But I found that telescope to be actually quite usable and showed nice images of the Pleiades, the Moon, and Jupiter’s moons. In theory, it should have all the same problems: It’s a small 40mm refractor with a cheap tripod and Huygens eyepieces. Not long ago I used a similarly-priced toy refractor, which is sold under a number of names including the Discover with Dr. ![]() You know that classic science demonstration where you take two magnifying glasses of different focal lengths, and you put them in a cardboard tube and turn that into a telescope? Essentially, what Vivitar has done, is they’ve taken a small magnifying glass lens, put it in a plastic tube, and packaged it with some horrible eyepieces and a toy tripod. However traditionally, the department store refractor has at least had an acceptable objective lens, a coated or multicoated achromatic doublet, which was at least technically capable of forming good images, if all other concerns of mounting and eyepieces could be taken care of. These are typically hobbykillers because they can have frustrating mounts which make it difficult to find anything, and they have tiny, distorted eyepieces. They’re typically small thin little refractors on wobbly undersized tripods with mediocre eyepieces and overly high magnifications. Us telescope enthusiasts have been waging a war against the “department store refractor” for about as long as you could go to a department store and buy a telescope. Even stargazing with the unaided eye will bring you more joy. If you own this telescope and you think you like it, I am begging you to scrape together even the additional $40 for a cheap pair of 10x50 binoculars, you will be much happier. ![]() My general policy is that though I may point out the flaws in a telescope, if you have a telescope that I don’t like, and you like it, that’s fine. ![]() Don’t buy it if it’s on sale for $5, don’t buy it for full price. Don’t buy it as a gift for a kid, don’t buy it for yourself just to get started, don’t buy it assuming you can work with its quirks, don’t buy it as a joke for the experienced astronomer in your life. Do not buy this Vivitar refractor telescope.
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