These following products are no longer in production.
The Sgr-4
“Objects were surprisingly bright and clear in these small aperture scopes. The instruments are perfect for wide-field buffs” “The Stargazer was set up the second I spread its tripod legs. This tripod demonstrates how rigid yet lightweight a good design can be.” “…The Stargazer [Sgr-3], with a significantly darker background, allowed me to see more detail [in the Andromeda Galaxy].”
The Sgr-4 maintains the high level of quality established by the Sgr-3, its beginner-fiendly ease of use, and its outstandingly smooth and steady stained and varnished hardwood mount.
With its larger parabolic mirror, the Sgr-4 has twice the light grasp and will show an increased wealth of detail in celestial objects. It comes with a very smooth rack and pinion focuser and a FREE Rigel Quickfinder for very easy aiming.
Like all Stargazer Steve Telescopes, the Sgr-4 is made here in North America, not imported. It is designed by a fellow stargazer and hand crafted using the best materials.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Primary Mirror: 4 1/4-inch (108 mm) diameter paraboloid, f/7.1, 30 inches (762mm) focal length, overcoated for durability.
Eyepiece: Standard size ( 1 1/4″) 17mm Plossl
Magnification: With supplied eyepiece 45X, with optional 7.5 mm eyepiece 100X.
Field of View: 1.1 Degrees with supplied eyepiece. This field of view is wider than 2 full moons placed side by side.
Weight with mount: 13 lbs.
Eyepiece height range: 47 – 56 inches (no stooping or kneeling!).
Tube length: 31 inches.
Storage space for assembled scope: a half square-foot of floor area in the corner of a room or closet.
THE MOUNTING
Stargazer Steve’s 4-inch Reflecting Telescope comes with a light but sturdy and smooth-turning, fully-triangulated hardwood fork mount (altazimuth type). Wood has excellent thermal and vibration-damping properties, making this far sturdier than metal mounts costing more than the complete telescope.
The Northern hardwoods used in the mount and tripod are stained and varnished to enhance their natural beauty.
The 6-Inch f/8 Deluxe Reflector Kit
The new Kit offers quality and performance unequaled at this price with the opportunity to learn about scopes in an enjoyable guided building activity with everything supplied including all optics, the easy-to-follow step-by-step video and mounting parts of high-quality Birch Plywood.
* 6-inch hand-figured PARABOLIC overcoated mirror, 48″ F.L.
* Superior tube venting system for steadier images
* Integrated Balance System ready to take on any accessory
* Free Rigel Quick Finder projects a red “bull’s-eye” onto the Sky for aiming this scope with unsurpassed ease!
* Included 1 1/4-inch 17 mm Plossl Eyepiece gives 71 power with a 2/3 degree field.
Sky and Telescope Magazine chose this 6-inch Scope as one of their TOP HOTTEST PRODUCTS for 1999 (December’99 Issue)!
***** SKY NEWS SAYS FIVE STARS OUT OF FIVE!! (Review in Nov/Dec’99)
“… a great buy, not only because of its optical quality and the splendid rendering of various astronomical objects, but also because it can be easily constructed by an individual, by an interested group of students, scouts or guides, or as a family project.”
n a single day our Kit Builders become successful telescope makers, and the same night observe with a much better scope than otherwise available at our price. Now this opportunity extends to the most popular size of amateur telescope, the 6-inch f/8. Send in your order now!
OTHER DETAILS:
– Comes with a very smooth accurate Rack and Pinion Focuser.
– The Compact Lightweight Steady Mount is made of beautiful Birch, real Teflon Bearings, and has a built-in carrying handle (NO PARTICLE BOARD)
– The mount is the lightest and easiest to transport and carry of all in its size class!
The weight of the entire mounted instrument is only 26 lbs.
The low Center of Gravity makes it exceptionally stable!
-The length of the tube is 52 inches.
The 4 1/4-Inch Deluxe Planetary Kit
The Deluxe Planetary Kit comes with everything you need to make this exceptional 4 1/4-inch scope This kit is easily built in just a few hours so that you can enjoy the heavens that same night! A great family project!
SPEND A DAY MAKING YOUR OWN TELESCOPE
GET GREAT VIEWS THE SAME NIGHT!
Stargazer Steve’s Deluxe Planetary Kit gives you everything you need.
Follow the step-by-step video guide to assured success – an enjoyable experience resulting in an exceptional 4 1/4 Newtonian Telescope on a very solid smooth Dobsonian mount. You will get the most out of your scope because of the knowledge and skills you have gained. The door will be opened to success in advanced telescope-making projects.
