Hello and welcome to my channel! I'm an amateur astronomer with 40+ years of experience in helping others enjoy the night sky. My work has appeared in writing at many of the major astronomy publications, and at various places around the internet. I write a popular telescope review web site, www.scopereviews.com, where I've reviewed hundreds of telescopes. I do astronomy outreach with children, and I am an NSF Ambassador to Chile, and a NASA Solar System Ambassador. While at Dartmouth, my master's thesis on astronomical imaging won an award from the school. Join me here, and let's learn and have fun looking up at the night sky!
Yeah, I'm not a fan of automated stuff, maybe I'm a fool, but the hunt and challenges of conventional AP is the thing I enjoy. If this is what you want, save your money and download professional images for free on the internet.
Most people use auto focusers now which makes the mirror locks obsolete. Saying that the best picture of mars I have ever seen was taken through a c14 with a 4x barlow which yielded a focal length just short of 20000mm and an old converted DSLR camera. On this occasion Mars was at its closest point to earth and the seeing conditions were almost perfect.
"I only have 100-150 budget" what happened with saving? U don't have to get straight away a telescope, save 100-150 more and u can buy a nice tabletop one or save some more and get dobsonian ground one for 500
One of the best views of jupiter that I have ever seen was with this telescope. Very larg secondary and thick spiders and low focal ratio of this telescope on papar not produce a planetary killer but it is not .and very capable on planetary
Ed, thank you for this review. I just stumbled on a 6" f/8 and am keen to explore with it when weather and time allows. The link to the Thomas Back article is broken. Do you, or does anybody else know, how to access it?
I bought a mirror grinding kit from Edmund Scientific back in the 60's. Never did finish building that reflector. I wanted to buy a 16, or 8 foot whether baloon.
I have a Zeiss 25mm widefield long eye relief microscope eyepiece with a 1.25” barrel conversion which is my favorite. I use my classic TV Plossls and a few Circle T orthos for planets. For star parties I go to the Celestron 25 mm Plossl or a TMB or Zhumell long eye relief 9-13mm 127mm Orion Makstov 155mm AP Star 155ED
I had an Astroscan back around 1970 and it was an excellent introduction to astronomy. Easy to set up and good image quality. The weight was a plus as it enhanced stability and made for smoothly moving to other parts of the sky. Back then never heard anyone complain about quality.
I think the most important thing is the entry cost compared to conventional astrophotography. 500 dollars is a price point that can change the hobby. It makes a hobby that has been historically ridiculously expensive, attainable to many more people. The tradeoff is you MUST post process these stacks and to do it with any sense of satisfaction usually leads down the path of paid software which can easily get to 500 dollars quickly.
I agree. If only for the history and wacky design, it's relevant. I wanted one as an oddity to just have on a shelf, but decided on more usable astronomy gear. Would I grab one if it crosses my path at the right time at the right price? Probably.
I really appreciate your channel Ed. I knew you were an artist by attention to detail you give to your videos. We have a lot in common, it'd be cool to meet you one day.
Hello, I love your videos. Have you heard of the PiFinder. It works like electronic setting circles but instead it uses plate solving and it's extremely fast. It's a self-contained device that you stick on your telescope to help you find things.
Ed love your Vintage reviews I’m interested in a future video on the Unitron and similar classic refrigerators like Goto etc. The showpiece planets are well positioned for a nice review for us vintage refrigerator guys. I have a 1971 mint Unitron 142 3” f16 equatorial with all the bells and whistles. And I’d love to see some content on these and many new amateur astronomers would benefit from some history. Even though I know your Unitron 4” isn’t perfect, it’s still a rather beautiful specimen and a walk through would be amazing.
Was watching your older vids and was wondering if you think a skywatcher 8” dobsonian 200d would be a perfect beginner telescope that would last a life time?
I have a 2500mm focal length on my 10 inch Meade SCT. So a 50x magnification is a 50mm eyepiece. A 41mm is largest for panoptic. Is a 31mm Nagler equivalent with its larger 82 degrees? Or do I go with a 55mm plossls?
