Little Aldi scope

The_B_Man wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if this is any good for basic stargazing?

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_15819.htm

• 20x-60x Zoom Magnification
• 60mm Objective Diameter
• Fully coated blue lenses
• Black rubber coated body
• Metal (mini) table tripod
• Carrying pouch
• Foldable rubber eye cup

Thanks.

Not brilliant for astronomy. You would see craters on the moon pretty well with it. You could see the also moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, but they would be very small. Also it has a table top mount so in order to point it skywards you would have to put it on a proper tripod. The thing is that night time viewing is often looking at things which are very faint, such as galaxies and nebulae. To see these you need a larger objective to gather as much light as possible. This scope is only 60mm (2.5 inch). Also you will need to be able to align it on the star in question, which is not so easy without a finder scope. Zoom lenses also vary a lot in quality, they have to have a number of moving glass elements and unless everything aligns perfectly, they don't perform as well as non-zoom. What it would be good for is a starter scope for birdwatching or whale watching. I got a fantastic pair of 10x50 binos in Aldi, so I wouldn't fault the