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| 4.5" StarBlast telescope Mosaic by DaemonGPF |
Orion StarBlast
I've become quite enamored with tabletop telescopes. Plus, it's astro on the cheap without computers, electronics and high tech gear that can fail.
They are lightweight, low cost, easily carried, and setup in seconds. They are self auto balancing and grab and go stature. The newer ones now have higher quality optics and they're ideal for many astronomical projects. No fussing with a computer or overly complicated electronics and star calibrations. After the recent runin of problems with computerized telescopes, my aperture fever has taken a sharp turn towards the small and uncomplicated. In upgrading from the Celestron FirstScope, the Orion StarBlast is a likely candidate. It supersizes the minuscule 3-inch mirror to one that just exceeds 4.5-inches or up to 6-inches. The biggest problem with these telescopes, they are all sold out and unavailable at this time. Here's a rundown of total telescope weight for tabletop small telescopes.
$54.95 Celestron FirstScope 3" Dob - 4.3 lbs
$199.99 Orion Starblast 4.5" Dob - 13 lbs
$349.99 Orion Starblast 6" Dob - 25 lbs
Photo
The Ring Nebula M57 imaged through the Orion StarBlast 4.5" F4 telescope with tracking. Source CC by 2.0. The next image of Orion is with the StarBlast 4.5" and the NightCap app on a smartphone. Starblast photo by Mike Otis.
Nightcap
Many people are using the NightCap camera app. For $3 you can have a complete astro camera on your smartphone, capable of taking time exposures, video in low light, and capturing deep sky objects on a shoestring budget - matching low cost small tabletop telescopes.
https://nightcapcamera.com/
Review
https://allthestuff.com/orion-starblast/
