 |
National Geographic Land and Sky Telescope
by QuinDogg
The celestial objects have always been one of my passions in my free time. I began this interest watching documentaries about this amazingly beautiful science ever since I was a kid. However I had a time when I forgot about it a bit and concentrated my attention on other things. Just recently I wanted to take up some astronomical ... observation by my own means. That is why I thought buying this economic telescope was the best to start over aiming at the stars and planets near the earth. I bought it for just under £20 on Amazon.
The National Geographic 30x telescope is a very portable one which includes a tall enough tripod to enjoy a clear night sky, I would say, more as a hobby rather than for serious purposes. I also have a nephew who I look after a lot and since this is marketed more for children and teens I figured I could watch stars together and I could see if I used it enough to warrant buying a better one if need be. Its yellow colour looks great and it even makes your room look geeky but still cool due to its modernity.
The best of this telescope is its portability which allows you to take it everywhere, especially if you are going camping, since being far from the cities pollution makes it perfect to spot new corpuses and constellations in the vast universe. Nevertheless, I have to say it is not the best telescope in the market, and you can infer that from its price. That is because the 30x is not as potent when you want to look for further planets or look at stars in more detail. I kn ow that other uses it may have, would be for viewing wild life or actually to spy on people around you, even if I have not used it to do so. I think it would work better for doing these kind of observations.The issue with this use is that I guess a pair of binoculars would serve this purpose better, being smaller which means even better portability.
I think the National Geographic is more suited for younger people who rather want a educational toy. That is why I was not completely satisfied by this product. At least it was not expensive and that is another plus if you want to give it to someone you reckon might appreciate toys of this kind. I still would recommend it but it is definitely not for adults who demand more and get really into things more seriously.
Regarding its quality, I have to say it is just fine for its price. Having plastic parts, it sometimes feel fragile. Summarising, I cannot complain much about the product because I think for its price is the best you could get.
Read the complete review |
|
|
Skywatcher Skymax-127
by robosharkatron
This telescope has been fantastic so far. It is a very powerful tool which provides brilliant optics.
The fully motorised mount is great. It is lightweight and is very easy to set up. It's a compact little unit and can be transported easily.
The product is easy to use, but is still a powerful tool. It would ... be ideal for beginners and enthusiasts alike.
This 'scope, like all telescopes, is affected by light pollution. This one seems to deal with light pollution well, but would work better in an area with limited light.
I have an external power supply to power mine. I would recommend investing in one, as batteries seem to cause the mechanisms to slow down.
When focussed on something high in the sky, the eye piece is awkwardly angled. It's not a major problem but it does make things a little tricky.
Despite what it says in the official product description, this telescope is not built for terrestrial use. You have to buy a separate component to use it in this way; otherwise, the image comes out upside-down.
All in all, I'd happily recommend this product. It has its problems, but compared t other telescopes on the market, this one is excellent value.
Read the complete review |
|
|
Celestron Advanced C11-SGT
by Revier
The benefits of the Schmidt Cassegrain telescope include the ability to reach incredibly long focal lengths with a comparatively short tube length, the C-11 manages to do this while delivering spectacular views using Celestron's trademark Starbright XLT coatings.
The C-11 is very nearly the greatest planetary scope for both ... visual observation and ccd astrophotography, it's got an extremely long focal length of 2800mm which means you can get some serious magnification and can get a decent sized image when using a camera even without the use of a barlow.
The optics are first rate, viewing Saturn at 700x and having it remain sharp and crisp was simply astounding, with the subtle banding of its yellow hued atmosphere being easily discerned. On the moon I pushed the magnification upto 1000x just for a laugh and was blown away to see that in moments of excellent seeing the optics were still holding up, rilles and craters snapped into sharp and contrasty view. Although I haven't yet had a chance to use the scope on Jupiter I suspect it will be awe inspiring when I do.
The focuser is nice and responsive and takes a fair bit of weight (especially handy for astrophotography) and the 9x50 finder scope works well.
Although there's no doubt that the scope is predominantly a Lunar/planetary performer, with its 11 inches of aperture you will be able to observe a few of the brighter DSO's (deep sky objects), planetary nebula are ideal due to their small and bright nature, M57 being perhaps the brightest.
As well as being a phenomenal performer optically, the C-11 is very portable, all its magnificence is crammed into a mere 60cm of tube length and it weighs just over 90lbs (not the lightest of scopes but certainly manageable even by a single person).
Combining functionality and superb optics with portability is a recipe that can only prove successful, the C-11 is breath taking and while not cheap (£1600-£2000) it is worth every penny if you can afford the initial outlay.
Recommended highly for its ease of setup, transportability and above all its fantastic optical quality which delivers mind blowing, high powered views of the solar system
Read the complete review |
