Bushnell NorthStar 1300x100 Motorized Starfinder Telescope

Comments about Bushnell NorthStar 1300x100 Motorized Starfinder Telescope:

The more I use it, the more I like it. Gives very good lunar views. Thought I would add a couple of pictures taken through this scope

Comments about Bushnell NorthStar 1300x100 Motorized Starfinder Telescope:

Actually, I got this scope at a garage sale for a ridiculously low price. I have been an astronomy enthusiist for well over 20 years. My main scope is a 12.5" custom dob. I have owned SC and Mak scopes in the past. I have a reasonoble number of eyepieces in various forms.
That is it for introductions.

I started to give this item a four-star rating, but realized it is not fair to judge it in comparison with other scopes I have used as it stands on its own. I do not have anoher 100mm scope, nor do I have another go-to scope, though I have in the past. So here it is:

The 4mm eyepiece is useless. No eye relief. No real surprise there. I wouldn't expect it to be useable. The other is good enough, but you may want to look for better.

The computer is impressively accurate. Not particularly intuitive, unless you have had other go-to scopes. That said, the instructions are clear and the unit, once you have used it once or twice is a snap. Movement is smooth and pretty quiet. Tripod is sturdy enough, especially in its lowest position. I require a chair or stool to comfortably observe at this height, but it is great for kids..

Optics are really pretty good. I've used a range of plossl eyepieces in it as well as a few others and found that I could get sharp and crisp views of the Moon, Sunspots and planets. I have pretty much dedicated this scope for lunar and solar observing and am very happy with it for this purpose. I have used it in dark sites for deep sky objects and found it worked very well given its apeature limits.

Focus knob is located under the diagonal instead of off-set which makes focusing less smooth for my big hands. It holds the focus well.

I have done some lunar and solar imaging with a planetary ccd imager and am pleased with the results. Solar tracking is a bit tough as I cannot set up the tracking using guide stars.

I have used it for terrestrial objects and found it to be excellent.

I have used it with a short-tube Barlow with good results.

Wonderfully portable and easy to set up. Took it to a couple of small towns during the Venus Transit and it worked well. It is a little awkward to handle the tripod when the scope remains attached, as there is not anyplace that is really great for grabbing the top-heavy tripod when the legs are folded- but then it is not meant to be. Relocated with legs open is easy.

I suppose you might be able to get a better scope in the $500 range, but it would be tough.

I recommend this scope.

Comments about Bushnell NorthStar 1300x100 Motorized Starfinder Telescope:

I've been enjoying this scope for a few months now, and can say it's really good (I'm still using my original 9V battery months later!). With regard to my comments about the GOTO function earlier, I've read several reviews suggesting you point it North to get it started, etc. It looks like Bushnell recently modified their instruction manual, and it really goes into detail about how to align this scope. So it's easy to figure out now. Once aligned, it's actually pretty accurate! A good star chart or Stellarium is always useful, but it's nice to have GOTO capability on the fly. Their website has updated manuals if you already have the scope. Highly recommend. Enjoy!

Comments about Bushnell NorthStar 1300x100 Motorized Starfinder Telescope:

The Bushnell Northstar 100mm Mak-Cass is my first "advanced amateur" telescope. It offers clear views of planets, the moon and stars. So far, my use has been limited to my backyard in a light-polluted city, yet many celestial objects are still quite clear. Unfortunately the Bushnell website is very poorly updated, and there was little information on this telescope from the manufacturer. Instead I read the reviews on the online retailers' websites to learn about this scope. Initially I was debating between this scope and the Celestron 4" Mak-Cass, but opted for Bushnell because it was slightly cheaper at the time, and because I have enjoyed years of top quality Bushnell binoculars. As well, the battery life was reported to be longer, even though it only uses a single 9V battery as opposed to 8 AA batteries. I have been using the same battery in my scope for probably a total of 7 hours of viewing so far.
This telescope comes with everything seen in the images, except the 9V battery (it includes the finderscope battery). I agree with other reviewers- the manual is almost useless. Assembling the scope is quite simple, except that the screws to put the finderscope onto the optical tube do not fit easily into the pre-threaded holes. It took us a few minutes to attach it. The 90 degree diagonal appears to contain a prism as opposed to a mirror. A few reviewers have said that the battery compartment doesn't close well- it closes perfectly, but the battery just has to be oriented so that it's lying flat- basically, nothing to worry about.
The telescope mount is quite solid. Initially I thought it was a little less sturdy than mounts offered by the competition, but it's great and is easy to open up and lock. As well, the telescope mount is motorized and the directions are controlled by the keypad arrow buttons. A quick push will move the scope very minimally. The longer the push (ie. holding it for 2 seconds), the faster the scope slews in that direction. The mount also appears to have some sort of "clutch"-like design, whereby you can manually move the scope by hand without moving the motor gears. I usually move the scope to a spot using the finderscope and fine-tune my adjustment with the motorized mount controls.
One other reviewer mentioend that the remote is hard to see in the dark, with the red backlighting- after my eyes adjust to the darkness it's pretty easy to see. The main flaw with this scope is with its Go To capabilities. They are simply not refined. After playing around with them for a while I managed to star-align with Betelgeuse and Rigel, but the scope is not too accurate at locating other objects after an alignment- it'll slew close to the object, but you'll have to search around for it.
Finally, the most important aspect of the scope: the optical quality is superb. Granted I don't have much telescope experience in this range, but the views are sharp. The 25mm eyepiece is actually quite sharp with a decent field of view. I haven't even tried the 4mm eyepiece as it's most likely going to produce large grainy images. Theoretically, this scope only goes down to 7mm (max magnification = 4" x 50 = 200X. 1300mm/200X= 6.5mm). I can clearly see Mars, Saturn (with its rings and moons), the Orion nebula and moon features.
I also experienced a minor mount technical difficulty, and the Bushnell service department fixed it quickly and professionally. I am truly enjoying this telescope. I would offer a word of advice: if you buy a telescope like this (Bushnell or otherwise), do not depend on the Go To functionality, but, rather, buy an astronomy guide with many pictures and a separate star atlas, and learn how to starhop. I really enjoy using this scope and its functionality is blossoming as I learn how to navigate the sky.

Comments about Bushnell NorthStar 1300x100 Motorized Starfinder Telescope:

I use this telescope and it hasn't disappointed yet! All I need to get is some filters and the nebula and star clusters will really stick out. M038 is a very good cluster, a little faint, but you can see many thousand stars! (constellation Auriga)((by Taurus)) Also what you should get is a good Barlow lens, it will magnify it by 2. Binary Stars and Systems are extremely fun to see. Totally get this telescope NOW!