Aldi Maginon spotting scope

[billyharris72]

My dad picked one of these up for £20 a couple of weeks ago when it was on offer - I'd toyed with getting one myself but thought better of it. I've had a play with it today (daylight only) and have to say I was pleasantly surprised. To be clear this is not a great piece of optical equipment, but it is also far from the unusable junk I was fully expecting it to be. Basic specifications and thoughts below.

• 50mm objective, with 20-60 zoom eyepiece
• 2.2-1 degree FOV from the instructions, looks bang on from my test. Narrow, but not unusable.
• Weighs about 1kg. Cheap and plastic feeling; not water resistant.
• Focuser knob on top of scope body. No difficulty getting a sharp image at any zoom setting
• Targets (roosting birds, church clock, household aerials) all very clean and well corrected at 20x, and good at 30x. Starts to struggle a bit at higher magnifications.
• Chromatic aberration negligible on targets I was viewing at x20. By x30 it becomes more noticeable, with a distinct yellowish cast to the image background above about x40. Even at x40 it was still possible to get detail on target. Above this CA becomes pretty bad and compromises fine detail. But even so, I was still able to see detail in the eyes of blackbirds roosting perhaps 200m away.
• Comes with a tripod that's so bad it's actually funny.

Overall then, not an objectively great piece of kit, but usable, and for £20 actually very good value. If I paid £50 for bins and got an image as sharp as the image in this spotter at x20 I would not feel ripped off. It's the kind of thing it might make sense to leave in the car as a grab and go option, and at that price it's not something you'd need to worry about breaking.

Could all change under the stars of course - if I get the chance I'll give it a try an post what I find.

Billy.

 

 

 

[billyharris72]

Got a (brief, between the clouds) chance to point this at the Moon about 20 mins ago. Thoughts as follows:

• CA noticeable, but not enough to cause an obvious problem, even at x60 on the Moon. Clear views of mountains and the Mare.
• Slight loss of sharpness at x60 vs x40, but the higher magnification still usable.
• Decent view of Theophilis, Cyrillus and Catharina. Central peaks of first 2 and flat floor of the last clearly resolved as is the apparent defile (or is it just shadow) between Cyrillus and Catharina.
• Heading across the Mare Nectaris, Madler, Isodorus and Capella all clear.
• Hopping over to Mare Crisium same is true of Proclus.

Last night managed to catch the rings of Saturn (equally briefly), with views that were acceptable, though using it in darker conditions showed control of stray light is poor (the tube is well baffled, but made of plastic, so slighlty shiny). Also noticed what appears to be a tiny speck that may be inside the zoom eyepiece (though it's right at the edge and not at all intrusive).

Compared with budget binos (I see this scope as occupying a similar niche) I'd say that optically is compares okay to the Strathspey 15x60 and Visionary HD 12 x 60 when it's operating in the x20-x30 range, and the additional range of magnification gives that bit more flexibility.

Of course, I imagine quality control on these is non-existent - I may have lucked out and got a decent unit.

[Stub Mandrel]

The Maginon 20-60x60 Maginon spotting scope is back in Aldi, but now £25 but with a proper tripod, albeit a bit flimsy it is usable and quite tall, and has to be with £10 on its own. I haven't been able to take a look at anything yet but it certainly seems from other reviews to be a good choice for keeping in the car for random birdwatching or even a cheeky bit of astronomy. Very light so could be hand luggage on holiday. For the price what's not to like.

[JamesF]

Buy two and make a binoscope :D

James