I am quite happy with the purchase. My intention for this scope is to be my Solar and Moon visual viewing scope. And, for public outreach as I grow into my local club. However like everyone else I am waiting on my mount. So I am unable to say anything more about the scope optically. Other than it is impressive and slick looking to the expectations of, "What people think of about a telescope." It is going to serve me well. Only notably issue at this stage, "Is the scope arrived missing the lens eyepiece cover for the finder scope." Please consider this review as notice to rectify the issue. On second thought it is so minor of an issue since any number of solutions exist in my tool bag. Sincerely, mtk

I love it. Most of the CA Is easy to deal with. Very crisp images. More than I expected out of an achromat

Have not had the occasion to use it ye.

my main use of this scope is for wide field viewing and low to mid power use. its not great for resolving smaller dso's. but still a great scope to image with deep sky camera. i recommend it to anyone.

This telescope was an upgrade from a Celestron 102, which was a nice refractor as well. After a few years of using it, I was looking for a more hybrid refractor (and a goto mount that would allow me to view deep sky objects as well as still enjoy good detail on the planets. I have used this scope on about 15 occasions over 4 months and it was everything I was looking for. The 127mm lens collects plenty of light and provides extremely bright sharp images. I use a variety of different brands of eyepieces (Orion, Celestron, Meade, TMB Planetary and they all serve up very sharp images with this scope. The two-speed focuser was a nice upgrade from my other refractor and it also comes with a very nice 2 star diagonal with 1.25 adapter (every bit as good as the 2 star diagonal I had purchased separately for my other scope. Even better is the sturdy storage/carry case that comes with it - which makes it easy for transport and storing. The 8x50 spotting scope is very nice and has an adjustable focus. I have spent time viewing Jupiter, the Moon, galaxies, double stars, star clusters and a few nebula (my first view of the ring nebula. I have been particularly impressed with the sharpness while viewing star clusters and double stars. Having decent eyepieces helps too, I'm sure, but even the cheaper eyepieces I have are great to use with this scope. I've pushed this with a nice 3mm eyepiece that I have and although the views seem better (sharper with a 4mm at 206x, the image is acceptable with the 3mm on a perfectly clear night. There is of course some minor chromatic aberration that's noticeable on the edges of bright objects (such as Jupiter when it was at opposition but, this is an achromat and it does a pretty good job of keeping it to a minimum. I only seem to notice when I'm intentionally looking for the aberration on the edge of a bright object (which is not very often that I'm thinking about this. I'm using the ES AR127 on an Orion SkyView Pro mount and it's a great combination. I would highly recommend this scope and would definitely consider buying other products from Explore Scientific. I'll definitely keep this one for a looong time. Bottom line - this telescope is awesome

I got this telescope as an upgrade from a nice 4 achro I had (now at my daughters' school. Boy, am I glad I got it. First light was with M35 and the first view at 27X was close to what it looked like in my 4 at 110X. When I took it up to 103X, the cluster was nicely framed with gobs of ice cold points of light. Recently, I took it up to 206X on this complex and got a nice view of nearby Cluster NGC 2158. Other deep sky objects have been very pleasing to observe in this scope. I've gotten nice clear first time views of M1, M51, the Eskimo Nebula, and much more. M13, M3, M5 and M15 at 206X show inidivual stars winking in and out all across the faces like Christmas tree lights. M11 is drop dead gorgeous at 206X. Although this telescope is probably better for viewing deep sky objects for which chromatic aberration in general, it does a fair job on other targets. Chromatic aberration is noticeable on Jupiter (I didn't get a good look at Mars with it and I don't observe Venus. But with prolonged observation, I can pick out a good bit of the festoon detail with it. Saturn is better. It really serves up nice images of lunar detail with false color only being discernible to me when I'm looking at the rim of the moon. The best suprise for me though is being able to observe a fair number of deep sky objects with the AR 127 at very high power (206X and picking out and drawing a lot of detail from the crisp images served up. The only issue with my particular telescope is that it came with a focuser that was loosey-goosey, tending to slide out when the scope was pointed close to Zenith and with Ultima and Hyperion eyepieces in it (boy these things are the size of small coke cans!!. In a few calls, the good people at OPT and Explore Scientific were able to coach me through tightening it. That's the only reason for giving this scope 4.5 stars. Otherwise, I'd given it a 5 (or 6 if I could LOL.