Lidl binos, but zooms (pah)

[jbh]

Sadly it seems this year's lidl bino offer is a pair of zoomers LIDL Binoculars with Zoom but I guess they might still be better than the average for £15?

Any thoughts? What about for terrestrial viewing? They do seem to have come from the same place as so many of these meade, bresser,oberwerk etc. do. They look very similar, just unfortunate specs!

They also have some rudimentary planetarium, it might be fun!

[MishMich]

Look better than Aldi's:

ALDI - Thursday Special Buys 17th December 2009

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm led to believe that zoom bins are not good for astronomy. I've never tried them. The Bresser 10X50 bins from Lidl are exceptional value for money. They are a great pair of cheap bins.

[Cornelius Varley]

What I want to know is why Lidl in the Irish Republic are selling the Meade LXD75 6" , Etx70AT and Bresser 102mm refractor ?

Peter

[LukeSkywatcher]

What I want to know is why Lidl in the Irish Republic are selling the Meade LXD75 6" , Etx70AT and Bresser 102mm refractor ?

Peter

Not sure what you mean. Should they NOT be selling them?. Do they not sell all of them where you are?

I was down in Lidl today and they had only one LXD75 left and a couple of the others. Haha if i had 600 euro to spend i might well have came home with the last LX75. I nearly bought one of the smalle 102mm scopes there but my niece said "You dont need a telescope...you have one already". All the spotting scopes and zoom bins were sold out.

[Cornelius Varley]

The UK only gets the binoculars and small Bresser Skylux telescopes. So why doesn't Lidl in the UK sell the same telescopes as the Republic?

Peter

[brianb]

my niece said "You dont need a telescope...you have one already"

She's wrong, you need one for each eye. At least.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I knew i shouldn't have listened to her.

[jbh]

On a non-astronmical note. If anyone is casually interested in the very small, their £50 microscopes are pretty reasonable. I got one last year, and it's been good fun. When I get a telescope I may try rigging the eyepiece camera up somehow...!

LIDL

[tinvek]

On a non-astronmical note. If anyone is casually interested in the very small, their £50 microscopes are pretty reasonable. I got one last year, and it's been good fun. When I get a telescope I may try rigging the eyepiece camera up somehow...!

LIDL

i picked one up last year and it is fun, i tried the camera in a scope, quality isn't much to talk about and it needs a lot of shiming to fit into a 1.25" focuser but looks ok when used in the microscope.

[russ]

We picked up the microscope too about 4 years ago as a christmas present for my eldest son. It's a good bit of kit and still going strong. He was using it only last week having made some slides at school, brought them home to show us.

I know the general rule for zoom binos is always say NO, even to top brand models. But i have to admit i'm tempted at £14.99. Seems silly for 60mm bins. Just wish they were 12x60, now that would be awesome. I'll probably pick up a pair, test them and then give them to mum for Christmas.

[jbh]

I suspect, as with most things which are a bit cheap for the specs, that there will be some significant sample-sample variation, not least in collimation! As you say though, £15 is crazy.

As for the camera - yes, the quality isn't great what I found was that I could get much better (4x the) resolution when using capture software other than that supplied, very odd. It was then reasonable, obviously you have more experience on the astro side, I've no idea what its noise is like. Agreed on the shimming!