Lidl Refractor Telescope

Standard Toaster

Is this telescope any use? I'd be interested in getting one for christmas. Maybe get a taste for astronomy.
Spec:

"Sagittal professional mount and perfectly fitted aluminium tripod for stable and sturdy observation
For observing nature as well as astronomical use
Magnification: 35x - 175x
Max. magnification with accessories: 525x
Specular refraction camera can be connected to telescope!
5 year guarantee."
€65 yoyos

I know absoluty nothing about telescopes btw.

Cheers

Is1ldur

I was just going to post this. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

jArgHA

dia dhuit,

i would say that this telescope is of poor quality. a general rule of thumb is if you are buying a low end beginners refractor (say of objective lens diameter 60mm), if you're paying less than €150 its bound to be crap.

the description given on the Lidl site lacks all the important information needed when deciding to buy a telescope, ie.

what is the diameter of the objective lens (bigger the better)
what focal length does the objective lens have
what eyepiece(s) come with the scope
what accesory(s) come with the scope
who is the scope made by

I for one would not go near it with a ten foot pole, sry if this dissapoints ye but you really need a bigger budget to get an entry level refractor (at least €150)

slán,
jAH

Standard Toaster

Cheers jArgHA.
I'll hold off till after Christmas when the cash flow is better.

Johnmb

Here are most of the technical details:
Technical data:
- Focal Length: 700mm
- Objective diameter: 70mm
Accessories:
- Eyepiece 20mm+4mm (35x + 175x)
- View-finder scope 6 x 30
- Star diagonal prism
- Aluminium tripod
- Equatorial mount
- Astronomy software and Star Navigator on CD

Can't find anything about who makes it, but how do those details look? Are those details enough, or is there something else that I should look for if buying a telescope?

jArgHA

Those specifications look OK, ie. match what an entry level refractor should have. It's the price and non-brand that would worry me.

I am speaking from experience as first refractor I received from Santy was practically the same as the one detailed on Lidl website, with a similar cost (around £50) at the time. I was thrilled at first, when looking at the spectacular objects like the moon and the giant planets - Jupiter & Saturn. However when it came to observing anything else the scope was very poor - unstable mount, dodgy slewing (left-right, up down), poor image quality, chromatic aberration (bad colours).

Bottom Line: A new refractor for under €150 is bound to be poor and may destroy a budding interest in astronomy.

Standard Toaster

What telescope would ye suggest jArgHA?
My little bro is showing an interest and I'd love to start him off early. Cheers.

Redshift

See Albert's post in this thread for more information on choosing scopes and where to get good ones http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=126375

albertw

Originally posted by jArgHA
Those specifications look OK, ie. match what an entry level refractor should have. It's the price and non-brand that would worry me.

A lot of non brand stuff is coming in from (maily) China. Some of it has very good optics. Decent quality low end scopes have come down a lot in price. That is not to say all reasonably prices scopes are worth the money however!

However when it came to observing anything else the scope was very poor - unstable mount, dodgy slewing (left-right, up down), poor image quality, chromatic aberration (bad colours).

Though there are plenty of scopes that you can get that will fit nicely on a camera tripod, for example http://www.scsastro.co.uk/it050006.htm so you can get around buying mounts.

Bottom Line: A new refractor for under €150 is bound to be poor and may destroy a budding interest in astronomy.

Not so sure thats true, I have heard folks singing the praises of scopes from lidl. search for lidl on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irishfas for some opinions.

Also prices on http://www.andromedaoptics.com/refrac.html start at 100EUR.

Now granted these scopes are not going to be brilliant beginner scopes, but if you want something with a bit of magnifying power, and you really want a telescope rather than binoculars, and dont want to spend much money then low end refractors are the way to go.

As for general advice for cheap refractors.
. avoid scopes with plastic components.
. at least 70mm lens diameter.
. sturdy mount.
. some coating on the lens. realy cheap scopes wont have any.
. avoid tasco et. al. as they still cant seem to make even passable scopes! look in the argos catalogue for examples.
. avoid scopes with barlow lenses as included accessories at these prices. they are bound to bee too low in quality and also useless for the scopes.

Cheers,
~Al
--
www.irishastronomy.org

Is1ldur

I would more or less be a complete beginner, would this be appropriate, what kind of views could one expect. For example planets, moons, etc.

Redshift

With that scope you would most likely get good views of the moon you would see craters and mountain ranges. As for planets I suspect you would be able to resolve the rings of saturn however you would not be able to see the individual rings with such a scope you may also be able to see Jupiters moons as points of light around the planet, Jupiter itself would appear as a tiny disk and I doubt you would see any banding or the red spot. deep sky objects like the orion nebula should also be easily viewable. There is an awful lot more that would be outside of the capabilities of that scope.

albertw

From Terry Mosley:

Some of you may already have got an earlier version of this - if so,
apologies. But since trying the first transmission, I have been informed that it will
be on sale in ROI from Monday at an unbelievable €64.99! That's only about
£45.50.... So if you live close to the border, you know which way to go! (hope
it's the same scope!)
[Rest of original email follows]

I'm now reliably informed that the Lidl 70mm telescope goes on sale on
Monday. And it now comes complete with "Astronomy software and Star Navigator on
CD". But the ad in Sunday Life does not mention the 'terrestrial' barlow,
although it still may be included.

