Apex AD-1500 DVD Player Review (Brief impression)

Ease of Use:
Taken out of the box, even a person with no experience in setting up television accessories will have trouble setting up anything, especially this. The manual was fairly clear and nicely illustrated, but people like me might have to stare at the illustrations while hooking up the wires to the TV. If you mistook a wire or two, the whole thing doesn't work, so if you misunderstand the illustrations, you may have to do some trial and error. After all that mess, playing things are pretty common sense.

Features:
For $90, this DVD player has many features. One of the best features is that it can play Mp3s and all types of burned CDs. Other interesting features include 2-4x zoom, a built-in screen saver (never saw it), frame-by-frame advancing, parental locks, multiple language settings & captions, and slow motion forwarding. A $150 VCR usually doesn't have as many features as this cheap DVD player.

Performance:
It performs well, considering it's price. Compared to some dual DVD/VCR players, the picture quality is slightly superior. It also plays burned CDs fairly well.
Value:
The most I can say is that it's worth every penny with all of its features and decent image quality. For $90, it's one of the cheapest around!

Overall:
It's fairly easy to use with its pretty clear and decently illustrated manual. It has many features considering it's price range. My favorite features are its ability to play burned CDs and play forward slowly or frame by frame. It performs better than most dual DVD/VCR players, and is a good combination
with any VCR. Worth every penny.

Steady Skies,
Martin

Overall Rating: 8
Features:9 Ease of Use:7 Performance:6 Value:10
Weight: 40
Date: 12/28/2003 11:34:42 pm PST

Replies: 0

Scope City review
Update 6/28

Okay, I must admit that prior to writing my last review, I obviously had too little experience. The error of purchasing a scope contradictory to my interests in planetary viewing was an error on my own part, not the dealers.

Upon entering Scope City, I sought after an upgrade from a 60mm Jason refractor and requested an affordable scope that offered maximum performance in an easy-to-handle package. I was offered the ETX-70, a reasonable deal at $350. However, I eventually found that views of planets were excessively vague and subtle compared to the 60mm, so I was suggested the NexStar 80, an adequate performer at f/5, although its performance, too was severely limited under urban So. Nevada skies. For a while, I was upset that they didn’t recommend any other scope, but this was certainly an error on my own part.

The showrooms are well stocked. They have a variety of spotting scopes, eyepieces, and a wide range of scopes from a small ETX-70 to a CM-1100. Almost all the accessories you’ll ever need are supplied, although I heard that CCDs are backordered (this probably also true in other showrooms, however). Before purchasing, I was allowed to test products in store or can return it within 15 days of acquisition (I’ve done this several times without any problems).

For some reason, a number of Celestron products (mounts and selected accessories) are priced somewhat high. For example, a CI-700 mount is $2000 as opposed to prices of under $1300 elsewhere. This may be one method Scope City uses to urge some people to considering Parks products (1.5” Superior mount is $2500). Not to take away anything from Parks’ top-of-the-line quality in both optics and craftsmanship with nicely machined components, but the prices seem rather high (anyone have other opinions?).

In my opinion, one should take advantage of Scope City’s special package offers. They include accessories you’d probably buy later, anyway. However, Scope City often
overvalues the offer although this doesn’t matter.

Service was the quality I never pointed out enough in my last review making it seem I over-evaluated it (maybe dealing with terrible service from other companies who direct me to ask the manufacturer gave me some experience). If at all possible, I’d give their customer service a strong 12…truly; notwithstanding earlier criticisms I pointed out in my last review, the staff consists of extremely friendly, experienced astronomers that will answer any question you have, no matter what difficulty you’ve gone through to unsuccessfully locate an answer elsewhere. Don’t be afraid to ask them anything. An additional benefit: they extremely helpful, too. When the computer system of my third telescope, the NexStar 80 went wacky, they responded instantaneously, tested it themselves, and said they’d gladly send it to Celestron to get an upgrade for free (they even gave me free software as a bonus)!

