I can hardly think of any telescope within the size range up to 8 inches that would serve my needs better. I emphasise that this is not a telescope for the person who wants the GOTO facility, automatic tracking or wants to do astrophotography. However, the last two issues can be resolved by adding an equatorial platform. Many galaxies and planetary nebulae show considerable detail due to the high contrast of the Zambuto primary. When seeing conditions allow, perfectly clean splitting is achieved on pairs like h Coronae Borealis, z Bootis and z Cancri.
Star colours appear beautifully.
For stars brighter than 7 th magnitude it is possible to estimate the spectral class of the star from the colour, even telling the difference between an F and a G class star. Due to this, most star clusters are incredibly beautiful in this telescope, and the number of objects showing a decent amount of detail is great. Before acquiring the Portaball, I considered lunar and planetary observation to be uninteresting. The Portaball is, however, an excellent planetary instrument, showing a lot of detail on Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon. Jupiter displays faint diffraction spikes arising from the spider vanes.