I was walking past Aldi at Westfield Tuggerah this morning and noticed they are advertising a tabletop dobsonian telescope on the catalog board outside the shop - for $49.99. Ok it's only a 76mm mirror, but it does have a azimuth circle on the base and a compass built in from what I can determine. Three EPs of unknown quality. National Geographic Branded and a three year warranty.
Our posts were uploaded within seconds of each other. I reckon these scopes are so good they probably deserve to have two threads running at the same time.
Do these things come with a finder scope?
The more I think about it the more I am tempted to get one.
Last edited by Shark Bait; 10-12-2013 at 06:28 PM.
Don't waste your money, many better things to spend $50 on!
I bought one last year and it is probably the worst piece of junk I have ever encountered. The secondary didn't even sit under the focuser, and couldn't be adjusted to do so. It is so lightweight that even with the bolts on the Alt and AZ motions backed right off attempts to move the scope only resulted in the entire thing moving.
Only way to use was to pick it up and point it by hand!
Absolute rubbish and National Geographic should be ashamed to be associated with these.
Just to be clear I only bought one as I have several times cautioned beginners against buying this class of scope, and felt I needed to at least try one to make sure I was justified.
I have had a look at the bigger table top dobs such as the SW 130mm and the Orion Starblast ones and they are much better in build, but the little 76mm ones are pretty much just rubbish.
And no they do not come with a finderscope, the damned thing is a finderscope!
While the scope doesn't work out of the box (as Malcolm said, the secondary isn't in the right place) it can be fixed reasonably easy (longer secondary screws) to work nicely as a finder scope. I've tried to beat some sense into the mount, but gave up. The necessary outlay for bearings, Teflon etc is probably not worth it.
And sold by Ozscopes for that price as well, as one of their Christmas specials. Hmm, I wonder, if you bought two could e you turn them into binos with a bit of duct tape.
