I purchased the OTA from Jim Hagan at Helix Manufacturing. Overall customer service was excellent. Jim even gave the scope a good "once over" to insure it was up to snuff. In brief, this is a very good achromat for the money, in my estimation one of the best telescope values dollar for dollar at $350.00 for the OTA, finderscope, diagonal, and mounting rings. Last night I cranked the scope up to 250x with a 4 mm. University Optics orthoscopic. Lunar detail at that magnification is more impressive than I have seen in any other 4 inch (and below) achromat. Views of Saturn and Jupiter were exceptionally sharp. In the Case of Saturn bands of color on the the planet itself were noticeable. This was striking considering these bands were not apparent at the same magnification in my six inch reflector. I observed nebulosity in the Pleiades for the first time in suburban light polluted skies. This is certainly a good argument for using an unobstructed optical system. In a nutshell, this scope is highly recommended for value as is Helix Manufacturing.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:9 Ease of Use:8 Value:10
Weight: 5
Date: 01/12/2003 09:37:19 am PST

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