You would have thought they would do better than this ....

[John]

I've been browsing e.bay, as you do , looking at the scopes on offer. Most, as usual, are not very impressive, despite the extravagant claims made by the sellers ("Professional" is a word that is used far too often in the scope descriptions IMHO) but the worst of the bunch have seemingly managed to gain the endorsement of those august bodies Cambridge University and National Geographic.

Here is a good (bad ?) example:

http://tinyurl.com/5albr5

If their logo's and names are being used under a proper licence (I'm assuming they are) then it's ironic to say the least that the equipment bearing their name is almost certainly virtually unuseable for any sort of scientific work, or even leisure work for that matter.

I wonder if these bodies either know or care about where their identities appear ?. It's also likely to mislead well intentioned but inexperienced buyers who see the name and assume that the gear must be good.

I realise that the price of this stuff is low but equipment like this can kill off a budding interest for good unfortunately. £20 will buy a pair of Lidl 10x50 binoculars which will be far more useful in a number of ways than the above scope would !.

OK thats off my chest now

John

[moondog]

Couldn't agree more John - at least they only claim 40 x magnification and not the more usual 400x !

8)

MD

[ChrisEdu]

They're probably not too fussed - money's money; at the end of the day it just business.

[Tim]

heh, somebody bought my kids one of them things some time ago. The 'lenses' are made of plastic, and the way it works is such that you have difficulty even FINDING the moon, let alone observing anything.

[ChrisEdu]

the way it works is such that you have difficulty even FINDING the moon, let alone observing anything.

That's quite an achievement of crappiness!

[gary1968]

the way it works is such that you have difficulty even FINDING the moon, let alone observing anything.

That's quite an achievement of crappiness!

LOL, :-D

Gary

[timetraveller]

Good morning guys and girls

Has anybody actually stopped to think that this might just be a very clever marketing ploy sell kids a scope that they cant see very much if anything with and a very short time later you have your kid screaming i want a propper telescope or I cant do my homework at you.

so you have to oblige just to get any peace and quite

regards pete

[Woodsey65]

I wonder what the light pollution is like in Cambridge... quite an endorsement.

Even found a review on it!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/University-of-Cambridge-Astronomical-Telescope/dp/B0007XC1V6

Why?

Dave

[GeoffM]

I wonder what the light pollution is like in Cambridge... quite an endorsement.

Even found a review on it!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/University-of-Cambridge-Astronomical-Telescope/dp/B0007XC1V6

Why?

Dave

That just about sums up the usefulness-complete waste of money.

[Astro_Baby]

I have to say last year I bought my youngest ( a budding techno baby ) an elecronics kit marketed using the University of Oxford.

It was absolute rubbish - even the on and off switch was faulty and most of the components were rubbish with many faulty components and the worst design I have ever seen for an electronic breadboard.

This pile of rubbish was almost guaranteed to kill any interest in electronics and the University were on the end of a VERY stroppy letter from me pointing out that perhaps they had in mind keeping the unversity free of technology people by putting them off at an early age and also the fact that a University couldnt even make a crystal radio kind of showed what bad shape the UK was in from an academic viewpoint.

I never got a reply