Posts Made By: Kurt Horsley

...and one near the parking lot by the trail. -Kurt Horsley

Good picture. It tells a story.
I'm curious...how do you like your Sony A100? I'm thinking of getting one myself but I'm not sure I want to go back to a DSLR and start buying/carrying lenses again. But...it's a nice camera and I'm tempted. -Kurt Horsley

Celestron has just released a new telescope designed to be used with the sky scout.
It has no metal parts and will not interfere with the GPS function.
Unfortunately, it looks toy-like and I'm not too impressed. -Kurt Horsley

Wow...look at those colors.
Excellent shot. -Kurt Horsley

Wow...that's a beauty.
Nice job of spot metering with the camera.

Nice shot Ron.
I see the 'ol FZ20 is still serving you well. Great cameras. -Kurt Horsley

Very nice. No substitute for getting close. -Kurt Horsley

Nice Eric,
You must have been close.

Peter,
How do you like the Orion autoguider?
I've been giving a lot of thought to buying one myslef.
Any problems? -Kurt Horsley

Welcome to the hobby Moe.
I wanted to offer some information that might make you feel better.
There remains quite a bit of concern about the previous ownership of Celestron by Tasco.
Let me say that the ownership was both brief and unremarkable. To my knowledge, absolutely nothing changed. They didn't wave a magic wand and somehow reduce the quality of the product that Celestron was selling. It's the same thing...same people, same equipment, same assembly from the same place using the same equipment...nothing changed, better or worse. The Tasco debacle didn't affect quality in any way.
Having said that, you do realize that your scope in question was almost certainly made in China. Celestron did, and still does, sell products that are from China. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Chinese quality is consistently getting better and most modern products are superior to the ones they replace.
The scope you're looking at is a fair starter scope. It should have a good quality mirror and if you use good eyepieces, it will get you started. I used to own the exact same scope. Remember that the eyepiece is half of the optical system. It looks like your scope uses 1.25 inch eyepieces so you're in good shape. Some of the early examples used .965 size and they were awful.
One last thought...a 4.5 inch mirror will only show you so much. You will quickly hunger for a larger aperture scope. Consider buying a better scope now and you'll save both money and the trouble of reselling this one. Dobsonian scopes are so cheap and so superior that the difference is staggering. I think $50 is a bit too much for what you're buying. Add $100 and you will be astonished at the difference in both optical quality and ease of use...not to mention what the extra aperture will show you. Good luck.