With all respect to those calling this a "department store scope", it is in fact a Celestron AstroMaster, and not a bad unit in all reality.
http://www.celestron.com/c3/product....=62&ProdID=428
A mate of mine bought one of these scopes a while back, and as a total beginner, found that it was quite good - as long as someone experienced set it up for him first. Even rough polar alignment was difficult for him to master at first, but after a couple of goes with a north-corrected compass and an inclinometer I had him setting it up by himself well enough to observe objects for several minutes at a time - certainly well enough for a quick look around the sky.
The only nasty part of the scope was the "StarPointer" red-dot finder. Red dots, which I normally really like, are usually easy to use. This particular one is a right-royal PITA. It just doesn't work - so it needs to be replaced with a more common unit.
Other than that, the mount is a tarted-up EQ3 and quite solid for the weight of the scope.
It's a philisophical question for you now - equatorial or AltAz....