Thanks all for the more detailed responses, I can now clearly see where each of you is coming from. To put the cat among the pigeons though, it has to be said that I am a complete newby to astronomy and had no significant issues getting used to this scope.
The comments didn't upset me, it just annoyed me that someone could read the comments and think that the scope was a piece of junk. If it's what you have at hand, use it until you feel you want/need something better. Thanks to this model scope I know I want to get into astronomy more, and it only cost me $50 to find this out. In Canberra it costs that much for my wife and I to go to the movies, and that's without snacks! When I get my 12" dob I'll pass this on to one of my students at school and let them enjoy it.
I have been in optical hobbies (cameras, microscopes, binoculars) for many years so the optics side of astronomy is no issue for me. However, this whole 'finding things in the sky' thing is all new. If I there had of been a dob close-by I would have bought it, but instead I got this model of scope for $50 and have not looked back.
Perhaps in some ways I'm spoiled by being a teacher as with most kids you can point them at something and say, "Go play with it, I'm here if you need to ask questions" ...and they will amaze you by figuring out the most complex things in ways you never would have thought of! I in fact did just this with this model scope. They ended up unclamping both the alt and azi guides and effectively used it as a dob. Fair enough, I use it the same way but then clamp it back up and use the fine controls for tracking.
As for set-up, I never bother. I plonk the thing on the ground, make sure the tripod is firmly set and rock 'n' roll. I'm aware that using both controls to track something defeats the purpose of an equatorial mount, but I don't care, I just use it and have fun. Plus, with a newborn, 'setup' means sneaking the bloody thing quietly out the back door without banging anything loudly enough to wake the baby.
The list of things looked at that I posted below are all things I can find consistently from memory after only a few weeks with this little gem, what's so hard? I'm not gifted, in fact I'm probably a bit slow by most people's standards - and I still don't see what the big deal is.
As for wobble, with this model I get about 2-3 seconds of wobble after refocusing between EPs, even less when using the fine controls to re-position something in the FOV. I don;t know, maybe on other scopes (manual not go-to) you can move the scope and maintain perfect wobble-free status. It doesn't bother me though as I quickly adopted the 'let it drift through your FOV then re-position it' viewing method. My students also worked this out after about 5 minutes.
EPs? Currently the dodgy ones that were original to the scope (even got the original manuals, posters and solar and lunar filters etc - neato). BUT, when at my mates house I use his extensive collection. I must admit to being partial the both the Pentax and TeleVue EPs, no surprise there though I guess. I have some secondhand TeleVue plossls coming (32mm and 20mm - they were really cheap so I just couldn't pass them up) and a 2.5x Powermate. I've used all of these already in this scope and they work great.
Aperture, ah that old egg. I can completely understand where you are coming from, but to be honest I have to respectively disagree. 1:7.9 shows me a lot. I go looking for something and if I can't find it I write that in my observation diary and move on to the next item on my list/star-chart. I've learnt a lot about my 'seeing' in the last few weeks precisely because I've had to work for some things. I've also learnt the value of a good EP, the value of averted vision, the value of good seeing conditions, the value of REALLY getting my night vision and the value of hanging a bit of cardboard in a tree to block that awful bloody streetlight.
I'm convinced that if I had a bigger/better/faster scope some of this would have taken a lot longer to learn.
Am I wrong to believe people are capable of independent thought? Of perseverance? Of Googling the bits that make up a scope and what can go wrong with them? I researched that very topic for 20 minutes before I went to look at this model scope. Maybe years of farkling predisposes me to quickly figuring out mechanical devices, I don't know. I do know that when I was younger if I was unsure I took an older/more knowledgeable mate and learnt from them as I went along.
$85 may be a lot for some people. But then again, if someone wants to get into any hobby that involves optics...well...they are KIND OF asking for it, are they not???
Ok, baby finally asleep (been bouncing her with my foot as I type, apologies for the rant), have to go and get some real work done now for tomorrow!
Clear skies all, no hard feelings - just a bunch of crotchety old codgers wishing they could all be spacemen eh?
I know I am!