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Zennox Refractor Telescope (50x600mm) any good?


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Hi!!

Just wondering if the Zennox Refractor Telescope (50x600mm) is any good for a first telescope.

Groupon have a deal on at the moment just looking for a bit of advice seems like a bargain.

Look forward to your replies :)

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First of all, it is a Newtonian reflector, not a refractor. The SR4, H12.5 and H20 eyepieces are almost completely useless (too lightweight to serve as paperweights). I personally would prefer something a bit bigger (SkyWatcher Heritage 100p or 130p) which are supplied with two eyepieces: a 25mm of which is pretty decent, and a 10mm which whilst not great is MILES ahead of the above offering. Have a look at our sponsor under beginners telescopes

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html

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Hi Faye - if you're serious about trying astronomy then I would avoid the Zennox totally. You can get much much better for the money and for a little more you can get a proper working instrument. Avoid anything that looks like a special offer on ebay, amazon, or high street stores. It's much better to use a proper astronomy retailer  who knows what they're selling.

The Zennox will be frustrating to use, the eyepieces are non standard size, the principle of operation is inadequate, the mount is terribly wobbly, and it's more likely to put you off astronomy than engage you with stunning views. Have a look at this one and compare prices - it's a proper working instrument. Hth :)

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-100p-tabletop-dobsonian.html

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Hi!!

Just wondering if the Zennox Refractor Telescope (50x600mm) is any good for a first telescope.

Groupon have a deal on at the moment just looking for a bit of advice seems like a bargain.

Look forward to your replies :)

Don't waste your time and money and enthusiasm on that " Scope" . That thing is not a telescope it just looks like one. Have a good look at the options that Micheal has posted in the FLO link, even the cheapest one is a proper working telescope and the Astro master 130 EQ is great value . A bit more expensive but at least you do not have throw it away after a week of ownership.

A.G

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  • 1 month later...

This "telescope" is advertised again in the 21-27 June 2014 Radio Times (page 44)as a "RT offer", still calling it a refractor, claiming it "was £249.99", and that it "is the perfect way to see the stars in incredible detail".

Radio Times is still perceived by many as having a connection with the BBC, home of "Sky at Night. Unsuspecting newcomers to astronomy may regard this as tantamount to a recommendation for this "telescope", when every post above clearly advises to avoid the item at all costs. Maybe it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing, but someone should be talking to someone somewhere.

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There is a Zennox 50x600 refractor. It's on the Guardian Essentials site too!

I had a little look around and could find no bad reviews from anyone who'd actually used it! And only 1 good review from someone who had:

parker175 answered 3 months ago
just for all you "cheap scope" bashers out there, i own a Zennox 60x900 refractor and it's a good scope. 

the only let down in the whole package is the cheap eyepieces, they're functional but not good quality, the finder is the usual 5x25 upside down wrong way round affair, but easily replaced with a cheap red dot finder. 

the telescope itself is fine, it's an air spaced achromat and at F15 shows no chromatic aberation, the lens cell and focuser are plastic with an aluminium tube. the german equatorial mount works fine but may be a handfull for beginners, so just unlock the RA and Dec controls and use it as an ALT-AZ which is far more intuitive. being a 900mm FL scope i would recommend a 25mm or 32mm eyepiece for beginners as they give a reasonable field of view with this focal length. 

how does it perform? well on any average night the trapezium in M42 (orion) can easily be made out to 3 stars at 90x mag (what i call the mickey mouse head) and at 120x on a good night can make out 4. i'm 46 and my eyes probably arent as sensetive as a youngsters, so maybe they'll see more. 

jupiters Neb and Seb are plainly visible as are saturns rings. star clusters are pin sharp, pleiades being a favourite, beehive is also good. there are so many other messier objects, double stars, etc that can be seen with the 60x900 zennox, that i would call it far from carp! 

so many people on here give bad reviews to items they've never even seen.... please,... unless like me you've had experience of these items.. keep your opinions to yourselves..

So make of that what you will!  :grin:

I'm not sure I'd recommend it on the basis that upgrading the EPs would cost a great deal more than the price of the set up itself.

I know it's only £35, but I'd still be tempted to save the pennies and invest in one of the larger recommendations above. You'd see a lot more with the Heritage 100p for extra £54 that would cost you.

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Sounds like a typical 60mm refractor. My 1960's Tasco 60mm will show me the same views described by the reviewer. It was enough to get me into the hobby that I'm still in 30 something years later  :grin:

No need to pay £250 for one though - I expect you could pick one up from e.bay or Astroboot for around 1/10th as much !

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The start post was the 76mm newt, and all the comments above on it being poor are correct, one came to our local club brought by a new comer to astronomy and while we tried our best to help them set up and observe, it soon became obvious to them that the scope and mount was a poor purchase. They had little budget left so we guided them to buying a secondhand Tal1 for £50 from ebay and they were thrilled. My advice is pick one of those up (post 1998) they have standard quality eyepieces and are built like tanks with great optics.

In fact I have one and it still stands up against my other scopes.

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  • 7 months later...

Sorry for "necroposting" this topic, but i thought i'd better respond. The reply by bingevader above has a review written by myself from yahoo answers where everyone is slating the Zennox 60x900... but! I am also able to give a review of the Zennox 50x600 which was also mentioned.

