Is that normal?

[Okeydokey]

Having just played with a gifted Helios refractor... to the amusement of both my son (13 years old) and myself x4 years older the spotting scope has everything upside down... my son suggests this is cool! I am wondering if this is normal?

[Steve Ward]

Perfectly normal in an Astro telescope , correcting the image adds another bit of glass into the equation and a little less light gets to the eye , in space there is no real up or down so Astro scopes generally show the subject upside down and often back to front too .

[John]

Normal for the finder scope. The main scope, with the 90 degree diagonal in it, shows things the right way up but with left and right reversed. You can get finders that have a "right way up" image if you feel the need.

[RT65CB-SWL]

+1 for both replies.

It is perfectly 'normal'.

[AndyWB]

And your son is right - watching a plane zoom past upside down is cool...

[Okeydokey]

Somehow I don't think I can cope with up and down reversed, whilst left to right doesn't pose the same challege.  Will probably look at the red dot thing as a first upgrade.

[cotterless45]

Yep, that puts a lot of folk off. Rdf or Telrad and you're away !

Nick.

[nytecam]

Somehow I don't think I can cope with up and down reversed, whilst left to right doesn't pose the same challege.  Will probably look at the red dot thing as a first upgrade.

Hate to mention it but your eye optics automatically see everything upside down but the brain rectifies it

[Okeydokey]

I'm not sure my brain can make the transition so quickly, for someone new to the hobby I have enough to deal with as is I'm afraid.  I had a look at a few Youtubes on the Telrad, it looks very plastic but may well be the right place to start, certainly the technology is simple enough, low cost enough and won't rely on a brain fart every time I get the scope out?  I suspect Nick has cast the deciding vote, thanks all.