Observing on the cheap???

Although we read many posts here about all the high-end apos and such, we don't hear much about the lower priced equipment, other than the occasional comment about "cheap chinese optics".

I, for one, have had a 8" chinese scope & mount for 6 months now, that I have been quite (suprisingly) happy with. I had previously owned a high-end 8" SCT (which cost 5x as much), and find I enjoy this one just as much if not more.

Despite desparaging remarks about chinese optics, mine are good to very good. Maybe I just got lucky.... or maybe these scopes really aren't so bad...

Anyone else out there have a chinese scope with good optics?

Indeed Jake. I'd like to hear more from those with a 4" Celestron C102-HD (now rechristened CR-4 or its Synta equivalent), 4" Orion Astroview, 4" Orion Starmax, Orion 4.5" Dobs, etc., sort of the "fantastic 4 posts" ;-)?

Ron the 4-inch Tall Evangelist B[ee]

Well, if it counts, I have a 8" Guan Sheng dob from Taiwan, the Hardin DSH8. I consider it a *very* good scope, and I say that as the owner of a Starmaster/Zambuto.

Crisp images, holds collimation well, easy to haul out and use, and it passed the "Jupiter test" which I consider to be better than a star test. I bought this as an occasional use scope at Hardin's ridiculously low price, but I think that it is going to get a lot more use than I thought it would...if it ever clears up here that is.

I don't think either of us just got lucky, I think that this is the norm for these scopes.

Doug
Midway, FL

Well, I picked up a Tasco Starguide 4 on some super discount just to take GoTo for a spin. This was a while back and it's turned out to be a very good little scope. Not what you'd want for looking at DSO's in a light polluted city, but it's a fabulous little planetary scope and it shows good views of clusters (a little narrow with open ones, but...)

Definitely a great value, I think, and a very fun telescope to use and own. Now I want everything to be GoTo!

I have a 8" DSH on the way (hurry hurry hurry, little telescope!), which I initially became interested in because of the ridiculously low price. I went ahead and bought it because I heard so many good things here, and on the web in general, about those "cheap Chinese optics"--one comment that stands out in particular in my memory was "overperforming and underpriced." So I'm sure that, as soon as I get my eager little hands on the scope, you'll hear a bit more about some lower priced equipment. And something tells me it won't be me whining because I want a *real* scope!

~Denise

I own the Astroview 120ST.

I love it. Although I own an 8" SCT, I use the Astroview more and it gives great wide field views and believe it or not I also get great views of the moon and planets, given that it is a wide field f/5 scope.

I was up in Michigan's UP a while back and at 4:30 AM I looked at Mars and I could make out the polar cap and a bit of a dark spot near the middle. Earlier in the year, I could discern three cloud bands and the giant red spot on Jupiter and Cassini's Division in the ring on Saturn.

All this from a scope not recommended for planetary viewing. It does not give the views of my SCT, but one would not expect it to. But, then again, one would not expect it to give me the views of the planets that it does either.

I own several scopes including 4 with "cheap chinese optics." They are all good performers, the 8 and 10 inch DOBs are just amazing good.

But I would also say that I do see a lot of positive comments about these scopes. Certainly there is some snobbery but there are also lots of people like me who enjoy these scopes and post about it. That Hardin Optical 10 inch DOB is a great deal, over on S.A.A. I initiated a thread "The best $300 telescope ever?" (or some such thing.) All and all, in my mind there is no doubt that that is the all time deal for budget astronomers....

My 10inch OPT StarHunter has turned into really a nice scope. Originally I bought it used, the secondary was pinched, once that was solved everything has been great. Two remarkable views in my books:

1. The double-double at 1000x with round airy disks and even hints of diffraction rings. The mount is not really up to 1000X but the optics are, at least on double stars.

2. Splitting Antares while looking through a tree. A defocused image showed at least 50% obstruction, the leaves did present an interesting pattern.

So, yeah, theres lots of the scope with good optics. Most often the focusers need attention and the optics may needto be worked on a bit, retaining ring loosened or some such thing, but these scopes can be amazing.

jon

I guess that the fact that these scopes are cheap does not have to mean they are bad. Shure, you need to tinker with them a little bit, but once you are done you end up with a great performing instrument.

It's like those little civics that the kids get and then soup them up until they end up with a pretty mean machine. It won't be a jaguar, but these kids end up having tons of fun with them. That's the way I feel about my little astroview 100. It shows me what it can, and it's fun to use, even if it does not cost as much as my car. I love going out every night and challenge myself to try to find the stuff on an urban night sky. And when I find it, even if it's just a tiny blob, I feel like I can do anything I want, a feeling that I don't want to give up. If it wasn't for manufacturers that give us scopes that the average guy can afford, a lot of us would be without one, and that would be a real shame.

I've almost gotten out of astronomy a couple of times because of the cost of equipment and the hassle of setting it up for short sessions, compared to the actual amount of observing time I get. So, this time around, I decided to do something completely different. I knew I wanted portability and ease of setup as primary requirements. I also knew that I wanted a scope that could be used while sitting down. So, I picked up 2 inexpensive DOBs, just to see if I really liked the idea well enough to eventually get a really nice semi-custom DOB. Along the way, a 3rd opportunity presented itself, and so I now have 3 DOBs, ranging from 4.5" to 6" to 8". The most expensive one was the Hardin DSH 8" @$343 delivered. The other 2 were used Astromart specials. All 3 together cost less than a new Pronto OTA or Ranger package deal.

The comparison to the Pronto/Ranger is interesting, because even the least expensive Orion XT4.5" readily takes at least as much power and shows as much, if not more detail than my Ranger. Both the Discovery 6" & DSH 8" show consideraly more. Last night, I had the "toy" DOB outside looking at Mars for 2 hours. Despite the fact that it has a spherical mirror and throws up pretty ugly diffraction spikes on bright objects, it still easily showed me the Martian polar cap. And by using a photo filter in front of the eyepiece, it showed a good bit of dark shading on the planet. That's not bad for a $110 scope in poor seeing conditions.

My idea of eyepieces, is that I keep them simple, and pretty much use ones I bought here on Astromart for around $45-$55 each. Current favs are Meade 32mm Super Plossl, Meade 26mm Super Plossl, and UO 16mm Konig. When I want more power, I just use a 2.8x Klee barlow. I find that works as well or better than any of several smaller f/l plossls including more short Meade super plossls.

I haven't had any of these scopes long enough to really tell, but already I think I like them better than the small refractors and mid-grade Maks I've had. One thing I didn't count on, was how often one has to move the chair to use a DOB. But, these are a LOT of bang for the buck. They make me happy, anyway.

Mike Swaim