Home > Consumer Reviews > Galileo FS-80/K-800 800 x 80mm Yoke Mount Reflector Telescope
Galileo FS-80/K-800 800 x 80mm Yoke Mount Reflector Telescope
See it at Amazon.com for $79.99Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
Good For The Price
(4 out of 5) by L. Waldner on Oct 21, 2008 (Duluth)I was thinking of spending about $50 on a telescope, after a few minutes I found myself looking at a $300 goto telescope. I've never really used a telescope before, I quickly realized that the hardest thing about shopping for a telescope is figuring out what your budget is.
After I watched the video for this telescope, I decided I could afford to spend a few extra dollars on it. If this had cost $30 more, I would only give it 3 stars.
The good: It is a nice big telescope for the price. I have been able to see the moons of Jupiter, and can just barely make out a couple of bands, but don't expect to see the big red spot with this. Saturn has not been out yet, but I am looking forward to pointing this telescope at it. The views were stunning when I looked at the edge of the moon where the sun was setting. I have seen shadows filling lunar craters with my binoculars before, but the view from this telescope took my breath away. I also really like the Mars Eye finder. It took me about half an hour to calibrate it, but once calibrated it works very well. A better battery cover for it would be nice. For me the 20mm eyepiece is more rewarding. The lower magnification brings in more light. It was easier for me to spot Jupiters moons with the 20mm eyepiece the 6mm eyepiece. This telescope was pretty easy for me to set up. The only tricky part was calibrating the Mars Eye finder. There is a fine adjustment for the vertical plane that works marginally well. It is lacking any decent horizontal adjustment. The accessory tray is nice for changing eyepieces. Without my glasses I cannot see much, especially in the dark. I can get the eyepieces back and forth to the focuser with this tray very easily.
The not so good: The packaging was not very good. I could hear parts shaking around in the box when I brought it inside. There was a slight dent on the side of the scope. It was very small, right where the mount attaches to the telescope. The scope that I got was white, if it had been gray I may not have noticed it.
The mount is not very good at all. Most reviews of telescopes in this price range seem to say the same thing. When using the 6mm eyepiece you need to wait about 5-6 seconds after touching the telescope for it to quit bouncing around. If you try to adjust the focus, you need to start over. The 20mm eyepiece takes about 2-3 seconds to get steady enough to look at. I cannot imagine trying to use the 6mm eyepiece on a windy night, or with any type of Barlow lens.
The software included is about 10 years old, and it shows. It may be useful if you want to use it on an older computer, but if you have a newer system I would strongly recommend Stellarium. Stellarium is free, just Google it.
Overall I do not regret this purchase at all. It certainly does require a certain amount of patience. At this price range it is easy to get nit-picky about certain details that higher priced telescopes may overcome. But dollar for dollar I feel this is a very rewarding telescope.
After I watched the video for this telescope, I decided I could afford to spend a few extra dollars on it. If this had cost $30 more, I would only give it 3 stars.
The good: It is a nice big telescope for the price. I have been able to see the moons of Jupiter, and can just barely make out a couple of bands, but don't expect to see the big red spot with this. Saturn has not been out yet, but I am looking forward to pointing this telescope at it. The views were stunning when I looked at the edge of the moon where the sun was setting. I have seen shadows filling lunar craters with my binoculars before, but the view from this telescope took my breath away. I also really like the Mars Eye finder. It took me about half an hour to calibrate it, but once calibrated it works very well. A better battery cover for it would be nice. For me the 20mm eyepiece is more rewarding. The lower magnification brings in more light. It was easier for me to spot Jupiters moons with the 20mm eyepiece the 6mm eyepiece. This telescope was pretty easy for me to set up. The only tricky part was calibrating the Mars Eye finder. There is a fine adjustment for the vertical plane that works marginally well. It is lacking any decent horizontal adjustment. The accessory tray is nice for changing eyepieces. Without my glasses I cannot see much, especially in the dark. I can get the eyepieces back and forth to the focuser with this tray very easily.
The not so good: The packaging was not very good. I could hear parts shaking around in the box when I brought it inside. There was a slight dent on the side of the scope. It was very small, right where the mount attaches to the telescope. The scope that I got was white, if it had been gray I may not have noticed it.
The mount is not very good at all. Most reviews of telescopes in this price range seem to say the same thing. When using the 6mm eyepiece you need to wait about 5-6 seconds after touching the telescope for it to quit bouncing around. If you try to adjust the focus, you need to start over. The 20mm eyepiece takes about 2-3 seconds to get steady enough to look at. I cannot imagine trying to use the 6mm eyepiece on a windy night, or with any type of Barlow lens.
The software included is about 10 years old, and it shows. It may be useful if you want to use it on an older computer, but if you have a newer system I would strongly recommend Stellarium. Stellarium is free, just Google it.