Ive had 3, current own 2 of them. lets be real.. optically they suck. its def not a high power scope... but for low power wide views it works well kinda in between binos and a proper telescope. and they are def fun
I agree. In the old astroscan user manual, they described the astroscan as occupying a niche between binos and something closer to a general purpose telescope. They also stated that it is best for wide-field from 15x-35x. That being said, the optics can be improved greatly with a rebuild and collimation by shimming the front optical window (with attached secondary mirror). At this point, most of them need some work to perform "decent."
Ed, I was a Sky Watcher importer in South Africa back in the 90's, I got given one of these, a made in the USA model and I found it dismal. No ways I would have paid more than $50.00 let alone $200.00.
In the early 80s, I washed and dried dogs and cats for over two years to save up enough to buy a Meade 826C. I still have it. I love it. Not a research grade. However I remember those ads for the research grade scopes.
I know astronomy is an "old" hobby. From what Ed says, I couldn't imagine someone buying one of these who wasn't alive at the time of their production. I know I wouldn't. I looked through one briefly at a club outing and although I think the design is super cool., the view was terrible. Maybe it was a bad model?
Many of them need restoration after 20-40+ years. There is a polyurethane foam pad under the primary mirror to help keep the mirror in proper position. The foam often deteriorates, and the mirror moves out of alignment. When rebuilt, they are very good for low-power wide-field. Also, it is a very fast (f4) Newt. There will be coma at margins. It was not meant for high mag.
Worth it as a collectors item but as you can't recollimate it or easily clean the innards probably best avoided for serious astronomy.Bushnell do a similar looking scope which I believe is still in production but it generally gets poor reviews.
I have the 12" Celestron dob- yes, they do get a bit weighty. No astrophotography with a dob? I do all my astrophotography with my dob. At least with a cellphone mount over the eyepiece if that counts
About the RKE 28mm eyepiece and the famous "floating in space effect," some very knowledgeable people on Cloudy Nights forum say it depends on your eye as much as the eyepiece. Your eye must have the right entrance pupil, and there are other factors.
Thanks Ed. I saved myself some money as the sun never shines here in the Pennines North of Manchester. I notice over the last 20 yrs there are more clouds also, ahh well!
It would be very helpful if someone were to post a video demonstrating the proper repair, rebuilding, and collimation of these telescopes. They deserve to be rescued.
Yes, I re-watch some of your great videos. Primarily an astrophotographer, most of my eyepieces came with telescopes I bought. The exceptions include a Meade 2" 21mm wide field, Meade 8-24mm zoom, and an Orion 40mm Plossl. The Meade 21mm is a bargain with great optics comparable to much more expensive eyepieces and gives fabulous views through my 10" Orion Dobsonian. The Orion 40mm is theoretically a misfit for the 10" Dob but the views are wide and bright. The zoom is just handy for quickly checking out objects before selecting a single focal length eyepiece. Now you got me want to take a peek through a Televue Panoptic.
I rebuilt 6 of these. Replaced the foam in the back. Realigned the secondaries. These older models have parabolic mirrors. I can push the magnification up to 100x. Excellent diffraction pattern and Airy disk. Can easily resolve the double double in Eta Lyrae. Collimation can be done by shimming the edge of the glass plate. Replaced felts on base. Added stub to use StarSense. Laser cut and bent replacement finders. Very nice. Replaced rollers. One of my favorites.❤ BTW Cloudy Nights has examples of 1-1/4” design for coma correctors using off the shelf parts. With a 19 mm Televue panoptic and home-made coma corrector, stars perfect to edge. ❤❤ pushing magnification I could see 6 bands on Jupiter. Watched Io and Europa transits. BTW I found some aluminum tubing that jackets the focuser tube and I brazed then tapped through to make a nice 1-1/4” adapter with thumb screws!❤
It is bigger than it looked in photos. Thanks for all of the details about it. I was under the impression that their bigger reflectors were actually pretty good, but will take your word on that. I am impressed with the stability of the small Edmund Scientific EQ mount I found on Craigslist.
