seben 8" navigator 2

Hi all,

Anybody got any thoughts on seben telescopes - the 8" Navigator 2, for instance(focal lenght 1000).

Never had a reflector and was thinking of going for this as a next step up from the initial Skylux.


Only really skywatching for a year.


Regards
Tommy

All I know tommy is that there is a load of them on sale on ebay, I have'nt looked through one myself, but I'd imagine that they are only ok, then again, they're German I believe, so they can't be that bad...

Keith..

I'd hold off tommy if I was you. Try and speak to someone who has one or read reviews by someone who owned one.

Tommy, I'd definitely give this one a miss.

I looked into their reflectors before and found that they use a spherical primary mirror, not parabolic ones so the image quality would probably be quite poor.

I also had two of their "premium ED" eyepieces before and they were by far the worst EPs I have ever used (to the point of being totally unusable).
I'll never buy something from Seben that has optics in it

Trev

Spherical mirrors!, thats even worse then tasco, a definite no no.
Now you know why there are many of them for sale on ebay.

I bought a 115mm version on eBay as a starter scope. However, I quickly ditched the stock lens (went with Celestron) and the spotter scope (now a Telrad). The telescope itself isn't too bad as a starter. The motor drive isn't great as it gets in the way when you are viewing near the zenith.

I paid about €140 all in, but have spent another €100+ upgrading it. I'd advise buying with your eyes wide open (you get what you pay for) or, even better, wait for something secondhand in the €300-400 bracket instead.