Telescopes

My experience using two 80-millimeter long-focus refractors

The Orion and TMB refracting telescopes are both a joy to use, and will undoubtedly stay with me for life. I sometimes get offers to sell but have politely declined; as the reader will suspect, the thought of a sale has never entered my mind.

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GSO 8-inch TRUE CASSEGRAIN

GSO Cass can be regarded as somewhat of a specialist instrument. Its excellent overall optical quality, fine lunar and planetary performance, reasonable size and weight, and bargain price make it a fine choice where sterling deep-sky and rich-field capability are not a priority. It is a good alternative to much pricier 5 to 6-inch apochromatic refractors for both visual and ccd work. In the price- to- performance ratio, I don't see anything in its price range that comes close (except, perhaps for a high-quality long-focus Newtonian [but try to find one!]) as a dedicated lunar and planetary instrument.

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Celestron Ultima 80

I had the opportunity to observe the sky with this spotting scope during my holidays last Summer. My Father in law happened to own the Celestron Ultima 80 for nature watching and shooting sport and had left the scope at his holiday house near the seaside where I spent my holidays with my family. The sky there is pretty good so you can see 5.0-5.5 magnitude stars with the unaided eye at the zenith.

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The Meade Infinity 102 AZ

The Meade Infinity 102 AZ Altazimuth Refractor A Review by Bill Steen September, 2014 This review is in response to feedback I requested and received on an article submitted to Cloudy Nights on my thoughts on the two new lines of Meade entry level scopes, the Infinity Altazimuth and Polaris Equatorial series. After a few weeks, I received a cryptic email from Meade telling me that an Infinity 102 AZ Refractor and a Polaris 130 Equatorial Reflector were being sent to me for my review, with no other words.

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SkyWatcher ED Esprit 120mm Apochromatic Triplet

I have always said that if I had to go from having a couple of scopes to one in weighing aperture versus portability, contrast and almost crystalline view, then that one scope would be a decent aperture refractor. This 120 might just be the ticket.

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1966 Sears 76mm f/16 Equatorial Refractor - "A Telescope made for Astronomers"

The year was 1966 and the day was the 25th of December. Early that morning I woke up and joined my brother, sister and first cousin in the quest to see what Santa had delivered under the Christmas tree. There was a corrugated cardboard box wit

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Meade 60mm Refractor : Paperweight or Powerhouse?

Never go on Ebay if you don't want to spend money! One night I was rooting around to see what great deals I could find. There was a time when I missed out on a $5,000 sports car that I could have bought for $450 had I just looked in the next barn! Do not want to make that mistake again especially when it comes to telescopes. I Saw a Meade 60mm refractor advertised for

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Orion Star Seeker 80 Goto Refractor

The reasons I chose to purchase this scope are manifold. Firstly, was the price, I was looking for a wide field goto refractor that wouldn’t break the bank as the poor economy has hit us all. I paid $269.95 for this scope delivered and it regularly sells for $329.95 plus shipping, so

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Celestron EdgeHD 8" SCT

The EdgeHD marks a milestone in commercial SCT development. In the standard SCT design, the primary and secondary mirrors are both spherical. As designed, the standard SCT has inherent off axis coma and a

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Takahashi Sky-90 SV

When I received the scope, it was just as many said it was going to be. Packed extremely well and very well built. However, I didn’t deem it any more well built than my Vixen 80ss. In fact, the Vixen is more attractive, and the focuser

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