How to Pick Your First Telescope
Astronomy is a fascinating hobby that people of all ages can enjoy. The night sky is full of wonders, and there's no better way to explore it than with your...




Astronomy is a fascinating hobby that people of all ages can enjoy. The night sky is full of wonders, and there's no better way to explore it than with your...
You've got your shiny new telescope, and you can't wait to explore the night sky. But there's one more important accessory you need before you're ready to observe: a good...
Buying a telescope is a big step, especially if you’re not sure what all those terms — f/ratio, magnification, go-to — mean. So, to eliminate confusion and make sure you...
This is my first "expensive" eyepiece. I'm using it with an Orion Starblast 102mm and was easily able to see some detail on Jupiter + moons and the rings of Saturn which I didn't expect with relatively low 60x magnification (with a 2x barlow, 600mm focal length OTA). Gonna save up for something in the 8-11mm 82deg range next!
The review in one word is superb. The telescope was a 12 inch GSO,R.C. Field was flat ,color correction, and contrast were without fault in the entire 100 degrees of apparent field while lunar observing. No visible chromatic distortion was visible on the lunar edges. Stellar images were outstanding. If your focuser is 3 inches or more and your mount will balance the added weight this eyepiece is worth the price.
Simply incredible views, pinpoint stars to the edge across inky black skies. What a wonderful eyepiece!!
I ordered and got the mount next day. I got it up and running with ASI Air Pro in no time. Been using it for the past few days and getting subs as high as 15 mins on a Newtonian at f/4. The mount is incredible and extremely very well built. I am planning to mount a RASA 8 sometimes and with the current performance so far, I am hoping it will be incredible. I would recommend this mount to anyone who is on the look out for a medium payload mount. It tracks and guides very well.
Fits perfectly with the focuser of my ES 10" truss dob. Adds just the right amount of extension needed for my 100-deg eyepieces to comfortably come into focus. If you have a particular application in mind, the 2" extension can be joined to the 1" extension that comes with the dob. This 2" extension doesn't add substantial weight to the front end of the dob.
I'm very happy with the finder scope and illuminator...until the battery needs to be replaced. When removing the battery the entire light assembly came out with it. Now every time I have to change the battery, I also have to carefully re-insert the light bulb, board, and wiring before adding the new battery.
I've been using this scope for a couple years now, and love it. It's lightweight (with rings and such it's more than 7 lbs, but still very light), and provides beautiful views and fantastic pictures. Watch out for accessories though, with the exception of the finder scope I added I have yet to have an ES accessory for this scope work.
I was looking for a comfortable workhorse eyepiece that provides the widest possible field for my Mak102 with 1.25†diagonal. I was weighing my options, comparing the 68 degree 24mm vs this 62 degree 26mm. I am very happy with the 62 26 as it provides a pleasing and comfortable view with 1.24 degree FoV (yes, the entire Pleiades cluster fits nicely into the view), 50x magnification, and 2mm exit pupil, and 19mm Eye Relief. I like the lighter weight for portability and the diameter of the eyepiece housing is perfect for coupling with my smartphone adapter, making it a great smartphone photography eyepiece. This is now my “go-to†eyepiece for my Mak102 and will serve as a great companion in future travels. Thank you again Explore Scientific for making an affordable, high-value, high-quality eyepiece line!
I was looking for a quality wide-field eyepiece that would provide me with the widest possible field of view with a 2†field stop. I am happy to share that Explore Scientific delivered with their 68 degree 40 mm eyepiece! The view through my 8†F10 SCT provides a very comfortable 1.34 degree FOV with 50x magnification and 4mm exit pupil but I especially love the 20mm Eye Relief. This is the prefect wide-field eyepiece for scopes that support 2†eyepieces. Thank you Explore Scientific!
Nice set of M48x0.75mm extensions. I needed a 20mm to replace my 21mm spacer because my filter drawer is 1mm longer than the common spacer found in astro camera stack. I love that all the spacers come stacked in order and laser engraved all on the same side, nice attention to detail. Also they are 2in outside diameter and can be secured in any two inch focuser. Also makes for a good quick eyepiece extension if you don't want to add focuser spacers when switching between camera and eyepieces. If you need a set of M48 extensions for your backspace requirements, I'm happy with my purchase. Thanks Explore Scientific!
For what it's worth, this is a quality eyepiece. The eye relief is OK, it feels a little closer than I had hoped, it feels a lot better when paired with a barlow. Would buy again and definitely would recommend to a fellow astronomer looking for a good medium-high power wide field eyepiece..
Bought my 25mm ES 100 eyepiece directly from this website. Shipping was lightning quick. This eyepiece works great for SCT owners I find since it allows you to maximize your view through the inherent smaller view of SCT's. Eye relief really feels more than 14.5mm and more like 17-18mm. Still my favorite eyepiece after 3 years, a pure keeper. Used with my 11" SCT, no weight problems, can probably handle 2-3 times the weight without having weight issues. Thanks ES.
I received this mount a week ago and have used it for the first time. Accurate, beefy, precise, easy to set up and use, wireless; the list goes on. Explorestars is a great app and very user friendly combined with astro software for viewing and capturing the night sky. Deep sky targets, galaxies, nebulas, star clusters?...this mount tracks them all very precisely. My scope, a Williams Optics zenithstar 73 doublet APO. The weights that came with it handle a much heavier setup, so I had to get the Explore Scientific 5 lb one to balance my light refractor. Just wow. You will not go wrong, it is so easy to use.
Ive had this scope for over 7 years now, I also have the 80mm Ed CF, the 127mm FDC100 CF and 6" reflector. At first the CA was a problem to me, as I do mostly astrophotography. I found that using a duo O111-H-Alpha filter pretty much wipes out the CA and light pollution. I now use this 102 AR more than any of my other scopes by far. The other scopes are either to small for most objects, or to big to fit in the field of view. This is just the right size for 75% of my objects. Ive taken 20 min subs with this setup mounted on a PMC 8-Exos2 gt. Im extremely impressed with this setup. Customer support is outstanding at Explore Scientific you can't go wrong making your purch
I have had the power bank , for about a year now and decided I would write a review. I live in northern California. Over the last year we have experienced several power outages, the ES USB power tank was a real asset during these 1-2 week outages. This little device ,not only, ran my EXOS2-gto mount , but also charged my phone,my wifes phone and my tablet during the crisis. My wife would charge the tank at work on Monday, and it would fulfill our needs including astronomy, for two to three days. And still show one bar of power when she took it in to charge it. I have had many battery banks but never have I had one that was this good. And still going as strong today as the day it arrived. This unit will definitely run the goto mounts for several days , making it a great choice for weekend excursions to your favorite dark sky area. Don't think about it, but it!
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