Overall Rating: 7 Optics:7 Mount:6 Ease of Use:7 Value:8 Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote) Date: 03/10/2002 06:41:18 pm PST By: nafa Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=63295
Overall Rating: 8 Optics:7 Mount:7 Ease of Use:5 Value:8 Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote) Date: 02/05/2002 08:10:08 pm PST By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.104.156) Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=64989
Overall Rating: 9 Optics:10 Mount:6 Ease of Use:10 Value:10 Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote) Date: 03/24/2014 09:53:03 am PST By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.5.88) Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=605205
Overall Rating: 0 Optics:0 Mount:0 Ease of Use:0 Value:0 Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote) Date: 05/26/2012 08:32:29 am PST By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.124.253) Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=600291
Overall Rating: 0 Optics:0 Mount:0 Ease of Use:0 Value:0 Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote) Date: 04/07/2012 06:14:44 am PST By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.59.197) Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=599827
Overall Rating: 1 Optics:1 Mount:1 Ease of Use:1 Value:1 Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote) Date: 11/04/2010 05:22:41 am PST By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.187.193) Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=594836
Overall Rating: 2 Optics:1 Mount:1 Ease of Use:6 Value:1 Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote) Date: 11/04/2010 02:07:25 am PST By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.187.193) Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=594835
Overall Rating: 4 Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote) Date: 12/10/2004 05:03:23 am PST By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.60.189) Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=407087
Overall Rating: 8 Optics:8 Mount:6 Ease of Use:8 Value:9 Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote) Date: 11/21/2004 05:19:11 pm PST By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.156.137) Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=403339
Tasco 4.5" f/8 Luminova Reflector, Model # 40-114675Purchased from the Telescope Warehouse, Price $75.00, plus $25.00 shipping.
OK, you know that it's a Tasco because it promises "675 X" right there on the box and it has those clunky plastic end pieces, but there's a lot more to this scope than advertising hype and silly looking cosmetics. I was looking for decent options for a freind who wanted to upgrade to something better and larger than his old 2.4" refractor, and Bill Vorce at Telescope Warehouse suggested that I look at this Tasco 4.5" Newtonian reflector. "It has great optics," he said. "A Tasco?" I said, "well, maybe..."
OPTICS:
As it turns out, Bill was right, and this one does have great optics. After basic collimation with a Cheshire eyepiece, the images in the unit that I purchased are as good as any 4.5" f/8 that I have ever used -- far, far better than most of the shoddy, run of the mill 4.5" optic sets that have been coming out of China of late. While I have not bench tested the primary, at high magnification, star images are almost perfect, with clean, well defined Airy discs. At 130X, the two pairs of the "Double Double" in Lyra, for example, are each cleanly separated with black space inbetween. This is one of the very few "department store" telescopes out there that is really "diffraction limited."
The included 1.25" format eyepieces (a 20 mm Huygenian, 12 mm Ramsden, 6 mm Huygenian, and a single element, 3X Barlow) are, of course, only marginally useful, but they do provide a hint of what is possible. An humble 28 mm RKE turns this telescope into an extraordinary star finding machine [WHY, exactly, can't Tasco at least include a good 25 mm Kellner?!], and good Orthos (and a good Barlow) will give killer views of the moon and planets.
Mars, in particular, was the target of a recent side-by-side test of the Luminova and a very good quality 90 x 1000 mm refractor (using high quality Orthoscopic eyepieces and a Goodwin Barlow). Not surprisingly, both instruments gave very good images, showing lots of surface detail, with the reflector having better color correction (as would be expected) and the refractor slightly better contrast -- probably due to the obstruction of the Luminova's stalk-mounted diagonal mirror.
As an aside, the included 5 x 24 mm imitation finder is the usual worse-than-useless plastic toy that Tasco, et al., have been inflicting on their department store telescopes for years. A decent quality 6 x 30 finder will bolt right on, fortunately. Also, the clunky-looking black plastic end pieces -- put on for God knows what possible purpose -- will come right off of the nicely-finished gold tube. Do this immediately.
MOUNTING AND EASE OF USE:
As good as the Luminova's optics may be, the supplied equatorial mount is really a bit undersized for the OTA. Originally supplied with their short, "Galaxsee" series telescopes, the mounting really isn't up to the job of supporting the longer and heavier f/8 OTA. Although the telescope is easy enough to move around the sky, and the adjustable tube rings (that allow the eyepiece to be rotated to a comfortable viewing angle) and slow motion controls work well enough, there is just too much vibration with this setup for higher power work. By the time that the shaking dies down, the object has moved to the edge of the field, and you have to recenter again -- starting up yet another round of image blur. A clock drive, of course would cure much of this problem, but the "ideal" solution is to put the OTA on a larger mount.
OVERALL VALUE:
The undersized EQ mounting not withstanding, this version of the classic 4.5" reflector is an outstanding bargain for the price. If you are looking for a small telescope that will actually deliver on most of what is promised in the advertising, this is the one. Even if you spend another $100.00 on several better eyepieces and a decent 6 x 30 finder -- highly recommended! -- you will still be way ahead of the game. Sadly, most people will go on buying the brand "M" 4.5" plastic junkscopes at their neighborhood Sprawl-Marts, but don't be fooled. This one works!
Overall Rating: 8 Optics:9 Mount:4 Ease of Use:6 Value:10 Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote) Date: 08/04/2003 10:14:05 pm PST By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.208.9) Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=279989
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