WHAT IS SUPPLIED:
All Optics including eyepiece All parts and hardware 1 1/4 inch Focuser (Rack and Pinion) Video Guide Checklist Booklet Teflon Bearings Top Quality Birch Plywood Mount
SPECIFICATIONS: PRIMARY MIRROR: 4 1/4″ f/10, Focal length 43″, Protected Aluminum Coatings. EYEPIECE: 10 mm f.l. Kellner MAGNIFICATION: 109 X as supplied, 145 X with optional 7.5 mm Plossl. MAXIMUM FIELD: Use a 25mm Erfle or wide-field eyepiece to get a 1 1/3 degree field (2 2/3 apparent Moon diameters) LENGTH: 48″, WEIGHT: 16 lbs WHAT YOU NEED:
A hammer, screwdrivers (straight and Phillips), a 7/16″ wrench (or adjustable wrench, or pliers), a small utility knife, and 7 lbs of sand
6-Inch f/5 Truss Tube Telescope
This telescope was as one of the Top 25 Telescopes in May (2009) Issue of Astronomy Magazine!
A Six-inch f/5 Telescope offers the greatest performance available in a small package, whether the objects of interest are star clusters, nebulae and galaxies, or the moon, sun, and planets. Never is this more true than in the case of this Truss-Tube Telescope, which combines extreme portability with the classic performance of a 6 six-inch scope , elegance, and exceptional structural and dynamic stability.
This modest-sized scope has the rock-solid feel of a large truss-tube scope and moves with exceptional smoothness on its Teflon bearings. Like all six-inch scopes it gathers 900 times the light that your unaided eye can.
Truss-tube designs also allow the quickest possible cooling of the optics and “tube air” to the ambient evening temperature, which provides steady detailed images more quickly. (Some solid-tube scopes take two hours or more to cool down and overcome heat-blurring of the images. When the optics are cool, a “tube shroud” can be quickly put in place if stray light, dew, and field dust are concerns .
This is the first available 6-inch Truss Tube Telescope. The reason is a conventional Dobsonian mount would put the eyepiece of such a short-tubed telescope much too low for comfort. The ultra-low profile mount of the Stargazer Steve 6-inch Truss Tube Telescope integrates into the top of a widely-triangulated tripod of extreme strength and stability. This places the eyepiece within a very convenient height range (46 inches to 56 inches).
For all its lightweight-looking appearance, this is an extremely strong, steady, and smooth-moving scope. The Side Bearing Arcs fold to create a mirror case with a handle, simplifying safe transport of the primary mirror.
This Telescope is equipped with the only “Folding Truss” on the market. This speeds up and simplifies assembly, since you are dealing with one unit rather than eight separate aluminum tubes.
For overseas travel the three Bearing Arcs can be removed and the Top End (Secondary Cage) collapsed to reduce the scope to small, easily packed pieces.
Only a standard Phillips screwdriver and a 7/16″ wrench are needed to do this.
A Video Manual explains how to assemble/disassemble and adjust the scope. However, this is not a Kit because I fully assemble and varnish these hand-crafted scopes before shipping.
The Six-inch Telescope comes with a free Rigel QuikFinder, which provides an extremely convenient way to aim the scope. It is lighter and easier to use than a Telrad.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Aperture: 6 inches = 152 mm
Focal Length: 30 inches = 762 mm (f/5)
Shipping Weight: 34 lbs
Weight in Service: 29 lbs (Scope: 19 lbs, Mount + Tripod: 10 lbs)
Shipping Container Dimensions: 7 inches x 18 inches x 30 inches
Tube Length: 28″
Truss Length: approximately 20 inches
Focuser: 2-inch machined aluminum “virtual helix” with 1 1/4-inch adapter
(This is a very solid and smoothly machined innovative component)
Standard Eyepiece: 17 mm Plossl giving 45 Power and a 1.1 degree field of view
(2 1/5 “moon diameters”)
Performance with optional 6 mm Plossl (High Power) Eyepiece:
127 Power, 0.39 degree field (3/4 of the full Moon)
Maximum magnification likely to provide additional detail on nights of rare atmospheric steadiness: 200 to 300 power according to conditions and observer experience.
Wide-field performance with Optional 25 mm 1 1/4-inch Wide-Angle Eyepiece:Magnification: 30 Power
Field of View: 2.3 degrees (4.6 moon diameters)
Exit Pupil: 5 mm
NOTE ON OPTICAL EXCELLENCE:
The optical quality of all our instruments is above average for the price.
Many manufacturers like to quote “wave figures” (1/8th wave or 1/10th wave etc) for their optics. However these statements can be misleading. The only reliable, accurate, and truthful way to provide these wave figures is to place the entire optical system in the light path of a large Optical Interferometer . This generally involves considerable expense of capital and time, and no manufacturer is providing this service for telescopes selling for under $5000.00 US.
In the absence of a full-system interferogram, our ethics prompt us to simply state that our telescopes offer above average performance for the price and are diffraction-limited. In addition our reputation for quality is based on a our decade-long history of providing high quality components and standing behind them and correcting any problems if they become apparent. I am personally accessible by phone or email. How many Telescope Designer/Manufacturers can truthfully say that?