Celestron c90 scope review - OpticsPlanet Exclusive Celestron C90 Mak Spotting Scope w/ Tripod

I just recently bought this Scope and only have roughly 8 viewing sessions with it so far. The Scope itself is a fantastic deal and definitely represents fantastic bang for your buck. I am new to astronomy/ stargazing and felt this scope would be one of the best choices in terms of portability, ease of use, low maintenance and ease of set up and break down. It has taken a few sessions to get the hang of it. My first day, I used it to set alignment of the finderscope and then tried at night in fair seeing conditions but had difficulty finding what I wanted to see and stopping the scope and tripod from shaking or moving. The tripod's altitude and azimuth controls are very sticky and rigid and if you don't lock the altitude tightly when looking high, it will drift off of whatever you are viewing. After a few nights of use however, I became more accustomed to the controls. I also have been hanging the bag with 5 lbs of weight from the tripod to decrease the shaking and unsteadiness of the mount. After a few days use, I have been able to observe close detail of the moon, crescent Venus, Mars as a small disk, Jupiter and 5 moons and some detail to the cloud bands, Orion Nebula and to a much less extent, the Horsehead Nebula. I have tried to see the Andromeda Galaxy but I think there is too much light in my area to see more then a fuzzy patch. The view is fantastic with the 32mm eyepiece and though much closer,the view is definitely darker when switching to the 12.5 MM eyepiece. Plus the FOV is much smaller, the 12.5 seems to work better on bright objects or non-moving objects.
I have also taken the scope to observe birds and found amazing detail in the day whether viewing as close as 50 feet away up to 1/2 mile. When you don't have to adjust altitude much or adjust for Earth rotating, the tripod works much better. And I can't really complain as the tripod was basically free. The scope drew quite a few admiring remarks regarding the detail from a distance of various birds. And, it has become very easy to set up and break down in just a couple minutes. So again, no complaints. I do plan to make improvements including adding a 90 degree diagonal, one or two wide angle eyepieces of higher quality and, most importantly, a much more sturdy alt/az mount/tripod. But again, this scope is fantastic for starting out astronomy, portability, ease of use and price.