zennox 900x60. question for ppl owning one of these telescopes?

Question

i have one and am wondering on your views of this item?

bought mine second hand but unfortunatly was not given the spare lenses, just the ones attached already so have not as yet got any use of it until i buy some lenses.

seen some reviews on argos for similar items but unsure on this one?

Answer 1

Larry's right. Basically,it's crap. Good for about 30x and rubbish any higher.

You'll see the craters on the moon...best at the straight edge of a half Moon because the contrast from that telescope is rotten and the craters and mountains at the straight edge are at sunset/sunrise so there's lots of shadow and bright bits which increase the contrast.

You can see the effect on here

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.uitti.net/stephen/astro/moon91half.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.uitti.net/stephen/astro/moon.shtml&usg=__QhZ4m4x6aHBNP0FSEP6XCX9GXMo=&h=405&w=450&sz=14&hl=en&start=22&um=1&tbnid=q9jNJehdVV3a_M:&tbnh=114&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhalf%2Bmoon%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox%26rls%3Dcom.yahoo:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20%26um%3D1 . . .

If you point it at Jupiter, currently very bright in the south-east as darkness falls, you'll see the four brightest satellites unless one ot two of them are round the back or whatever.

You'll see them a little bit better than this, but not by much

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2692096835_41da8bf12c.jpg?v=0 . . .



It's best not to buy telescopes from catalogue dealers, high-street department stores, or other cheap outlets.

Don't worry about not having the other lenses...none of them are much good anyway.

The lowest power one is the most useful on that telescope.

Tough eh? Sorry. True though.

Don't go all crying and stuff will you?

My first telescopes were made from spectacle lens blanks, with a lens from an old box camera for an eyepiece.

Even worserer,hehe, than the one you've got.

I've made 9 of them since then. Proper ones.

Use it for a sun projection telescope so you don't spoil a good one.

Not that there's much to see at the moment.

The Sun is currently very quiet..

http://www.petermeadows.com/html/observe.html

Answer 2

Kate -



I am afraid that this is not really a very good telescope. It's more of a toy than an instrument. You could go and buy some "lenses" (they are actually called eyepieces) but I suspect that they will each cost more than you have spent for the entire scope. You can find them at a hobby store that specializes in telescopes. Be sure to take the scope along, so you get the right size eyepieces.



This scope will not be easy to use. Please don't get frustrated. It will take some practice. Frankly, you would be better off with a decent binocular and some good sky charts. Most amateur astronomers use binoculars a lot. You can see a lot with them, and you won't be struggling just trying to keep the target centered, as you will with this - whatever, I hesitate to call it a telescope.



Sorry for the poor review, but I didn't lie to you.

Answer 3

Actually both Larry and Jonal are completely wrong.. so far off the mark i would guess they've never actually tried one of these scopes. i own and regularly use a Zennox 60x900 so i feel a little better qualified to answer this question.

Firstly i will concede that the standard eyepieces and finder are crap. i replaced them with a red dot finder (£10 ebay) and 2 celestron eyepieces a 10mm and a 25mm (they are 1.25" eyepieces) £7.50 and £9.00 respectively again from ebay.



the telescope is free from CA(chromatic Aberration) as it's an F15 focal ratio telescope. the 60mm objective is an airspaced coated Achromat the lens cell is plastic, the tube aluminium, the focuser plastic but 1.25" not .965!. the contrast is very good despite jonals comments about lunar views. the combination of long focal length and small aperture give very good moon views.



The beautiful out of focus image of Jupiter posted as some sort of sarcastic joke by jonal, is nothing like the views i get using this scope, the 25mm eyepiece is about the limit to use for "finding" maybe a 32mm would be better. once jupiter is in view, tracking it using the slow controls on the EQ mount is easy, then switch to the 10mm eyepiece and refocus and what you get is all 4 of jupiters moons in crisp clear detail. Jupiter itself appears as a peach coloured disc with both Northern/Southern Equatorial bands clearly visible and the great spot is a dim shadow. all this at 90x magnification which is somewhat higher than jonal's sarcastic estimate of 30x.



Larry says this is "more of a toy than an instrument".... how very wrong! he also says "Frankly, you would be better off with a decent binocular" Hmmm i have a pair of Hilkinson 15x80 binoculars that cant show the kind of detail i get from this telescope. Larry also says " I hesitate to call it a telescope". well i'm sorry Larry but i hesitate to call what you have written as a "Fair" or even "accurate" reply.



small refractors like the Zennox always get a bashing from the people who answer these questions. please read "cloudy nights" forums or "stargazers lounge" but more importantly only accept advice from someone who owns/has owned the telescope you're asking questions about. most answers come from the "Big Dob" brigade.



if you have a 60mm telescope and want answers join the "60mm telescope group" on yahoo groups.

Answer 4

Zennox Binoculars

Answer 5

i cannot help you on this as i am having trouble learning to work out this for my son at the mo, keep an eye on both our posts for answers will be best for both in my opinion