Bushnell Voyager - advice for newbie

[abraxas]

Hello to one & all,

Please forgive my ignorance, but my father has bought a Bushnell Voyager 78-9675 for my son. I have set it up and he wants to use it for terrestrial AND skywatching (we live in a part of the world with fantastic scenery and wildlife, in which he is interested).

As his "all-knowing" dad (hah!) I am enquiring, would a erecting eyepiece work okay with this model,and if so,what size would be best (I have found 1.5,10 and 20mm models,all 1.25 inch)?

I know this model is intended for skywatching,as are all reflectors,but he has it now, and he really does want to use for both.

Also,if I am to buy decent eyepieces for planetary obs, what will be best? It comes with 20mm,12mm and 4mm,with a Barlow 1.5x. I want my son to be able to use and enjoy this fairly impressive (to me at least!) telescope as much as possible.

Any and all help and advice will be gratefully received.

Kind regards to you all...

[Capricorn]

4.5" mirror, say 112mm, focal length = 500mm.

Not sure how it will be for terrestrial viewing. I would have thought that all the erecting prisms would be OK Best option I can come up with is to ring Rother Valley Optics and ask them. They sell the things.

I would be suspect of the barlow if it came as part of the scope. They are often cheap and have poor performance. I don't like barlows.

You say you have a 4, 12, 20 eyepiece. Where did these come from? The RV site says it has a 5 and 27mm eyepiece.

As the scope is 112 dia I would say nothing smaller then a 5mm eyepiece at first. This gives 100x. Really the ones you have are about right in terms of focal length.

Have a look at a site such as astronomics that sell the GSO range. Not expensive but reasonable. Problem is saying a TV plossl will give good results is true but they cost £75 and simply not worth that cost on the scope.

Would say 5, 10, 15, 20, 32mm should do everything. Again at say £25 a piece is it sensible. If the ones you have are OK then fill in the gaps. Say a 32 then an 8-10, and if the ones you have are OK I would stop there.

[TheThing]

Hello Abraxas and welcome to SGL.

Brilliant name - I wanted to call our son Abraxas, but my wife vetoed it! (7 letters = 7 days in the week; converted to the Greek alphabet, each letter represents a number and they all add to to 365)

[Polar Bear]

Hi Abraxas and welcome to SGL from another newbie.

Hello Abraxas and welcome to SGL.

Brilliant name - I wanted to call our son Abraxas, but my wife vetoed it! (7 letters = 7 days in the week; converted to the Greek alphabet, each letter represents a number and they all add to to 365)

Well you learn something everyday !