Skywatcher Telescopes

Reviews

We purchased this telescope as a starter for our 10 year old son. It is easy to operate for him and us. He was so excited to see a close up view of the moon. It took only a few minutes to assemble, no difficulty there. I would highly recommend this telescope to anyone.

Reviews

The Meade 70-AZ A is a fine starter scope. Takes about fifteen minutes to put it in place as per the instructional DVD (PLEASE WATCH IT BEFORE SETTING UP THE TELESCOPE!!! ). The optics is very good for an amateur to just start and learn about the night sky. Its not fair to expect to get a close view of the deep space objects and stuff as the ads claim. The maximum you can view with this scope is Saturn's rings and Titan. Jupiter is also quite clear. I was pleasantly surprised that the moon was very very clear through this scope with the shadows around the craters seen clearly. The altazimuth arrangement was a bit loose at first but watching the bundled dvd was of great help to help in troubleshooting and adjusting.Overall, this is a good starter scope. I would recommend getting the Barlow lens for an extra 35-40$ and that actually helps in giving an amazing magnification.Also, the elevation on the refractor needs to be tightened so that even if people disturb the eyepiece, the object wont go very much out of focus and it becomes easy to get it back in place.

Nice telescope for the price. I had no clue it came with a USB camera. Even with no directions It was pretty easy to set up. At first i put the legs on backwards. Stupid me. Overall, a good scope for a beginner like myself.

My grandson is gettng the experince of his life with his new Meade 70AZ-A telescope. He sends me an email every day on his findings. Best Christmas gift I could have given him.

Very good telescope. The directions putting it together were confusing but once I figured it out everything was fine. This was a great gift for my 12 year old cousin

Horrible tripod. Not very secure on mount. Easily shifts or moves making it difficult to keep objects in focus or in view. Bought it for my daughter for Christmas and was extremely disappointed with its cheap plastic construction. I don't recommend you waste your money.

Reviews

Great price and outstanding performance of these eyepieces. I shopped around alot and this price was outstanding. Shipping was very fast and packaging was great. I will use this vendor again.

Set features great eyepieces that have good field of view. Lower power lenses reveal great details of the moon and are ideal for 'calibrating' your spotting scope. Set's increments are very useful for stepping up magnifications of Saturn, other planets or the moon. Very easy to go 40mm to 32mm to 15mm to 12.4mm to 9.7mm to 6.4mm with focus and center technique greatly alleviating frustration and taking minimal time. Definitely recommend the set based on the increments alone, quality is above average for a set in this price range. I guess the only hit I have is eyepieces could be identified more readily. Font on eyepieces is small and hard to see in the dark.

My husband gave me a really nice telescope for Christmas. I wanted some better lenses to view planets so I searched around online. I found this set on the manufacturer's website and found it to be a few dollars cheaper here on Amazon. I'm very pleased with this set. The lenses are nice and heavy, the case is terrific and keeps each lens sealed tightly so that they can't move around. Great variety of lenses, heavy and much better quality than the ones that came with my Meade telescope.

Reviews

I've only had a chance to have it out once but so far I am very impressed for the money. It is very good up to 100 yards yards then falls off from there. Optics are decent and and certainly adequate for target shooting. It isn't going to compare to a high end scope, especially in low light and at longer distances but for a typical day, its pretty good. If you are looking for a good scope on a budget, I would reccomend this.

Reviews

For centering a star, collimating, determining angular distance, you won't find an eyepiece as effective for the price!

Reviews

I bought these for my grandchildren to use for star gazing. They have taken it a step further & use them to check out the birds and unfortunately the neighborhood. But the main thing is that you more than get your money's worth in this nice set of binoculars.

I wanted a good pair of binoculars to use for astronomy, and these had great reviews for clarity and quality, so I bought them. They have exceeded my expectations by a long shot. I can see the stars so clearly and the wide aperature really lets me see a lot more than other binoculars that I have at home. The tripod mount on the front was another deciding factor and I use it often while showing other people different objects on the skies. Great buy at a super price.

Reviews

I just purchased a "double-stacked" MaxScope 40 and was looking for tips on how to tune it and the interaction between the two filters, but I couldn't find that type of practical information in the book. The book does have a page on double-stacking, but says nothing about which filter to tune first and what to look for when tuning the filter. Also, since chapters are written by different people, it seems that the same information is repeated several times throughout the book, especially in the accessories section for each. Additionally, as was pointed out in another review, a new manufacturer named Lunt is directly competing with Coronado. Until this book may be revised to include that new line of scopes, it really isn't a complete guide to what you can get. So, I recommend this book as a reference, but was a bit disappointed by the lack of certain types practical information in using the scope.

If you are interested in observing the sun other than in white light, ie, hydrogen alpha or CaK, I would recommend this book as a reference. Hydrogen alpha observing allows you to see more of the sun than sunspots. Prominences, solar flares and much more. The hydrogen alpha telescopes and filters block out all the wavelengths of light except the one emitted by the alpha emission line from the hydrogen spectrum. In addition to the etalon (part that filters wavelength), there is also a blocking filter to block dangerous ultraviolet and infrared light. This book deals mostly with the Coronado PST (Personal Solar Telescope). However it also discusses other larger aperture Coronado solar telescopes plus filters that can be used with a regular "nighttime" telescope. There is a wealth of information about solar viewing and many nice photos. A few other brands of solar telescope and filters are also discussed. There is a lot of information about ways of observing the sun, how the sun "works", what you are seeing. The book also has a chapter on imaging the sun. The book was published before Lunt Solar Systems was founded so there is no information on their solar equipment. Recommended as a good reference for solar observing and imaging.

For those looking to get into, or already into, solar observing or imaging, this book is a must. The contributors are extremely knowledgeable and it's written in a way even a neophyte observer like myself was able to understand and gain valuable information. A great addition to any library! Stephen Ames

Since this it the only book of its type I know of, it's hard to make comparisons. I wish there had been more on the entry level Coronado solar scope, but the information and photographs were of interest nevertheless. Certainly worth reading (and viewing) for the information it contains. Since the sun is the only star we can view up close, it's an interesting area of observation. Being able to go beyond viewing sunspots through the usual sun filter is a definite plus. However, seeing flares and other solar details takes patience and practice and when the sun is relatively quiescent they're not always obvious! This book does encourage working at it.