The Galileoscope An IYA2009 Cornerstone Project

www.galileoscope.org/gs/
a high quality, easy-to-assemble and easy-to-use telescope at an unprecedentedly low price — is now available to order. A Cornerstone project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), the Galileoscope was developed by a team of leading astronomers, optical engineers and science educators to make the wonders of the night sky more accessible to everyone. Orders can now be placed through www.galileoscope.org for delivery beginning in late April.



www.astronomy2009.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iya0906/

I think this is not a good idea , a piece of plastic , not worth it and not a good way to introduce anyone to astronomy. My euro's worth on it.


Deirdre Kelleghan

The Galileoscope is a high quality 50-mm f/10 telescope, with a glass doublet achromatic objective. A 20-mm Plössl-like eyepiece with twin plastic doublet achromatic lenses gives a magnification of 25x across a 1.5-degree field, and a 2x Barlow lens (also a plastic doublet achromat) gives a magnification of 50x

Deirdre, id rather let a young fellow/girl have one of these that one bought in Game (or some outlet) with plastic lenses for upward of 100€ and ill bet its performance is not that terrible, now you are far more expert that I am and I might be very wrong but thats my gut feeling
Charles

It has to be said that its alot better value for money then most of the rubbish you find in some shops

The issue I would have with it is it's usability. If would be very difficult to use this telescope hand-held. It would require the purchase of a tripod many times the cost of the telescope itself. I fear it may become a display telescope rather than have a long-term use. Of course, I can understand the historical significance of the instrument.

I wonder though how much it could have cost to mass produce a nice pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binos? They would be easy to hold, nice low magnification and a nice introduction to the wonders of the night sky. If Lidl can sell Meade 10x50s for 20euro....
Of course they wouldn't have the same historical significance, but chances are they would be used far more often.

Just my 2 cents...

Michael.

Here is Celestrons version although it kind of celebrates 2 other notable characters. ie Issac Newton and John Dobson