Aldi Telescope

[JohnD]

At the price, can it be any good?
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2827_12865.htm
I don't know how to tell

I was thinking of something I could set up on the kitchen windowsill, I get various wildlife (foxes, herons, water animals) in the field and stream behind my house, thought it might be useful to have a closer squint sometimes.

 

[wotan]

For £19.99 it must be worth a look

 

[tim west]

At the price, can it be any good?
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2827_12865.htm
I don't know how to tell

I was thinking of something I could set up on the kitchen windowsill, I get various wildlife (foxes, herons, water animals) in the field and stream behind my house, thought it might be useful to have a closer squint sometimes.

and the nubile woman next door?

 

[ColJack]

ah it's a spotters scope, not a telescope.. 2 different beasties..

can't be all that bad..

 

[Nige F]

Shame .I wanted on to look @ Orion`s conveyor belt

 

[JohnD]

ah it's a spotters scope, not a telescope.. 2 different beasties....

what's the difference?

 

[empip]

Placed I guess Twixt the terrestial binocular and the astronomical invertor - allowing for some blurring especially at 60x mag! A bit of a gap filler... Having said that, I guess a true telescope does just that - pull and push !

I have a 15-60mag x 60mm zoom, bought in '69 straight through job - twist to zoom - table tripod - lovely piece of kit. Cost £30'ish back then £327 now at 6% inflation but allowing for better, cheaper equipment today then around £150'ish, perhaps even less... Does the biz when required, just a tad long compared to the neat kit today.
Look out for 'greying' at 60 power - vibration by hand or other will not help at all therefore does it zoom and correct focus smoothly with minimum image interference - if it does that and gives a bright image at the mags you'll mainly use, say 20 through 40 then buy it.
At 60x the 'no longer smooth' rim of the moon soon moves out of vision !!

-o-

 

[BingoBongo]

ah it's a spotters scope, not a telescope.. 2 different beasties....

what's the difference?

bet your sorry you asked

 

[tim west]

spotters are more compact and ideal for sports such as target shooting

 

[JohnD]

my local Aldi store received its allocation of thirty scopes yesterday, and sold them all

 

[twgas]

Never bought one from Aldi.....but I'll look into it

 

[metroman]

Hi,
My personal advice is stear well clear of the Aldi Telescope. Just my opinion, but it is not good quality. If you want a good telescope for some decent astronomy you need better quality than Aldi. I have a Skywatcher and a Meade telescope, both computer controlled.
Martin

 

[Space cat]

I just clicked on the link and got nothing. It's gone.

The only bit of info I can glean from the rest of the thread is that it's 60x. That's good for terrestrial viewing, though you'll need a tripod and you'll also want the image to be the right way up.

If you're looking for an astronomical telescope, the first thing you should look at is the size of the object lens (or mirror if it's a reflector). This is the bit that collects the light and the more of it you can get the better.

A bigger lens size also gives you more resolving power (I think that's the correct term). In plain English, it's the ability to pick out fine detail in an image. A big lens will show the individual stars in a cluster that appears as a single blob through a small one. It's not because bigger lenses are better made; it's a fundamental law of physics.

Odd though it may sound, magnification is not important unless you're looking at planets or the Moon. A star is a pinpoint of light and no telescope you can buy will make it look any bigger. But a big lens will make it look brighter and it will show up stars that were too dim to be seen through a smaller one.

So what size do you need? This question comes up from time to time on the Sky at Night and, if I remember rightly, a good size to start with is three inches.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

a good size to start with is three inches.

Did your girlfriend tell you that?

 

[Mickymoody]

Aldi have some totally amazing bargains..

IDE harddisk, £60, when the nearest price was double, I'm running it, totally reliable, just last week, I bought a slide viewer, advertised at £10, but as the advertised shop wasn't featured, was £20...the same in Argos is £60.