Edmund Astroscan: Another Great Beginner’s Telescope
Of all the telescopes I own, I use my Edmund Astroscan the most. It usually sits in my living room floor, waiting for me to grab it and go outside for a quick look. It is small, inexpensive, with reasonably good optics.
It is also very durable. I had it in the trunk of my car for a couple of weeks where it would fall over and roll around, clunking into the side of my car as I made turns. It took the punishment and still gives me excellent views of the heavens. I have never treated this telescope well, I paid $350.00 for it back in the 80’s. It has been dropped, man-handled by hundreds of school kids and checked in as luggage at the airport.
Throughout all of this abuse, it never fails to perform; it still provides high quality views of deep sky objects and reasonable views of the planets.
I love this telescope. I bought it in 1984 just before Comet Halley was due to show up and has been my grab-and-go scope ever since. It has a short focal length that yields a very wide field of view - ideal for nebulae and larger galaxies.
If I put a barlow lens on it, then I get reasonable views of the planets. I wouldn’t characterize this scope as a great all-around scope because it really doesn’t do the planets justice. The focal length is just a little too short - it does alright, it’s just not the best.
The best feature of this scope is its simplicity and ruggedness. You simply aren’t going to hurt this thing unless you throw it, say, 10 feet on a concrete pad. That would probably smash it to bits, but normal use and the occasional drop or smack from an eager student wouldn’t hurt it at all.
Portability is also a big plus with the Astroscan, it weighs about 12 pounds including the base so it is no big deal to move. I’ve taken this telescope camping and strapped it to a backpack so I could star gaze in some pretty remote areas.
The primary mirror is only 4.25 inches in diameter so you won’t be getting really bright views of galaxies and nebulae, but the ability to easily take this scope out to remote locations where the darkest skies prevail will help offset that.
The planets are plenty bright through the eyepiece, although they are rather small due to the wide field of view and low magnification. If you get one of these scopes, also purchase a 2x Barlow lens so you can increase the magnification easily when looking at planets.
This scope is also very cheap. According to Edmund’s site, you can get one for about $200.00, although the deluxe package is $400.00 and includes a barlow, so i would recommend buying that.
If you don’t have much money and you know nothing about telescopes or the night sky then you need to buy this scope first. I think it is the best value and will provide all beginners with the proper start in amateur astronomy.
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2 opinions for Edmund Astroscan: Another Great Beginner’s Telescope
Astroprof
Mar 29, 2007 at 7:55 pm
We’ve got an Astroscan at the college, and the students don’t think much of is, since it is tiny compared to the other telescopes. That is, they don’t think much of it until they use it. It is simple, easy, and portable. It makes a wonderful field trip telescope, for just about any field trip. The only thing that I don’t like is that it doesn’t have a finderscope. The finder attachment that Edmund sells is not very good. So, we bought a little electronic reflex sight. That makes it a far better instrument.
Tony
Mar 30, 2007 at 10:23 am
You bring up a good point about the finder. That’s probably the most lacking feature for the Astroscan.
I’m so used to just scanning around until I find what I’m looking for because the wide field of view is so… well… wide, that I can find stuff pretty easily.
For beginners though, some kind of finder is a necessity.
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