This review is from: Orion StarBlast 4.5 Astro Reflector Telescope
At 4.5 inch aperture the Starblast gathers a reasonable amount of light, has a useful robust mount and includes 17mm and 6mm eyepieces (x26 and x75 magnification). The Starblast also comes with a simple red-dot finder to make it easy to aim the scope. My ten-year old (with a normal ten-year old boy’s attention span) is able to find objects such as Orion’s Nebula, star clusters, and faint galaxies two-million light years away (Messier objectsň1 & 82) without difficulty. Planets also look great.
There is a saying that the best telescope is the one you use the most. This relatively cheap and functional scope arrives already assembled and ready to go. It can be taken outside for a few minutes viewing with no preparation or effort required.
The only caveats with the Starblast are:
(1) it is a reflecting scope and does not invert the image to the right way up. This is unimportant for astronomy but makes it not useful for terrestrial viewing.
(2) it needs to be placed on a table or other object as the sturdy stand is very short.
(3) although the scope is not heavy and is easy to carry outside, the mount does not fold away like a tripod in a case and so the scope is not really designed to travel.
(4) it has a short focal length. A consequence of this is that, although with 4.5 inches of aperture you have enough light to get x200 magnification, to get these higher magnification views you would need to use an eyepiece with very limited eye relief i.e. a small opening making it less comfortable to use.
(5) I didn’t find the supplied software easy to use compared to other programs. However this is not required to enjoy the scope and there are a wealth of websites that provide information on what’s observable in the night sky.
To help you get started and find objects that will excite you and your family, refer to some of the beginner’s guides on websites or get “Turn Left at Orion”.
We added the following accessories; solar filter which allows viewing of sunspots; a moon filter allowing study of the moon without excessive glare; x2 Barlow lens effectively extending the supplied eyepieces from x26 and x75 to x52 and x150 respectively. This significantly increased the overall cost but greatly added to the versatility.
