looking for faint "fuzzies" through the finder scope and you might find M6, the "butterfly cluster," like I did. All in all an awsome scope for the price with great potential. I already have a wish list started.