With admiration, I extend a hand of thanks to the excellent service of Scope City’s pleasant non-commission staff (who are exceptionally knowledgeable and ultimately, a great pleasure to talk to) and congratulations to Michael, who was justifiably promoted to corporate.

Like most others, I disagree with some other reviews that only focus mainly on price. However, price is sometimes an issue with Celestron accessories, but in my opinion, customer service counters it. I’ve only been to the Las Vegas branch and online (other branches are in CA, main office in Simi Valley) and am not aware of customer service in those other branches.

Stable atmospheres!
Martin

Overall Rating: 9
Price:7 Service:10
Weight: 40
Date: 06/29/2003 12:00:53 am PST

Replies: 0

Meade ETX-70 Review

I got my ETX-70AT when it was about $349 at Scope City. I was a beginner back then, and I traded it for a Nexstar 80 GT, so I didn't really get to test it out much. When I came in to the store, I knew this scope was the right one. It was compact and $349 seemed like a pretty good price for a computerized scope (it's too bad the price started to go down fast right after I bought it). Since you can lay it on the table without a tripod and move it in alt-az motion with ease, this scope grabbed much more attention than my father's 8" dob standing right by it even though it had an advantage in light grasp. Well, the scope's small and easy to use, but could you see anything through it?

Along with the hand control in the box, the ETX comes with two eyepieces: a 25 and a 9mm Modified Achromats (Meade's trademark for Kellners) in nice twist-open plastic cases. You shouldn't expect much from these eyepieces considering the fast focal ratio of the ETXs, but how often can you find a beginner scope equipped with 2 decent eyepieces? On the side of the box is a pretty well written manual and a small catalog of Meade products.

The f/5 ETX-70 OTA is attached to the dual fork drive and base similar to it's larger ETX and LX brothers (with setting circles). The base has a HBX (handbox/ the Autostar) and AUX (Auxillary) connectors on the base. Unlike plugging an RS-232 to the bottom of the hand controller of a 497 Autostar, using the AUX connector with a Meade 506 jack connected to the 9-pin plug in your computer, this scope can be comtrolled from your computer with programs just like it's giant brothers. A small panel on one of the arms has a power swich and an LED indicator. The Autostar hand controller is a simplified version of the #497 we're fimiliar with. The number keypads are removed, leaving the 4-directional buttons, the goto, mode, and enter keys, the speed/help key, and two up/down scroll buttons.

Setup was as easy as taking the gadgets and gizmos out of the box, putting in the 6 AA batteries (should last 20 hours) and the Autostar, and inputting some data such as location and time. There are 3 alignment options to choose from: Easy Align (AT finds stars for you), Two-Star Align (more accurate than one-star), and One-Star Align (move scope to a star in the sky).

What was my first object? I pressed a couple of buttons and scrolled to "objects" then "solar system"I chose Jupiter since it was 45 degrees to the east and bright. It was clearly seen and easy to tell from Saturn. After a beep from the AT, I found the planet smack dab in the center of the 25mm MA field. It was kind of cumber some to focus with the slowness of the focusing method: moving the oobjective forward and back. I complained to Scope City, but I found it was normal. I decided to crank the mag. up to over 100x with the 9mm MA and a 3x barlow. There was a lot of color, of course, but the image was nice. I don't really remember what I saw, but I found a quick sketch that showed 4 bands. Of course, I was a beginner and I absolutely cannot see very well back then, but 2 of the bands were very clear.

Next up? The one and only Luna. Since Luna's position change was different from the fixed stars, the Autostar took a while to calculate some math, but after a few secs of humming, Luna was in the 14x field. The AT showed some info and a short story about the moon, and it was fun to gaze. I remembered seeing many craters along the terminator at 110x, and it was great seeing the moon for one of the first couple times.

I decided to try a little deep-sky. Of course, I'd want to look at my first nebulae the Scope City guys talked about. M-42 was dead center. The whole picturesqueness of the sword was shown. It was a ver atractive sight. M-42 was no more than a fuzzy blob under Vegas skies, but it still was amazing. At 110x, the Trapezum was clearly resolved. It was as beautiful as M-45 through my old Jason 60mm. All of M-45 was in the 3.5 degree field, but I could not detect any nebulosity under Vegas skies and inexperienced eyes.

