Astronomy Stuff

[SignOfZeta]

Absolutely no viewing tonight since its snowing several inches, but I did do some research on how to use the German Equatorial Mount so...no more struggling to point straight up!

My basic opinion of this telescope so far is that they obviously cheaped out on several things to make it fit into the low price point, but they made it count where they could. The tripod is a bit shaky, but totally usable. The viewfinder is really cheap, but also totally usable. The barlow lense...basically its garbage. I expect to never use it. The mount however is very nice, and the optics in the scope, 90º and eye pieces are very nice. So really the only thing lacking is the tripod, and even that is something I don't plan to upgrade for a while.

I think I'm going to check out the local club, University Lowbrow Astronomers, which is in good with the school and has open access to a 24" reflector (the viewfinder on which is bigger than my actual telescope) and is somewhat out in the country.

[guyjin]

The barlow lense...basically its garbage. I expect to never use it.

what is it, and what's wrong with it?

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It

what is it, and what's wrong with it?

A Barlow lens is something you add between the scope's body and the eye piece to increase overall magnification. This one is 3x, so it triples whatever magnification you currently have based on the main lens and eyepiece. In theory they are great but this particular one is really cheap. Its all plastic, possibly even including the lens itself (!) so clarity is abysmal. One person wrote something online about how it was probably included just so that Celestron could compete with "Christmas garbage" scopes that sell themselves primarily on magnification power. In real world use magnification power alone is almost meaningless, and with something as small as this 80mm lens, it isn't going to let enough light in to really work well at its maximum magnification of 525x. In all honestly I'm having the most fun using this thing at its lowest magnification.

When I actually get a non-snowy night and I get a chance to take it into the countryside, then maybe I'll be interested in magnification power more.