A no frills, dependable and economical telescope package
Though many in amateur astronomy run from the words "Achromat" and "Chinese made", These don't have to be downfalls as the AstroView 90 EQ shows. The first thing that struck me was the price of the whole package, An EQ mount, two 1.25" plossl eyepieces, a 6x30 finder and 3.5 inches(90mm) of multi-coated objective lenses for $300. To a person who'd known only an alt-az mounted 60mm dept. store scope with plastic Ramsden and Huygens .965" eyepieces, the AstroView 90 seemed like a piece of heaven. And it was!
It was amazing how just one more inch of aperture could show me so much more of the universe than the 60mm. Mars was no longer just an orange smudge, I could actually see the great red spot on Jupiter, previously seen deep-sky objects took on a whole new life and countless others were "discovered".
The scope isn't without it's faults of course. The rack and pinion focuser and EQ-2 mount axes are rough in movement due to sticky grease in the components, and vibrations take almost 4 seconds to dampen(poblems that I fixed with cleaning and regreasing, and the replacement of the aluminum tripod legs with homemade wooden ones). The chromatic abberation, though not overpowering is obvious when viewing the Moon, giving the limb the look of having a bluish "atmosphere".
Otherwise the optics are superb, especially for the price. The Cassini division in Saturn's rings is obvious and sharp. Double stars as close as 1.35 arc seconds were split cleanly. On nights of especially good seeing I could push the magnification to 273x without the view turning to mush, giving a breathtaking view of the Jura Mountains of the Moons Sinus Iridium region.
As far as the accessories go the 6x30 finder is major leap over the 5x24 piece of trash included with many beginner scopes. Its alignment system is ingenious, requiring only the adjusment of two screws, the process takes all of 30 seconds to perfectly align the finder to the scope. It is awkward to use though with its inverted view and straight design, requiring some odd contortions when trying to seek objects near the zenith. I quickly upgraded to the Orion correct-image right-angle 9x50 when it went on sale. The Plossls included were again giant leaps over their Huygens and Ramsden cousins included with my 60mm scope, but not without their own peculiarities. The 25mm provides beautiful wide true field views and bright images, frameing such objects as the Double Cluster in Perseus and the Orion Nebulae perfectly. Though its long eye relief (which can be a good thing) is a bane when you have your eye up next to the eyeguard, making the image black out when your eye is not perfectly centered. The 10mm is pretty mediocre, It does its job of providing high magnification views, but thats about it. With very short eye relief, narrow field of view and glaring ghost images, there is not much good to be said about this E.P., maybe I just got a bad one.
This scope is also rugged, having survived 3 years of being dragged around in doors and out, disassembled and reassembled at least 10 times. Three moves from house to house including a 3,000 mile move from South Carolina to California over what seemed to be some of the worst roads in America. Without anything ever breaking or becoming misaligned, this scope is definatly road worthy.
Though I've sold the OTA and replaced it with the more 1 bedroom apartment friedly Celestron 102mm f/5 wide view refractor scope, I've kept the EQ-2 mount (which once refitted with wooden tripod legs and cleaned of its original grease is a wonderful "grab and go" mount). All in all the AstroView 90mm EQ is a great package for beginners at the right price.
It was amazing how just one more inch of aperture could show me so much more of the universe than the 60mm. Mars was no longer just an orange smudge, I could actually see the great red spot on Jupiter, previously seen deep-sky objects took on a whole new life and countless others were "discovered".
The scope isn't without it's faults of course. The rack and pinion focuser and EQ-2 mount axes are rough in movement due to sticky grease in the components, and vibrations take almost 4 seconds to dampen(poblems that I fixed with cleaning and regreasing, and the replacement of the aluminum tripod legs with homemade wooden ones). The chromatic abberation, though not overpowering is obvious when viewing the Moon, giving the limb the look of having a bluish "atmosphere".
Otherwise the optics are superb, especially for the price. The Cassini division in Saturn's rings is obvious and sharp. Double stars as close as 1.35 arc seconds were split cleanly. On nights of especially good seeing I could push the magnification to 273x without the view turning to mush, giving a breathtaking view of the Jura Mountains of the Moons Sinus Iridium region.
As far as the accessories go the 6x30 finder is major leap over the 5x24 piece of trash included with many beginner scopes. Its alignment system is ingenious, requiring only the adjusment of two screws, the process takes all of 30 seconds to perfectly align the finder to the scope. It is awkward to use though with its inverted view and straight design, requiring some odd contortions when trying to seek objects near the zenith. I quickly upgraded to the Orion correct-image right-angle 9x50 when it went on sale. The Plossls included were again giant leaps over their Huygens and Ramsden cousins included with my 60mm scope, but not without their own peculiarities. The 25mm provides beautiful wide true field views and bright images, frameing such objects as the Double Cluster in Perseus and the Orion Nebulae perfectly. Though its long eye relief (which can be a good thing) is a bane when you have your eye up next to the eyeguard, making the image black out when your eye is not perfectly centered. The 10mm is pretty mediocre, It does its job of providing high magnification views, but thats about it. With very short eye relief, narrow field of view and glaring ghost images, there is not much good to be said about this E.P., maybe I just got a bad one.
This scope is also rugged, having survived 3 years of being dragged around in doors and out, disassembled and reassembled at least 10 times. Three moves from house to house including a 3,000 mile move from South Carolina to California over what seemed to be some of the worst roads in America. Without anything ever breaking or becoming misaligned, this scope is definatly road worthy.
Though I've sold the OTA and replaced it with the more 1 bedroom apartment friedly Celestron 102mm f/5 wide view refractor scope, I've kept the EQ-2 mount (which once refitted with wooden tripod legs and cleaned of its original grease is a wonderful "grab and go" mount). All in all the AstroView 90mm EQ is a great package for beginners at the right price.
