Does anyone know if Bushnell is a good brand for telescope?

[lulaz]

I wanted to buy a Skywatcher Heritage P130 Flex Tube, but I couldn't find anyone at amazon or any american stores. I found a Bushnell Ares 5" though for almost the same price (US$ 230). The Bushnell comes with the same stuff that come with the Skywatcher... 2 plossl EP 25mm and 5mm and a Red Dot Finder.

Both are practically the SAME scope...

This is the link for both:

Bushnell ARES 5" Compact Truss Tube Dobsonian Telescope OpticsPlanet Edition FREE S&H 785000. Bushnell DOB Telescopes, Bushnell Telescopes. (bushnell)

TELESCOPE SUPPLIERS - SKY-WATCHER TELESCOPE

(heritage)

I really want to buy the Bushnell, but I'm afraid that it is just a poor copy of the good skywatcher!... please, help me through this decision!

Thanks in advance =)

[Geno]

I have no experience with the above scope, however my first scope (a christmas present last year) was a Bushnell Skytour on an Alt/Az mount. It was of very poor quality, the EP's supplied were 12.5, 8 and 4mm which were pretty useless as was the Barlow. The tripod was very light thin aluminium so any movement took an age for the vibrations to die down. The RDF also stopped working after a few weeks.

As I said I don't know about the above scope but I don't think Bushnell are very well regarded when it comes to there scopes. I personally would hold out until you can find the Skywatcher or another decent brand.

[wils07]

Bushnell make scopes for rifle`s also but thats all i know about them.

[yeti monster]

Bushnell are another one of those companies who buy in gear from manufacturers, as they purchase large quantites they can get their brand put on at the factory.

I've seen KUOC binos (like revelation/Mystery/Celestron etc) branded as Bushnell and they seemed to be the same quality. However, as with so many things, the proof of the pudding etc.

It could be that the scope is decent enough, but let down by poor quality EPs and a really cheapo tripod.

[Chris H]

I have the Heritage and it's a great scope, the Bushnell appears identical and it also looks like it has some shielding opposite the focuser which the heritage doesn't have. I have only seen the photo in the link you supplied and have not seen the scope in the flesh. The mount will be solid enough (it's identical to the one on the Heritage) and yes maybe the ep's that come with it are of poor quality but this is the case with many scopes.

[pvaz]

In the US you have a brand called Orion which is very good and haves a lot of models to choose from.

Staying under 250$ here are a few similar ones:

Orion StarBlast 6 Astro Reflector Telescope | Orion Telescopes & Binoculars (6")

Orion StarBlast 4.5 Astro Reflector Telescope | Orion Telescopes (4.5")

[fatwoul]

As wils07 said, Bushnell supply rifle scopes, which I recently found out as I have got back into shooting after many years. Some of these rifle scopes are more expensive than a lot of telescopes, and are quite sought after. This surprised me, based on my experience of Bushnell telescopes being rather...Tasco? OK maybe Tasco is a little too harsh, but I've never had a fantastic experience looking through a Bushnell telescope. The out-sourcing explanation makes sense to me, now.

[John Beale]

I have a friend that has a Bushnell 6" Dobsonian and it is of excellent quality. I came with a Orthoscopic 25mm Eyepiece and the mount is stable and moves smooth. I would recommend this scope to anyone although I would recommend a larger apeture.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Apart from the shielding on the scope this looks and sounds identical to the Heritage 130P. As stated above, this scope is almost certainly made of the same materials as the Heritage and has just been re-branded. This happens a lot with scopes and bins.

[Pauly]

As has been said, Bushnell rifle scopes are top dollar and top quality. Like most things, it would seem you get what you pay for despite the name on the product.

[Chris H]

As Paulo said check out this scope Orion StarBlast 6 Astro Reflector Telescope | Orion Telescopes & Binoculars it has an extra inch of aperture over the Bushnell and is a solid tube design all for the same price.

[lulaz]

Whoa!!! thank you all!!! =)

Well, for the orion lovers, I saw this scopes before and I liked them, BUT, as I live in Brazil, one "big" scope like these would be around US$ 1400 at least, because they're very big and heavy, so the shipping price would be around 900 dolars, plus Brazilian tax (multiply the product price 1,6 and, to convert to Reais (brazilian money), multiply by 1,7).... it gets very expensive!

BUT for this scope, the shipping price is very low, about 50 dolars... so it is very, VERY affordable to me! =)

Well, so far the best telescope is this Heritage P130 (beside Meade ETX 80, that I could not get the shipping price... amazon or other companies would not ship to Brazil). It is very affoardble and compact. thank you all for the help!!!