Lidl 'Skylux' 70mm Telescope

Morning all,
after queuing for a few minutes outside my local Lidl (in Tullamore), we got in... after crawling over dead bodies, and lone warriors fighting each other to get not 1, but 2 and 3 deep fat fryers on special offer, as well as toys for the kids, I got to the end of the store where the telescopes were boxed one on top of another...
Okay it wasn't as dramatic as that, but you get the picture! :lol:

This telescope (for €65) is actually very good. I thought the aluminium tripod would not be able to support the heavy duty cast mount, but when it is all put together, it holds superbly. The German equatorial mount itself looks, feels, and acts like it is worth more than the price of the whole scope, with fine slow motion controls and a fine turning latitude adjuster.
I am used to a reflector, but this refractor does not take long to get used to using. Eyepieces (20mm & 4mm, plus 1.5X Barlow), while plain looking in appearance, show little signs of abberation (I have just used it for scenic observing, waiting till tonight to give it a proper run at the TAS meeting).
There is a nice Manual on Astronomy, and an accompanying cd software kit for your computer, as well as a large b&w Moon map.

So far, I'd give it the thumbs up, and recommend it to anyone thinking about buying it, but up to now were not sure whether to do so.

Clear Skies,

Seanie.

I managed to See Saturn and a few moons with one of these yokes last week. Great value for 65 Euros.

Hi All,
I must say that I was happily surprised by this scope.
Harry MacCarthy bought one last week and we went observing last night with it in Charleville.
I've seen MUCH MUCH worse chromatic abberation (colour distortion) in scopes WAY WAY more expensive then this.

For me, there are 2 issues with it,
1, I found it very hard to get a sharp focus, I put this down to the eyepieces and especially the stardiagonal, what use is a 4mm EP???
2, The tripod legs tended to flare out so we couldn't fully extend it (at least the model we had). Harry has old wodden tripods legs from years ago and will probabily use them.

BUT
Harry has some old orthoscopic and kellners and the 12.5 showed Saturn very deceintly, rings, moons and even glimpses of the cassini division, EXCELLENT for a 65 euro scope. Its eyepeicesa re 1.25cm, so if you have other standard eyepeices, they can be used here.
The equatorial mount in this scope is a serious piece of metal, it didn't have alot of slop and the slow motion controls are good with a small amount of backlash.
Amazingly, the view finder is also pretty good, usually on small scopes like these, you couldn't see the far end of your sitting room with it.

I would give this scope a definite thumbs up, and would nearly get one myself just for the novilty factor.