Galileoscope.

While I was browsing TradeMe one night I came across an auction for a Galileoscope for $30. Without putting much though into it I added it to my watch list and carried on about my business.

Why bother writing about this you may ask? Well the Galileoscope was the other recommended cheap telescope for someone on a very tight budget.
But not only is it VERY affordable but it comes as a kit set so you actually assemble the telescope yourself before you use it.

At the end of the auction, no one had bid on the Galileoscope so with about an hour to go I placed a bid and crossed my fingers... And I won.
A new Galileoscope for $30.

Once it arrived I quickly assembled it and attached it to a basic camera tripod and waited for it to get dark.
Assembly was really simple and I was pretty surprised to find out how basic a telescope actually is.

For $30 this telescope is AMAZING.
Now I'll admit that the only other thing I can compare it to is the Celestron First Scope but wow.
The Moon was extremply sharp and detailed, I got a really good view of Jupiter and its cloud bands and I even managed to track down Saturn and clearly see its rings.
Aiming with the camera tripod was a little difficult but not frustrating.

Apart from the Moon, the views of the planets were vastly superior than what I was getting from the Celestron First Scope.
Deep Space Objects were a different story though. Nebulae and clusters were rather disappointing after seeing them through the FirstScope.

This is probably because the Galileoscope only has a 50mm aperture where as the First Scope has a 76mm.

Still, for $30 I can't really complain.
Theres also a bunch of activities and educational information over on http://galileoscope.org to check out which is a bonus.
I'll have to go have a decent look at it at some point.