L. Waldner 2008-10-21
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
I was thinking of spending about $50 on a telescope, after a few minutes I found myself looking at a $300 goto telescope. I've never really used a telescope before, I quickly realized that the hardest thing about shopping for a telescope is figuring out what your budget is.
After I watched the video for this telescope, I decided I could afford to spend a few extra dollars on it. If this had cost $30 more, I would only give it 3 stars.
The good: It is a nice big telescope for the price. I have been able to see the moons of Jupiter, and can just barely make out a couple of bands, but don't expect to see the big red spot with this. Saturn has not been out yet, but I am looking forward to pointing this telescope at it. The views were stunning when I looked at the edge of the moon where the sun was setting. I have seen shadows filling lunar craters with my binoculars before, but the view from this telescope took my breath away. I also really like the Mars Eye finder. It took me about half an hour to calibrate it, but once calibrated it works very well. A better battery cover for it would be nice. For me the 20mm eyepiece is more rewarding. The lower magnification brings in more light. It was easier for me to spot Jupiters moons with the 20mm eyepiece the 6mm eyepiece. This telescope was pretty easy for me to set up. The only tricky part was calibrating the Mars Eye finder. There is a fine adjustment for the vertical plane that works marginally well. It is lacking any decent horizontal adjustment. The accessory tray is nice for changing eyepieces. Without my glasses I cannot see much, especially in the dark. I can get the eyepieces back and forth to the focuser with this tray very easily.
The not so good: The packaging was not very good. I could hear parts shaking around in the box when I brought it inside. There was a slight dent on the side of the scope. It was very small, right where the mount attaches to the telescope. The scope that I got was white, if it had been gray I may not have noticed it.
The mount is not very good at all. Most reviews of telescopes in this price range seem to say the same thing. When using the 6mm eyepiece you need to wait about 5-6 seconds after touching the telescope for it to quit bouncing around. If you try to adjust the focus, you need to start over. The 20mm eyepiece takes about 2-3 seconds to get steady enough to look at. I cannot imagine trying to use the 6mm eyepiece on a windy night, or with any type of Barlow lens.
The software included is about 10 years old, and it shows. It may be useful if you want to use it on an older computer, but if you have a newer system I would strongly recommend Stellarium. Stellarium is free, just Google it.
Overall I do not regret this purchase at all. It certainly does require a certain amount of patience. At this price range it is easy to get nit-picky about certain details that higher priced telescopes may overcome. But dollar for dollar I feel this is a very rewarding telescope.
