Epinions Recent Content for Optics Accessories

Lightwedge book light: the good and bad.

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:10:33 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jenniferkateab - The ultimate book light is one that will not drive a wedge between you and your sleep mate. Does this situation sound familiar? You might be the night-owl who likes to read in bed until the wee hours of the night, while your roommate or significant other...

great little pointer, but...

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:56:18 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author noslenwerdna - The Celestron green laser finderscope is built well, has a great design and looks great, however, the beam is not bright enough to be useful on any but the darkest skys and by the most adjusted eyes. I am keeping mine and will be pulling it apart to get...

Must have for urban astronomers

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:49:20 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author dtskiles - I live in Washington D.C., so I relate well to the joke in "Madagascar" when they say "Oh look - the star is out." It's a challenge to identify some constellations when you can't really see all the key players due to light pollution. This...

Great Filter for Lunar Observing

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:51:26 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author luxuryliners - Introduction: The Zhumell Moon filter is a 1.25" barrel size, telescope eyepiece, filter. It provides for easier viewing of the moon in all its phases (though it is more essential in phases closer to the full moon) by filtering...

Sorry I sold mine

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:16:43 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author paul1947 - I owned a Televue 6mm Radian eyepiece for about 2 years. I only sold it because bought a new telescope and this focal length gave too much magnification. Originally I used this eyepiece with a 10 inch 1200mm focal length Dobsonian (200X) and saw stunning...

Geologists Got Bling!

Sat, 5 Apr 2008 12:26:58 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author scmrak - You can spot geeks by the "bling" they wear: the telltale jump drive on a lanyard. But geeks aren't the only group to have their characteristic bling: you can also spot a field geologist by the hand lens on a neck cord. If the geologist's a pro, chances...

Piece of junk-doesn't work

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:45:28 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author stevenp65 - Got it out of box. Seemed simple enough, powered on. Got immediate error message. "GPS hardware problem. Contact technical support." I called their 800 number. As I write this I've been on hold 15 minutes. "A brief delay" as far as they are...

Up to Date with an Obsolete Serial Cable

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:44:20 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - The Celestron RS-232 NexStar Serial Cable is one of those peculiar products which make me ask myself, "Isn't there some way I can do without this?" RS-232 is long in the tooth- to the point where it is starting to disappear from computers altogether in...

Decent Wedge, but Not Needed For a Painful Reason

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:12:50 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - After the novelty of having a computer driven scope became more commonplace, the next big question for many has been to try photography. The alt-azimuth setup these mounts have can be used for photographing the moon and planets, since they are nice and...

Refractor Focal Reducer

Fri, 1 Feb 2008 14:27:29 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - The William Optics 0.8 Focal Reducer II is a photographic-only focal reducer for small refractors such as the William Optics ZenithStar 66 SD APO or the A
stronomy
Technologies AT-66ED. This reducer also works with...

The Easiest Way To Get Started With Astrophotography

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 16:33:50 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - The Orion Steady Pix adapter operates from the principle where a small camera can look into a telescope's eyepiece and see the image, a method called Parfocal Photography. This adapter is hardly a new idea, but the explosion in digital photography has...

Garbage

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:10:42 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author joseph454545 - when you thumb tighten them and rack a round into the chamber G3 .308 the scope mount loosens up!! I didn't get to bother trying sighting in because i took off the soft metal thumb nut an put some teflon tape over the threads to try and make up for poor...

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO R&D??

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:03:29 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author thestarman1 - Looked like a fantastic piece of kit to help students I teach and also allied with a spotting scope would make thing much easier to find, a great furore was generated with fantastic reviews and recommendations therefore it was surely going to be an...

Inexpensive Multi-Purpose Barlow

Wed, 4 Jul 2007 04:16:04 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - This product has the distinction of being one of the few I would recommend based on what it lets you do when you take it apart. It largely looks like a duplicate in Celestron's product line to the Ul
tima
2X Barlow...

High End eyepiece at High Power

Mon, 2 Jul 2007 10:24:02 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - The Vixen Lanthanum eyepieces are a full series of low to high power eyepieces designed to produce an effectively perfect image, where the only optical defects will be from the telescope, rather than introduced by the eyepiece. The idea here is for the...

Better Eyepiece For When You Are Through Being A Beginner

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 10:10:21 GMT

High End Eyepiece at The Sweet Spot

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 14:59:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - The Vixen Lanthanum eyepieces are designed to produce an effectively perfect image, where the only optical defects will be from the telescope, rather than introduced by the eyepiece. The idea here is for the telescope to have the light it has...

Not bad but...

Wed, 16 May 2007 13:13:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author dennisma - I am going to assume that the reader already knows about the SkyScout from the other reviews and the marketing literature. I won't repeat those here but will make a couple of comments on what is not immediately known. Construction: First I did not...

Long Eye Relief And A Sharp, Bright Image

Sat, 12 May 2007 17:39:38 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - There really are times when a mathematical equation really doesn't give a good idea of what the answer means, and the 26mm Plossl is one of them. Logically, this looks like a spot in no-man's land, where it isn't at the really bright image range of 32mm...

Compact Apochromatic Barlow Enlarges Without False Color

Fri, 11 May 2007 15:06:54 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - I am reviewing this component with a little trepidation because of the age old problem of amateur astronomy where low end department telescopes are touted as having ridiculously high magnification. Chief among the methods used by sleezy marketers to get...

Universal Low Power Eyepiece

Tue, 8 May 2007 10:27:30 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - Robert Frost wrote, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" in his poem, "Mending Wall." That may be true for the walls we build, but nature sure seems to be obsessed with giving us limits, and optics have a lower limit on magnification. Simply...

Everything you Need to get Through That First Night of Observing

Sat, 5 May 2007 18:03:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - One of the persistent problems people new to astronomy have with getting a new astronomical telescope is manufacturers will only include one or two eyepieces with them. So, getting a few eyepieces to get rolling turns out to be a fairly major expense...

Kinda Big For A Proprietary Rechargeable Battery, But it's a Lantern, Too

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:28:48 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - There appears to be a peculiar law of the universe involving technology: Every major step forward will have a major catch. For computer driven telescopes able to drive themesleves to thousands of objects in the sky, the major catch is an insatiable...

Telescope Has the Shakes? Here is One Answer

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:28:57 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - There are several big minor problems in telescope astronomy. These can be significant annoyances to new and experienced observers alike. One is polar alignment, and the slow and tedious processes needed to do achieve it. The other is vibration in a...

The Compact Power Supply, Unless You Count The Car

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 12:52:05 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Pirich - The Achilles heel of the modern computer driven motorized astronomical telescope is an insatiable need for power. The robotic systems to drive around scopes from the small Ne
xStar
80GT and...