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Tasco Galaxsee 114mm Reflector |
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REVIEW ARCHIVES Refractors Barlow
Lenses LINKS FAVORITE LINKS NASA
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The ReviewI
have
decided to send you a quick review of my telescope after reading many
comments on the net with reference to the brand which I believe are
misleading. As someone
who has only recently rekindled a childhood love of astronomy and on
a very tight budget, I began about six months ago to pine for a telescope.
To cut along story short, impatient type that I am I went straight down
town as soon as I'd saved some money and bought a Tasco 114 mm 900 mm
length Galaxsee scope. This
was the top of the range held by the photo shop in which I purchased the
scope. It comes in one (reasonably sized) box which contained the
following: 1.
The tube assembly 2.
The equatorial mount 3. The
aluminium tripod 3.
Two eyepieces ( 4mm and 20mm, both 1.25" type) 4.
Barlow lens 5.
Moon filter 6.
Sky watch CD and maps of solar system and moon 7.
Instructions The
assembly instructions are entirely pictorial and easy to follow ( I had it
all together in half an hour). The tripod is rock solid when the tray
between the legs is secured although the EQ mount does suffer some
vibration when knocked. It settles down within 3 or 4 seconds though so it
is not too bad. The whole mount looks very similar to photos I've
seen of an EQ2 mount and by that I mean exactly the same. There are two
fine adjustment cables for RA and dec which are a god send when sketching
what your viewing. There is also a piggy back mount for a camera which I
haven't used yet. The
optical tube is well made and looks good. I have heard terrible things
about tasco scopes so I am happy to say I did not waste my money. The
views are incredible! I have viewed the moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, The plaides, The Orion nebular, M31, and several
clusters. The
view is always clear and sharp with Jupiter's bands and moons visible and Saturn's
rings including shadow and if Its a very clear night the main
division is discernable. The views of deep sky objects are good enough for
me to sketch them with reasonable accuracy. It
is only possible to use max magnification (450) on the moon. Planets
look best at 225 mag and deep sky objects at either 45 or 90 depending on
size and brightness of the object. The mounting is easy to polar align and
very useful to track objects with. The
only letdown is the 5 times 24 finder which is stepped down so its
not even that wide! It means very carefully placing the scope by looking
along the tube before fine adjusting with the finder. Submitted by Anonymous
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