How would you rate this telescope?

Question

I am relatively new to telescopes. Could someone please tell me how decent or crappy of a telescope this is. And could someone tell me what all the numbers and measurments mean. Thanks

Tasco
MAGNIFICATION: 350x
TELESCOPE TYPE: Refractor
MOUNT: Alt-azimuth
EYE PIECES: (1.25") H25mm (25x), H12.5mm (50x), SR4mm (175x)
FINDERSCOPE: 5 x 20mm
FINISH: Metallic Turquoise
TRIPOD: Aluminum OBJECTIVE LENS DIAMETER: 50mm
FOCAL RATIO: F/13
BARLOW: 2x
WEIGHT: 8 lbs.

ACCESSORIES INCLUDED: Diagonal, Moon Filter

Answer 1

I think that you may be disappointed with that telescope. You will be able to see the 4 large moons of Jupiter with it and be able to resolve the Pleiades cluster and the nebula in Orion. Not a great deal more. The minimum size that I would recommend for astromonical observation would be a 6 inch Dobson or Neutonian. Celestron manufactures scopes of that size. I believe Mead does also. All of my scopes are Celestron.

Celestron also makes a 3 inch Neutonian for beginners for a about $110 including shipping. It comes with 2 eye pieces. The second link is a good source for this particular scope.

A Dobson gives you the greatest appature for the least cost. I have never used one so I can not with any authority tell you how easy they are to use. But the the 3rd link is to the Dobsons. Do not think of getting one larger than 8 inches. They are massive beyond that size.

One thing that you need to be aware of. You must use the telescope in a dark location to see the fainter objects such as galaxies and nebula and star clusters. You will not be able to see these object from a light poluted sky.

You will be able to see Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus with no problem from your back yard.

Answer 2

DO NOT BUY!!!!!! THEY ARE LYING TO YOU. To begin, a scope with a 50mm objective has a MAXIMUM magnification of 100. (Objective lens size expressed in mm has a max mag of 2 times the mm size. 2 X 50 = 100. That is nowhere near their "promised" 350X. If the objective size is stated in inches (50mm = 2"), multiply by 50. again, 50 X 2 = 100. Again, it comes nowhere near 350.) This is just the start of your problems. The optics are probably so bad that they're covered and a much smaller hole (10-20mm) is the actual lens. At best, all you will see is a blurry dot. AND AN ALT-AZIMUTH MOUNT is not even a decent astronomy mount.

Do a search on astronomy clubs in your area. They are cheap to join (mine is $15/year). Membership also entitles you to use a wide variety of first rate scopes, and fellow members will show you how to set up and use. After you feel comfortable using a variety of scopes on a variety of mounts with a variety of accessories, you can make a much more informed decision of what fits your needs best.

Answer 3

It is a POS waste, and only for decoration. Do NOT get this or any other refracter. Even a cheap pair of binoculars would be better. The reason it needs all that magnification is because it is a toy and you will see a magnified bright blurry dot shaking around. Rip off.

Get a REFLECTOR telescope with as wide a scope lens (think eyeball) as possible, as it will need the least magnification to see a good picture, and could always accomodate more. Look up Reflecting scopes and those with Dobsonian mounts. Very inexpensive, practical, and easy to use.

Answer 4

It's a "beginners" reftactor telescope...good for learning the basic star formations in the heavens. The eye optics are the cheapest which come with beginners' scopes...but they're suffice for low-power viewing. You will discover that under higher powers, like the SR4mm lense is useless and of very poor optic quality. The finder-scope is fine and very helpful if you have it sighted-in proerly. Use the North Star (Polaris) for this alignment, because it stands relatively "still". The diameter of 50mm means that it's only about 2" in diameter. The "Dawes Limit" of your refractor will be about 3.9 arc-seconds...which means that you'll only be able to "split" double-stars that are about 3.9 arc-secs or more apart. The "formula" for determining your telescopes limiting "magnitude" observance is calculated from the following formula" m (magitude)= 2.7+5 log D (where "D" is your scopes diameter in mm). your scopes limiting magnitude is 2.7+5 log 50= 11.19 star magnitudes. Rounded-off to 11.0 mags. The human eye can see only a limit of 6 to 7 mags. So your refractor nearly doubles your eyes' star observance...ir you're lucky with the cheap lenses you have with the scope. Don't expect to see better than about 9.0 mags. I hope this info has shed some light for you. "GOOD HUNTING"

Answer 5

This is basically a toy. 50mm is too small to see much in the night sky. The included eyepieces are primitive, and the promised maximum magnification is useless - at 350x, the image will be too dim and shaky to be of any use. A good rule of thumb is to expect no more than 2x per mm or 50x per inch of aperture.

Look for a refractor of at least 70mm aperture, or better, a reflector of 4.5 or 6" aperture. And get it from a real telescope store. In the US, Orion Telescopes and Binoculars (telescope.com) is a good place for beginner telescopes

Answer 6

Sounds good for beginning. a few Ruled to try or look for.
1. the magnification of x times the Lind's area needs to be that many times in larger area to maintain good brightness .
2. The focal length is what affects the resolution in seeing distant things. look in the catalogs and compare focal length the longest will allow u to see the finer details.
Good look have fun

Answer 7

Avoid any Tasco telescope made after the 1970s. And avoid any telescope where magnification is a selling point. Check out my response to a similar question here for more info:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnrEcYoXm5t6saO6YJrzg3nsy6IX?qid=20060719202408AA3Npec

Answer 8

it is a reasonable starter scope. At 50mm objective (2 inch diameter front lens) don't expect to see like in the pictures but OK for moon, planets, terrestrial. You will work mostly at lower magnification.

Answer 9

It sounds to me like a pretty good telescope. Have you tried it out yet? I love astronomy and wanna major in it. You are lucky to have your own telescope, and I'll bet it wasn't cheap!