Tasco's Luminova 675 is an affordable 60mm refractor telescope on a lightweight equatorial mount. The complete accessory package includes three 1.25" eyepieces (H25, H12.5, and SR4), a mirror diagonal, a moon filter, a solar projection screen, and even a program disk that turns your computer into a desktop planetarium. For the more advanced observer, an equatorial mount makes it easy to track the moon or a planet at higher magnifications. Simply point the polar axis at Polaris, the North Star, and the telescope will track planets with a simple turn of the slow motion knob. In practice, however, the light weight equatorial mount has its drawbacks. This telescope is tall enough that it becomes wobbly and difficult to focus at high power. (Young astronomers might prefer a simpler alt-azimuth telescope, such as Celestron's Firstscope 60 AZ.) The standard equipment lenses and 3x barlow can be combined for a range of magnification from 36x with the H25 eyepiece all the way up to 625x by combining the SR4 eyepiece with the 3x barlow. Realistically, I get the best views of Saturn's rings at 120x using my own 7.5mm eyepiece. An optical effect called diffraction shows up as little rings around the stars, and this limits the useful magnification of any telescope. With the Luminova 675, when I use magnifications over 120x bright stars no longer focus to sharp points, they look more like little bulls-eyes. The generous accessory package included with the Luminova 675 includes two Huygenian or H- type eyepieces. Unfortunately, these are an old fashioned design with 27 degrees apparent field of view, about half the field of more modern Plossl and MA designs. The narrow field means that some of my favorite deep space objects like the Pleiades and the Double Cluster don't quite fit, even with the low power eyepiece. –Jeff Phillips Pros: Good planet views up to 120x Complete accessory package Low maintenance design Cons: Narrow field H-type eyepieces Wobbly tripod
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