Neutronian vs Refractor

[Shepdog]

Can anyone tell me how a Celestron Atromaster 70mm would compare agaisnt a Nat Geo neutronian 114/500?

 

[Dave Lloyd]

I can't say for certain but I would guess the Celestron has the edge as it's built for serious use. 

[DaveL59]

While the NG will gather more light, they don't tend to be particularly good quality nor well regarded. I have the small 76/350 of the same type as the one you ask about, needed some work to give a reasonable image and even then it's not the most usable piece of kit. It works but you can't easily adjust the mirrors to get the best from it unless willing to do serious modifications. 

The Celestron 70mm refractor should be ok optically, I have the Starsense LT70AZ and it gives a nice image with better eyepieces than supplied. It may be a bit wobbly tho owing to the tripid and mount, but most tripod mounted scopes at that end of the price range will be. As Dave above says I'd opt for this rather than anything NatGeo.

edit - I should add too, the eyepieces NatGeo supply are... dreadful!

Edited November 12, 2020 by DaveL59

[Louis D]

Your title caught my eye.  I'm trying to picture a Neutronian telescope.  I gather it would be incredibly dense like a neutron star.  The intense gravity could probably bend light waves alone, dispensing with the need for lenses or mirrors.  However, getting close enough to view anything would be fatal as it would crush you in an instant.  It would also tend to crash through the Earth's crust and mantle and lodge itself at the Earth's core.  That alone would make delivery logistics a nightmare.

As others have said, I would probably err toward the refractor at this price point.

If you want a Newtonian, I would steer you toward the AWB OneSky Reflector Telescope since you're in the US.  It's the same as the Sky-Watcher Heritage-130P Flextube in the rest of the world.  It has been universally praised as a good starter scope.

A good solid tube Newtonian option is the Orion StarBlast 4.5 Astro Reflector Telescope.  It's a bit faster, so it's more demanding on eyepieces and collimation.

[jonathan]

Generally, for a starter scope you're best sticking to the well-known brand names including Celestron, Sky Watcher, Orion to name the ones I know off the top of my head.  Many of these are built in the same factory (Celestron and Sky Watcher certainly are) but Celestron might be considered slightly more 'premium'.

[Shepdog]

Just ordered a Celestron Power Seeker 80mm...im not ready for all that collimation stuff lol