BTW, the ad is a bit off-putting in that there's some weird translation,
presumably from the German: it refers to the possibility of adding a "Specular
refraction camera" to the telescope. Now that's a new one even to me...... And it
also refers to the mount, not only as being an equatorial, which it is, but
as "Sagittal". Again, that's new to me, unless it's a trade name. However,
don't let that put you off, and anyway, the instructions that came with mine were
clear & comprehensive.
Three other points: it has a built in lens hood / dew shield; the tube is
well baffled internally; and the focuser is nice & steady & smooth, and has
plenty of travel.
The optical tube assembly (w/o eyepiece) weighs only 1.1kg, so it's very
light, even though it has a metal tube. The minum tube length is 700mm, but you
could reduce that to 620mm by temporarily removing the focussing mount, so it
would be quite easy to transport for anyone thinking of travelling abroad for
the Transit of Venus in June. You could also easily make an adaptor to mount
it on a camera tripod (I have already done so) if you didn't want to bring an
equatorial mount. Over to you, folks. (No, I don't have shares in Lidl. And
I'm risking the wrath of North Down Telescopes. Among others... But it's all for
the benefit of you, the consumer!) BTW, they don't take credit cards! Just
Debit cards, or cash, or a cheque & cheque card.

Capt'n Midnight

And the store in Lucan ain't opening till thursday

Capt'n Midnight

Guess what I got

Since I live in an area with a lot of light polution the viewing ain't going to be great anyway.
Still putting the bits together - suprising amount of metal in it..

The "prism" is of course a mirror - but you could fit a real prism if you took the cover off.
Unlike a Tasco scope I got (Argos 16 day ) the finder scope has glass lenses.

Assembley - diagrams ain't great

SW included is MEADE "limited edition astromony software" copyright 1999 - ie Starry Night Bundle Edition.

Not sure how good it is since there are lots of street lights here - and it wouldn't focus on any of them - too close. So tried a bright star , at first thought there was a lot of aberation.. turns out it was Saturn - my first time seeing the rings.

Anyway by the time you consider the tripod and mount there ain't a lot left for the optics -

Hmm... they also have 50mm Binoculars for €30 - though they look like zoom ones Enlargement 8:24so probably ok for terresterial only.

cobyrne

Does anyone know if those 'scopes are still available? Are there any Lidl shops that still stock them, or are they sold out?

Thanks.

Capt'n Midnight

There was a pallet load in Lucan up until the week before christmas - then gone - reckon a lot went as last minute pressies.

Beëlzebooze

have you had a chance to try yours yet Capt'n?

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
Not sure how good it is since there are lots of street lights here - and it wouldn't focus on any of them - too close. So tried a bright star , at first thought there was a lot of aberation.. turns out it was Saturn - my first time seeing the rings.

Been too busy / too wet / windy to retry since

Beëlzebooze

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
Been too busy / too wet / windy to retry since

you could always set it up in the livingroom and have a squint at your neighbours

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
there are lots of street lights here - and it wouldn't focus on any of them - too close.

ozmo

Astro beginner here.

I bought this telescope. I thought it was an impressive setup. Certainly a lot of metal. I don’t think there was any plastic except for around the eyepiece.

Totally in awe when I got to see Saturn’s rings with it.
Using the software it was very easy to find. The planet and rings were totally white on the dark sky with very little detail (normal??). But I could see through the planet and the rings. I'll try to take a photo and post it here.

Still cannot get the equatorial mount configured correctly - manual wasn’t great ; just 4 pages in bad English - and without it those planets race across the view at a surprising lick of speed (gone in about 30 seconds at highest magnification) and can be trick to track.


So Questions:
1. Anyone have any good info on setting up the equatorial mount ( I presume its a standard setup)
2. Any suggestions to what else I should be looking out for (besides the moon)?

Cheers,
ozmo.

albertw

Originally posted by ozmo
I bought this telescope. I thought it was an impressive setup. Certainly a lot of metal. I dont think there was any plastic except for around the eyepiece.

And the O ring attaching the scope to the mount. I discovered it was plastic when I broke it attaching it to another mount...

1. Anyone have any good info on setting up the equatorial mount ( Ipresume its a standard setup)

There are many ways to set it up and tweak it. I'll post some URLs tommorw about it. Basically the principle is that it should point towards the north pole, and you slowly turn one of the knobs to keep a star in place.

2. Any suggestions to what else should I be looking out for (besides the moon)?

Planets, most will be visible in this scope. Double stars. The brightest nebulae (eg in Orions Sword) and the andromeda galaxy. A lot of other `fuzzy` objects are visible but not very impressive.

Download the latest Arcturus magazine from http://www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/viewFiles.php?folder_id=3 and it should give you an idea whats visible at the moment.

Cheers,
~Al

ravydavygravy

Heres a few photos taken with the skylux last night - totally amateur (held digital camera up to the eyepiece), but still nice IMHO:

http://picasaweb.google.com/david.masterson/MoonPhotos

These were using the 20mm eyepiece, I couldn't get the scope still enough for a clear shot while handholding a camera at the higher magnifications, but you could see a lot more detail just looking through the scope with the 4mm eyepiece...

Redshift

ravydavygravy wrote: »

Heres a few photos taken with the skylux last night - totally amateur (held digital camera up to the eyepiece), but still nice IMHO:

http://picasaweb.google.com/david.masterson/MoonPhotos

These were using the 20mm eyepiece, I couldn't get the scope still enough for a clear shot while handholding a camera at the higher magnifications, but you could see a lot more detail just looking through the scope with the 4mm eyepiece...

Nice job:)
They are not bad at all.
Did you use any filters to take those?

ravydavygravy

no, just point and shoot.