A neighbourly conundrum

[RobertI]

My very nice neighbour asked me to help her 8 year old granddaughter to see some things in the sky with her new astronomy telescope. I happily agreed and popped over to be greeted by this wonderful chap: 

Made entirely from lightweight plastic, it sported a 70mm uncoated plastic singlet objective (stopped down to 30mm), a finder (with insufficient adjustment to align with the main scope), a 6mm plastic eyepiece giving 50x and an incredibly wobbly tripod which made focusing all but impossible.
 

I asked whether she might prefer to look through one of my telescopes, but sadly it had to be that one. So out we ventured into the cold and wind. After a bit of fiddling around we managed to see the moons of Jupiter, the belts (shown as one) and the rings of Saturn. Frankly, a sensational result for such a bin-worthy scope. Hopefully the granddaughter has been a tiny bit inspired!  

[Zermelo]

The next SGL annual awards ceremony should include a "Community service above and beyond the call of duty" section, in particular for "action in the face of dodgy department store kit".

[Ags]

I had a similar telescope when I was young, although mine was longer so presumably a bit slower. CA was phenomenal, but it showed me Alpha Centauri and Jupiter's moons, and yes, I was inspired.

[UKDiver]

1 hour ago, RobertI said:

My very nice neighbour asked me to help her 8 year old granddaughter to see some things in the sky with her new astronomy telescope. I happily agreed and popped over to be greeted by this wonderful chap:

Made entirely from lightweight plastic, it sported a 70mm uncoated plastic singlet objective (stopped down to 30mm), a finder (with insufficient adjustment to align with the main scope), a 6mm plastic eyepiece giving 50x and an incredibly wobbly tripod which made focusing all but impossible.

I asked whether she might prefer to look through one of my telescopes, but sadly it had to be that one. So out we ventured into the cold and wind. After a bit of fiddling around we managed to see the moons of Jupiter, the belts (shown as one) and the rings of Saturn. Frankly, a sensational result for such a bin-worthy scope. Hopefully the granddaughter has been a tiny bit inspired!  

That's the important bit IMO. It's still a wonder to me that we can do this, let alone with cheap plastic.

Edited October 28, 2021 by UKDiver