This was a great portable scope. With a large off-axis DMG dob, this would've made a great combo, but I guess the Nexstar 80 can do, also. At Costco, you can find the EC for $139.99. At that price I'd've got it again, but $349 was a good price for it. The #494 AT is easy to use and it works great. Planetary and Lunar work is acceptable and deep-sky views are wide-field picturesque photos! I'll give it an 8 for optics (compared to other larger scopes[with a fast focal ratio, this scope really stayed in the race!]) and an 8 for the mount (or at least for the accuracy of the autostar [-2 for the flimsy tripod]). Ease-of-use is a 10 and value is 7 since Orion and other manufacturers sell some other great scopes (6" dobs and such) in the same price range.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Mount:8 Ease of Use:10 Value:7
Weight: 10
Date: 05/31/2003 11:18:26 pm PST

Replies: 0

[moderator note:comment moved from above]

Excellent performing binoculars!!! Optics rival that of Leica, Zeiss, Swarovski, Nikon. Excellent sharpness, constrast, resolution, color and built very well. Porro prism offers best low-light, these perform very well in very low light. Best binoculars even in the $200 to $800 range, can't be beat. The name Leupold says it all.

Anonymous

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 1
Date: 09/20/2002 01:00:17 pm PST

Replies: 0

Since its release in 1998, Al Nagler's Radian line filled our drawers with long eye relief, mid-high magnification (3-18mm) eyepieces made for eyeglass wearers. Even the 3mm has a long, 20mm eye relief. It seems similar to the lanthanum EPs, which like the radians have a lens made of lanthanum and a long eye relief, but it has a larger FOV.To mantain long eye relief, a barlow-like lens is placed above the field lens.

With the inadjust eyeguard, both eyeglass and non-eyeglass wearers can see the whole field by positioning the eyeguard closer (for eyegalss wearers) or further.

It's my favorite EP to use as a general purpose (40x) and high power (120n w/ 3x TV barlow) on my 80mm short-tube refractor (It was my first good telescope I've used from 1999) until now. The 10mm Radian is far superior compared to my other EPs (cheap SMAs and Super Plossls). The Moon is very sharp. I could see many craters in craters and lunar rilles. The Appenines really stand out, especially when the moon is at it's quarter phase. Jupiter shows all four transits of the moons, five of its bands, polar regions the GRS hollow, and sometimes detail in one of the EQ bands. Cassini's division in Saturn is easy, as well as 2 of it's bands. Remember, this is only an 80mm refractor.

It was also an excellent eyepiece for the 8" Schmidt-Cass I've used at a star party one night! Jupiter showed a wealth of sharp, crisp detail in its bands at 200x, even less-than-average seeing conditions. It barlows well under steady seeing. Compared to a lower power 10mm lanthanum, views were of noticably higher cantrast and with a wider FOV. Views were also color-free in the radian (lanthanums showed a trace of color around the moon).

But what about the Naglers and Panoptics with similar focal lengths as the Radian? The Naglers and Panoptics are great, wide-field eyepieces, but many people can't take in the whole field due to it's smaller eye relief.

Overall, the 10mm Radian is a great eyepiece. I'd reccomend it to anyone who wants to get the best out of their scope. It's excellent for eyeglass and non-eyeglass wearers alike with it's inadjust eyeguard. It's a great EP for general purpose observing in RFTs. With a 3x barlow in the RFT, it's an excellent planetary scope. The Radian throws up a sharp, contrasty, flat fielded, color-free FOV. Very highly reccomended for any lunar/planetary gazer with any scope.

PROS- wide 60 deg. FOV, sharp & contrasty images, color-free flat field, long eye relief, barlows well.

CONS- quite expensive, a heavy half-pound, a bit of the kidney-bean blackout effect

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Value:10
Weight: 18
Date: 09/07/2002 10:49:44 am PST

Replies: 0