B A Loney wrote:

Whats your take on the 4.5" Tasco luminova? It comes with cheap Huygens
EP's and a plastic 3x's barlow but it is only about $150. I think any kid
who has
an expressed interest in astronomy could do lots with it. The only problem
is
buying some cheap plossls rather than taking those huygens EP's seriously.

Hi:

Especially these days, you have to look at every one of these scopes
individually, as the importers change sources regularly and the quality
of the scopes can very wildly year to year or even month to
month...this goes for 'em all...TASCO, Meade, Konus (now big in U.S.
Wal-Marts) and the rest. The 4.5 inch reflectors I've seen of late have
acceptable optics (spherical mirrors at focal lengths just long enough
to be semi OK). It's usually the mounts that are the sore point. The
cheapest of the breed have mounts with enough backlash (maybe "flop" is
a better word) that it's hard to center the Moon. Certainly it is
possible to get one good enough to get someone started. And, certainly,
replacing the eyepieces with Chinese plossls will help even more (at
least most of the WallyWorlders now have 1.25 inch focusers).

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm

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For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog.