This was the telescope I just received for my birthday. It is a 70mm refractor with a Altazimuth mount. This telescope came with a planetary imager that I will review at a later date.
The mount with this scope, as with most inexpensive scopes is lacking. It is much to small to support the telescope. It also is a little short to use the telescope standing and looking near zenith.
This mount was also difficult to aim and keep in the same place. It had a lot of wobble and wiggle in both the horizontal and vertical axis. It also was prone to heavy vibration. The small finder scope was almost impossible to use. Most scopes in this class now come with the red dot sights. That would have been much easier to use. Since this scope is geared toward a beginner, I find that these problems are just too extensive for a beginner to get much real use out of the telescope.
Now on to the telescope. The optics really weren’t that bad. There was some blue fringing on the moon and bright stars. I haven’t looked at any planets yet, so I can’t say on that, but I would assume that any of the brighter planets will have the blue fringe. This is what I expected with the scope. What I didn’t expect was the amount of reflection in this scope. It was almost as if there was no baffling or the inside of the tube was painted with a gloss paint instead of flat. This was very noticeable when looking at the moon. The detail of the moon after centering it in the eyepiece was good. I’ll push the power up the next time I get out.
The two eyepieces were inexpensive models, but the views were again what I expected. I did get some better views when I used my plossels. I haven’t fully examined all there is to this scope, and have yet to compare it head to head with other scopes. The diagonal mirror was of similar quality as other parts of the assembly.
All this said, I’m going to play with the mount to see if I can get it to be a little more friendly. I want to see if the scope warrents getting a mount update or just making something up in the workshop. It could be quick grab and go scope when I don’t want to lug out the reflector or set up the computerized scope. I will be mounting a small red dot finder to make things easier to find.
I took the mount apart and removed most of the heavy grease “sluggy sticky stuff” and just put it back together. It works much better. I will have to get a good grease remover, and then use some good all weather grease to put it back together. I also found that the reflection is coming from the inside of the focuser tube. Very shiny inside that. I have some leftover black material I used to line my reflector that should work very well in that. The only other thing I need is a red dot finder. This scope may make a decent quick view scope. Maybe just enough to determine if and when I bring out the big gun.