Excelsis - Display Vote

Skywatcher 6" Dob

A good value if you're willing to replace things at a fairly easy stage.
While the eyepieces are adequate, the eye relief is minimal, and once you look through better ep's you'll soon start shopping. At this point however, you should also consider replacing the focuser. One of the main reasons you don't pay much for this scope is because the focuser is of low quality. Although the Crayford design is good, the materials are cheap: the screw threads strip and the roller bearings chip off easily. All of this means that with heavier ep's you can't get enough tension to prevent slippage.
Now here is where you run into problems.
When you remove the old focuser, there is such a large hole in the tube you not only have to manufacture a cover plate to hide the excess but also as support for the new mounting holes which end up being very near the edge of the over large cavity.
If you can get past all of that; the mirrors are good, the unit is easy to set-up and handle, and the views are good - especially with Pentax XL ep's ( I recommend the 21mm and 7mm).
With this scope you can see galaxies, nebulas, double stars, bands on Jupiter, rings of Saturn etc. etc.
I really like my scope, now, but being wiser I would shop around and ask about focusers before I bought another.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Mount:8 Ease of Use:10 Value:8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date: 04/17/2002 03:21:01 am PST
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.16.218)
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=83115

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