Overall I do not regret this purchase at all. It certainly does require a certain amount of patience. At this price range it is easy to get nit-picky about certain details that higher priced telescopes may overcome. But dollar for dollar I feel this is a very rewarding telescope.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Not a bad telescope - Mount needs improvement
(3 out of 5) by Charles Evans on Jul 1, 2009 (North Carolina)Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2NKBA6JMY8RLJ I will say that my experience with the Galileo Telescope is a bit of a work-in-progress. While I find the viewing to be powerful - I have a significant problem with the mount/tripod. It takes me time to simply find the moon. The issue is that the it is difficult to get the telescope to "sit" on the spot that you want.
Having said that it is important to recognize that while there are problems it is a decent telescope at a great price. It will require some patience in the set-up, but depending on your tolerance for trying to find targets.
Pros-
- Great value
- Decent power (See the video)
- Two lenses - low power and a higher powerful
- Assembly is relatively quickly
- Lots of extras with the software and Mars finder
Cons
- Tough to find stuff in the sky!
- Poor tripod makes it much more difficult to sit on a target
Final Verdict- While it requires patience this really is not that bad of a telescope especially at the price.
3 1/2 stars
Having said that it is important to recognize that while there are problems it is a decent telescope at a great price. It will require some patience in the set-up, but depending on your tolerance for trying to find targets.
Pros-
- Great value
- Decent power (See the video)
- Two lenses - low power and a higher powerful
- Assembly is relatively quickly
- Lots of extras with the software and Mars finder
Cons
- Tough to find stuff in the sky!
- Poor tripod makes it much more difficult to sit on a target
Final Verdict- While it requires patience this really is not that bad of a telescope especially at the price.
3 1/2 stars
41 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
Bad gift for a child, fun for the parent
(3 out of 5) by Gary Shuster on Dec 16, 2007I purchased this as a gift for my 7 year old who is all about space. I figured I would need to get the telescope aligned with whatever we were looking for first, then let her use the eyepiece. Unfortunately, this telescope just requires too much time and attention to get the objects of interest in place, in focus, and then by the time I put her eye to the eyepiece, the earth's rotation has the object well on its way out of the field of view. So with my daughter, I ended up using the lowest magnification almost exclusively. There are easier telescopes for kids available at the lowest magnification.
All that said, after she goes to bed, I've had a lot of fun with this telescope. The tripod is not as stable as I would have liked, so there is a lot of movement in the image, but otherwise its been fun!
All that said, after she goes to bed, I've had a lot of fun with this telescope. The tripod is not as stable as I would have liked, so there is a lot of movement in the image, but otherwise its been fun!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Good Scope, Clear Picture, Very Bad mount
(4 out of 5) by Joanne Bucci on Jul 20, 2008I bought this telescope for myself because i always loved space. When buying it, i read the other reviews on this scope and saw the one about the bad mount. This is true. Once you get the scope lined up with the object you are viewing, if you so much as touch the scope the image wobbles like crazy. Needs a different mount. Other then that the viewing looks great. The moon looks amazing and it alows you to even see the moons of jupiter. Awesome scope, bad mount.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
For the price it's a good starter scope
(2 out of 5) by P. Higginbotham on Jun 14, 2009 (WV, USA)The only reasons I'm not giving this one or zero stars are a) I got it during an Amazon lightning deal for only $50, and b) it's my first telescope so I have nothing to compare it to.
Maybe my expectations were too high but I'm really disappointed in this scope so far.
The power of this scope is modest at best, but at this bargain price that is certainly forgivable. However, the most frustrating aspect of this scope is unquestionably the mount. I found it steady enough once locked in, and it allows for very good fine-tuning on the vertical axis via a tuning screw, but making small adjustments horizontally is a nightmare because you have to just grab the telescope and rotate it. Don't bother trying to make horizontal adjustments while using the 6mm eyepiece -- you'll lose your object every time because you can't move the telescope in small enough increments.
Some reviewers say they've seen Jupiter's moons with this scope so apparently it isn't worthless, therefore I'm going to stick with it for a while. (Besides, if I return it the shipping cost would be almost as much as my purchase price was).
But as the adage goes: you get what you pay for.
UPDATE: After using this scope a couple of times and doing some comparison shopping on other scopes and mounts I've reevaluated my score. I think instead of 2 stars I'd give it 3.5 or so based on value alone. Despite its flaws I really don't think you could do better for the price.
Maybe my expectations were too high but I'm really disappointed in this scope so far.
The power of this scope is modest at best, but at this bargain price that is certainly forgivable. However, the most frustrating aspect of this scope is unquestionably the mount. I found it steady enough once locked in, and it allows for very good fine-tuning on the vertical axis via a tuning screw, but making small adjustments horizontally is a nightmare because you have to just grab the telescope and rotate it. Don't bother trying to make horizontal adjustments while using the 6mm eyepiece -- you'll lose your object every time because you can't move the telescope in small enough increments.
Some reviewers say they've seen Jupiter's moons with this scope so apparently it isn't worthless, therefore I'm going to stick with it for a while. (Besides, if I return it the shipping cost would be almost as much as my purchase price was).
But as the adage goes: you get what you pay for.
UPDATE: After using this scope a couple of times and doing some comparison shopping on other scopes and mounts I've reevaluated my score. I think instead of 2 stars I'd give it 3.5 or so based on value alone. Despite its flaws I really don't think you could do better for the price.