As you may have gathered, i love small refractors and enjoy the challenges brought to the fore by limited aperture and all that comes with it. I also own a Celestron reflector a Skywatcher Mak and several other refractors from 40-100mm in aperture. I can honestly say i'm being unbiased in my opinion of zennox products.

i own the 50mm and 60mm refractors, Both work well but with reservations. all the info i gave about the 60mm above still stands, the objective and main telescope parts are good. The 50mm on the other hand requires modification, all plastic parts means 10 minutes or so rubbing around the inside of the dew shield and OTA to flatten the shiny plastic finish, removal of a small baffle from the focuser and then more wet and dry for the focuser tube and thats it....... it works and it works well!!!. The Tripod is junk but useable, the eyepieces are cheap but still able to split Castor and show NEB and SEB on Jupiter. and at least it's an achromat.

I'll be the first to admit that not all small cheap telescopes are this good, The Celestron 50AZ was returned to vendor...  achromatic cemented lens of poor quality, CA that would make your eyes bleed... it was also fitted with a reducer under the objective that brought the aperture down to 32mm!!! so much for buying name brand items. The celestron 40AZ is the same.. reduced aperture etc and all plastic construction.

It looks bad for small refractors doesn't it...  i also have a Celestron 70AZ that arrived with it's crown fitted backwards and wouldn't achieve fine focus, A Celestron 127 reflector returned to vendor as the corrector lens was missing from the focuser (jones/bird) and wouldn't focus.. A skywatcher 150 Dob bought by a friend that had half the teeth missing from the focuser tube. The list goes on... but... in the world of small cheap telescopes Zennox aren't the worst.

what surprises me most are the people who comment on telescopes that cost less than £100 saying they're rubbish, but don't mind paying even more than that amount on a coma corrector for a telescope that costs hundreds... funny old world

What a lot of amateur astronomers forget is what galileo achieved with 50mm of aperture and a one lens eyepiece, The IAU released the Galileoscope in 2009 which got rave reviews.. it was a 50x500 all plastic construction and dirt cheap.... Surely if the only way to get people interested in astronomy was by selling them £200 worth of 6inch Newtonian they would have chosen that instead... Astronomy isn't just about DSO's or astrophotography, it's about looking up at the skies with whatever you've got and enjoying the view.

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Sorry for "necroposting" this topic, but i thought i'd better respond. The reply by bingevader above has a review written by myself from yahoo answers where everyone is slating the Zennox 60x900... but! I am also able to give a review of the Zennox 50x600 which was also mentioned.

As you may have gathered, i love small refractors and enjoy the challenges brought to the fore by limited aperture and all that comes with it. I also own a Celestron reflector a Skywatcher Mak and several other refractors from 40-100mm in aperture. I can honestly say i'm being unbiased in my opinion of zennox products.

i own the 50mm and 60mm refractors, Both work well but with reservations. all the info i gave about the 60mm above still stands, the objective and main telescope parts are good. The 50mm on the other hand requires modification, all plastic parts means 10 minutes or so rubbing around the inside of the dew shield and OTA to flatten the shiny plastic finish, removal of a small baffle from the focuser and then more wet and dry for the focuser tube and thats it....... it works and it works well!!!. The Tripod is junk but useable, the eyepieces are cheap but still able to split Castor and show NEB and SEB on Jupiter. and at least it's an achromat.

I'll be the first to admit that not all small cheap telescopes are this good, The Celestron 50AZ was returned to vendor...  achromatic cemented lens of poor quality, CA that would make your eyes bleed... it was also fitted with a reducer under the objective that brought the aperture down to 32mm!!! so much for buying name brand items. The celestron 40AZ is the same.. reduced aperture etc and all plastic construction.

It looks bad for small refractors doesn't it...  i also have a Celestron 70AZ that arrived with it's crown fitted backwards and wouldn't achieve fine focus, A Celestron 127 reflector returned to vendor as the corrector lens was missing from the focuser (jones/bird) and wouldn't focus.. A skywatcher 150 Dob bought by a friend that had half the teeth missing from the focuser tube. The list goes on... but... in the world of small cheap telescopes Zennox aren't the worst.

what surprises me most are the people who comment on telescopes that cost less than £100 saying they're rubbish, but don't mind paying even more than that amount on a coma corrector for a telescope that costs hundreds... funny old world

What a lot of amateur astronomers forget is what galileo achieved with 50mm of aperture and a one lens eyepiece, The IAU released the Galileoscope in 2009 which got rave reviews.. it was a 50x500 all plastic construction and dirt cheap.... Surely if the only way to get people interested in astronomy was by selling them £200 worth of 6inch Newtonian they would have chosen that instead... Astronomy isn't just about DSO's or astrophotography, it's about looking up at the skies with whatever you've got and enjoying the view.

The 100P I suggested was sub £100, and beats the Zennox 76/700 in all possible areas. There are cheap scopes that perform quite well. I have had some nice views of wide-field targets with my 14x70 finder, which is essentially a 70mm F/5 frac (star-travel like) press-ganged into finder duty. My main concern with the Zennox was with the rubbish EPs and rubbish mount (term used without prejudice). The ST70-like scope came with a mount which could not even aim the scope at zenith, the EPs I got with it were awful. They could easily put people off. However, stick a half-decent EP in these scopes, mount them on something decent, and they become usable. Fortunately, there are cheap scopes out there that are usable because they have a simple but decent mount, and have simple but decent EPs. Why therefore would I ever advise somebody to opt for a worse product that actually costs more?

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I cut my teeth on a cheapo 30 x30 non achro, no interchangeable eyepiece on a tabletop tripod. Bad though it was I enjoyed it and it didn't put me off. After a year or so I upgraded to a 40 x 30 achro. In fact if I ever find that one in my attic I intend to try and convert it to a guide scope.

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