Explore FirstLight 102mm Doublet Refractor Telescope with EXOS EQ Nano Mount

Great scope. I did not uses the included mount. I put the OTA on the iEXOS-100-2 PMC-Eight Equatorial Tracker System with WiFi and Bluetooth mount. Very pleased. Getting harder to find longer focal length telescopes these days. Everyone is into faster scopes for astrophotography.

Phenomenal performance for a budget/entry scope. Breathtaking views of the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter including banding and the Galilean moons. Minimal to not noticeable chromatic aberration. From bortle 6/7 skies messier objects like the ring nebula, dumbbell nebula and many star clusters offer some beautiful views. I personally did not have troubles with the mount after carefully balancing the scope but I do not have experience with higher end mounts for comparison. The red dot sight is okay, it dims the sky and stars considerably and can make locating dimmer stars with it difficult. The options for modifying/ upgrading provides room to grow with the scope. I paired it with a 7-21mm zoom ep, 32mm plossl and a 8x50 raci finder and there’s nothing it can’t do for visual astronomy.

I finally have my first long focal length refractor! I've used dobsonians for a lot of years and lately mak cassegrains many times. But I've wanted to try out the capacity of a long tube refractor for double star viewing. I am not disappointed at all! The optics on this scope are quite good and divide many close double stars. The scope handles magnification well. The stars are sharp and the contrast with the background sky is pretty remarkable. I've spent hours of enjoyment under night skies in the 10 days I've had my scope. After years of trying, and on a night of fair seeing, I've now conquered Izar. At high power, it wasn't difficult at all!

I must also mention the tripod. I'm impressed with the sturdiness and lack of flexure. It is solidly built but is easily handled. And I love the tripod tray. It comes with holes for the eyepieces, something my other accessory trays lack (this used to be standard in years gone by). The eyepieces are far more secure in the tray. My purchase did come with a German equatorial mount and here is where it gets just a little bit dicey for me. I haven't used a German equatorial in over 30 years and it's been a bit challenging getting use to a different kind of slewing the scope. And I'm not sure the mount is the best fit for for THIS telescope. The OTA is so long that the slightest movements cause vibrations that take quite a while to settle down. Focusing at high magnifications is necessary for double star splitting, but has been challenging here. Don't get me wrong, the mount is solidly built. The slow motion controls are smooth and the scope balances easily. But the scope may be oversized for this mount. However, I've come up with a solution that totally works for me. I've placed my ES 1021000 scope on an alt-az mount and one of my maks on the german equatorial and they are a good fit, now working successfully. It's fun employing a little versatility to solve situations in this hobby.

Alright, now one truly negative critique. The finder scope, a red dot finder, is basically useless to me. The red dot shines too brightly even at its lowest setting. And the projection window, I believe it is plastic, is so dark that I can see almost no stars through it. From my light polluted Bortle 7 skies it is essential to see many bright stars so I can star hop to my targets. But with the scope's proprietary base, I was unable to swap the finder out with one of my standard red dot finders. This situation needs to be corrected, please.

Finally, I come to one of the very best aspects of this scope, its price. This is one of the best deals I've ever made on an astronomical purchase. There's so much value for it's price. It is worth every penny I paid for it and I would buy this scope again without hesitation! Thank you Explore Scientific for making this scope available.