Big eye telescopes

[brendo]

Hi everyone,
Has anyone here ever heard of the brand 'big eye'? I am looking at a second hand scope in this brand and was hoping to find out if anyone had an opinion, good or bad. It's a 90mm f500 refractor approx 10 years old. Thanks for your help,
Brendo!!

[torana68]

I had a big eye reflector, optics werent so bad but most other parts were very cheap, is there a photo? Id advise sticking to known brands unless its $40 or so.

[brendo]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Refractor-Telescope-90mm-dia-500mm-focal-length-/291244746733?pt=AU_Cameras_Telescop es_Binoculars&hash=item43cf8a27ed

Was thinking of offering $100 but if you don't think it's worth that? I want to try a refractor out before I spend $1k on a better scope. Have been using a skywatcher heritage dob until now. Love it, but get much cleaner views from my 30 yr old 7x35mm binoculars.

[torana68]

I wouldnt at $100 if you keepa look out youll get something much better for $100 place a wanted on here, look for japanese made optics. Look for a makers mark on the decal/plate on the focuser , good ones have a "name" size and a little makers mark (usually something inside a circle). really REALLY good quality optics can be found in older Japanese refractors, go to 200 and you may find a smaller Unitron for example.

[brendo]

Ok thanks for the advice. I will do as you say and leave this one for now, and will keen an eye out for a quality brand.

[GrahamL]

Aside the manual looking to be from a celestron scope 60 eq ?

I'd go and have a look at this one if its was close by
If the optics looked ok and everything seemed to work I'd pay $100
I'dont think You'll get much For $100 here or elsewhere S/H
These scopes seem to list new at $500 plus and to me it looks a few rungs up from dirt cheaply made .

good luck

[torana68]

so what have you found?

[brendo]

Hi Roger,
I ended up getting it and have found that it's actually pretty good. The optics seem to be in alright condition and it's easy enough to get nice pinpoints and better views of DSO's than with my 126mm dob.
The tripod was quite ordinary but I've fixed that by buying an EQ2 from AstroPete here in Brisbane ($39!!!). I'm still waiting for a missing part to come in, but it's obvious just by looking at it that it's a huge step up in quality. I've also ordered a single axis drive motor for it as well.

All in all, I'm pretty happy about the whole thing. :D

[torana68]

nice :) any indication anwhere who made the optics?

[SkyWatcherMike]

Extravision used to use the brand name "Big Eye", IIRC.
You might check with them.