[Steffen]

I nabbed one at our local Aldi yesterday. These are my first impressions:

The mount is simple but usable, azimuth friction is adjusted via a nut underneath the base, the altitude friction via a knob (which moves the scope in altitude when adjusted). There are setting circles on both axes.

The OTA is a metal tube with plastic fittings at both ends, the focuser is an all-plastic rack and pinion 1.25" focuser. It wobbles somewhat and isn't suitable for heavier loads, but probably adequate for the scope's intended purpose.

I took the bottom fitting off in the hope of finding a way for primary collimation. There isn't one without modification. The mirror itself is made from glass and 11mm thick. That was a nice surprise. I took the opportunity to give the primary a quick wash (it was rather dusty) and mark its centre.

The secondary mirror is held in place by a single vane (a threaded rod). Its position can be shifted towards or away from the focuser, by loosening a nut and screwing the mirror holder in or out a few turns. The secondary mirror can be collimated in the familiar way via three screws.

My sample was completely out of collimation. The secondary mirror was nowhere near underneath the focuser, it was way too much forward. The centre screw of the mirror holder was long enough to let the mirror be moved into the correct position, however the collimation screws are too short and don't reach the mirror anymore once there. I added a spacer ring between mirror holder and mirror to overcome this problem. Alternatively, one could try to find longer screws.

After things looked about right in the sight tube and a laser dot hit the centre of the primary a couple of hours had passed. Once the clouds part a star test will show whether or not the lack of primary collimation is going to be an issue.

The scope also comes with two eyepieces of the cheapest kind, marked SR6mm and H20mm. They come in the most annoyingly difficult to open plastic cases. Also included is a moon filter (blueish). Finally there is a brief manual, a tiny planisphere and a software CDROM.

Overall, and pending actual testing under the sky, this package seems to be fair value, especially compared to other "beginner scopes". While mine was useless (due to severe collimation issues) out of the box a little tweaking seemed to pull matters into the target range. I'm actually looking forward to first light.

Cheers
Steffen.