After owning a 12 inch beautiful Zhumell telescope I decided to go with a lower cost investment this time around with the Celestron 21036 PowerSeeker 70AZ Telescope, and it is everything I needed for under a $90 investment, and I would recommend this as a starter scope for all of those who are just buying your first one for yourself, or for someone else because if you go with a cheaper scope you just are wasting your money because by the time you end up disappointed for that $50 dollar or less telescope it will just be thrown in the closest until you move, and then it will be thrown in the garbage, and yes I have seen this happen more than once in my life; therefore, go no further for your starter scope and just trust me on this one before you go cheap, or expensive because this is a good purchase, and probably the best purchase for less than $90. The Scope has a 4 inch front from edge to edge if you are thinking of buying a solar filter to go over the front; I use an AstroZap full Aperture Glass Solar Filter 98mm-105mm (3-7/8 to 4-1/8) diameter, and I just cut some cardboard and I used Superglue to permanently glue the cardboard spacers around the inside edge to make the filter fit tight when screwed down because otherwise the filter would fall off which is very dangerous and can cause blindness; therefore, make sure the filter is always on tight for yourself, and if children are going to use it, and after making sure the filter is on very secure it might be wise just to remove the finder scope because it is tempting to use it, and the finder scope does have end caps on both ends just as the scope itself has caps on both ends. The size of the "L" shape part is 1.25 inches, and it is the part of the scope that you look through that makes all objects turn right side up for looking at mountains, birds, etc... and it makes it very comfortable to view the sky when pointing straight up, but you will need to sit in a chair because that end of the scope is lower and that is even with the tripod fully extended, and it is very comfortable anyway; however, anytime that you are going to use the 3X Barlow lens you will have to take the "L" shape part out and stick that 3x Barlow straight in with the eyepiece in the Barlow, and you will have to sit completely on the ground for that because the eyepiece is 31 inches off of the ground with you having to sit under the scope, and the "L" shape has to come off or you can never get the 20mm or the 5mm to come into focus, and everything will be upside down without the "L" shape, and the finder scope also has everything upside down. You can also take the Barlow out and just place the 20mm eyepiece, or the 5mm eyepiece straight in as well, but again everything will be upside down without the "L" shape part which is called the erect image optics for looking at landscapes. The Performance was absolutely perfect with a nice crisp circle to a point for a clear and sharp star image with absolutely no coma; for those who do not know what I am talking about the word coma means that the star has funny looking tails on them which means bad eyepieces because it is not a clear crisp point, but like I said these eyepieces that came with this Celestron 70AZ were extremely good, and that was looking at the Star Sirius with the 20mm that is 1.25 inches, 5mm that is 1.25 inches, and then I used the 20mm and the 5mm with the 3X Barlow that is also 1.25 inches and everything performed with an excellence performance. The Moon was full on March 1, 2018 and I live in a very light polluted commercial and residential area, and finding the Orion Nebula was very easy, and the performance of the Celestron 70AZ made every penny worth to see the Orion Nebula with all eyepieces, and yes I even used all eyepieces using the 3X Barlow, and it was difficult when it came time to use the Barlow, but I wanted to put this Telescope to the test and the Orion Nebula was crisp on everything, and I mean very crisp with an excellence performance again! I also put the Telescope through the same tests with the full Moon, and again everything was a clear crisp image, and you just cannot go wrong with that kind of performance for under $90, and remember this Telescope is light so that makes it easy to just grab it and go, but if you want a carrying case you will have to purchase one; however, I am glad Celestron did not include one because that would have increased the price, and I might have backed out of buying it because I really just wanted a low cost telescope with a good performance, and this was a perfect purchase for all I wanted which was something to grab and go outside in my light polluted backyard, and BBQ and see if I could see a few things, and trust me this Celestron PowerSeeker 70 AZ did far better than I thought it would, and that is why I strongly urge those reading this review to not waste your money on going for junk unless you realize you are buying junk and that is what you want to buy; otherwise, stick to this review because I have had an 8 inch telescope, a 10 inch telescope, and a 12 inch telescopes, and I even have had a set of Zhumell Telescope Binoculars, and I have had a Telescope Lab at the University where we got to use many types of telescopes, and the Celestron PowerSeeker70Az is good enough to be one of the telescopes we used in our Lab class, and that is the truth from all my experience. Using the Astrozap Glass Solar Filter, and getting use to looking at the ground with the Celestron 70AZ pointing at the sun takes some time to get use to what the shadow looks like on the ground when you know you are close to your target, and this is why I recommended to remove the finder scope before giving it to children because it is too tempting to quickly look into it, and always have the end caps on the finder scope even for yourself because it can damage the finder scope very quickly, or just remove it, but always make sure end caps are on tight, and the solar filter is on tight before you even step outside; good habits are a good thing to practice for that one moment you may make a mistake, and that is why I do not even step outside until all is set, capped, and tight, and then I step outside point, and while the telescope is pointing I am looking at the shadow on the ground. There will be a little shaking going on in a mild wind, but you can take a beach towel and just place it over the telescope close to the end pointing to the sky and that can stop some of the shaking. Some more information is that the power of the Celestron 70 AZ are as such: 20mm has 35X power, 5mm has 105X power, 20mm with 3X Barlow has 105X power, and 5mm with 3x Barlow has 420 power, and remember the higher the power the dimmer the object gets, and the closer you get to the object, and the faster the object will travel out of sight of the edge of the eyepiece; also, it is not so easy to get a small object such as the Orion Nebula at 420X because you have to remove the "L" piece, and then place the 20mm in to find the object, then very carefully take out the 20mm and put it into the Barlow and put the Barlow in and try to find it, and yes it was a beautiful crisp clear image, and of course the Moon was easier, and it was beautiful all the way up to a crater, and when I get to Jupiter and Saturn I will give an update, but I am already wanting a "wide angle" eye piece with a large 40mm 1.25 inch eyepiece because I like seeing seeing all of Pleiades in the eyepiece; therefore, I need a really lower power which means I will back away from power so that the eyepiece can capture more light, and by getting further back with the lower power I get to see much more sky in the eyepiece, and this is fun to just put a very low power eyepiece in and just start wondering around the sky looking around like you would when you are looking at a book instead of your face crammed into the book so close with power that all you see is just one word on the entire page when at a high power.
