I bought this for my son for Christmas thinking I was getting the telescope pictured that rotates 360 degrees. That didn't happen. The tripod is not one in the photograph its way more flimsy and the piece that makes the telescope rotate 360 degrees no longer comes with it. While the customer service rep was very pleasant and tried to be helpful via email she informed me that the website is in fact incorrect and will have to be updated ( this has been going on for over a month nothings been changed). Instead of reimbursing me for my purchase they offered me a $50 coupon for my next purchase from the company, I can't imagine why I would make another purchase from a company that is knowingly misrepresenting products online.

When the item arrived, I wasn't sure who was more excited for this item - my husband, or my kids! When we opened the box, I was impressed with the quality of the construction of this telescope. It came with several pieces, so I would encourage this item for more responsible kids. I think, based on how this item looked initially, everyone in our family had very high expectations. It was difficult to see or find objects with the telescope. This could be due to inexperienced operators. However, what we could see was really fun. For the price of this item, it is a fair value. I think with more experience, we will be able to see more. I think this is a great gift to provide family involvement.

The GeoSafari Vega 360 Telescope is lightweight and very easy to put together. The included tripod is shorter than expected, so if you use it, you may want to place it on a table top. By day, it has been great to unobtrusively observe various animals, and by night, we've been able to observe the moon (the best). This is a great introductory telescope for my child.

I would probably give this 3.5 stars if I could. I feel it could be made better, but my children do love it and have used it quite a bit. We received one of these from the company in exchange for our honest review. Out of the package, it was very easy to put together. There are screws holding it all together. It comes with the body of the telescope with a large lens, a tripod, 2 different eyepieces with different magnification power, and a longer extender eyepiece for viewing things on the ground. The tripod is kind of wobbly and it's to short to use the telescope comfortably unless the child is sitting on the ground or at a table. We had best luck putting it on the tailgate of a truck to look at the sky outside. I feel that there needs to be a redesign on how the eyepiece part attaches to the body of the telescope. It uses two screws that you tighten up to hold it on. One of our screws will already no longer tighten. I'm not sure if one of the kids tried to over tighten it and it stripped the threads, but since this is designed for children, I feel it should be a little sturdier. Other than that, it looks sleek and it works fine. It was hard to find the moon in it. There is a lot of sky to go through and a very small viewing area. It took my husband helping and moving the telescope with microscopic little taps until he had it focused on the moon. Once he did though, WOW! It was very cool. We could see the craters on the moon like we had never seen them before. The kids loved it. It didn't do as well with stars and I don't think you would be able to see any other planets or anything. My kids mainly use it during the day to look around the neighborhood. They are super impressed with how clear they can see things so far away. So I think this is a good toy telescope for kids to get them interested in basic astronomy. I would definitely put it in the toy category though. It's a great starter telescope that is sparking new interests in my kids.

This telescope was perfect for my 8 year old. It has a very sleek, modern look, is lightweight and is a quality product. This comes with a telescope that you can hold or place on the included tabletop tripod, 3 eye pieces and a diagonal mirror. My son and I were able to easily adjust the eyepieces and see the moon and a few stars. He was excited to spot things right away. I liked the tripod feature, but my 8 year old felt more comfortable holding the telescope to view the sky. We'd love to take this on our next trip up to the mountains where the sky is a lot clearer and there are more stars to look at than in the city.