Philip Canard Reviews

I have the Celestron branded version in 1.25 size. There was a coating problem with mine and Celestron replaced it. The replacement works fine for getting rid of atmospheric haze in daytime use. Sharpens up distant views significantly. For night use, it improves the view of Saturn significantly in my Nighthawk II scope. The Cassini division is easy with the filter.

I have mixed feelings about this case. It is molded from rather strong ABS plastic. There is a very strong piano style hinge joining the upper and lower case halves together on one side. On the other side there are only two rather small latches. The wheels are very small and only useful on hard and smooth surfaces, like through your house and across the driveway to your car. Forget about parking lots with coarse gravel, or heaven forbid, any soft sandy ground. Thus, the carrying handles at both ends come in handy. I have the 8 OTA, so I have plenty of extra padding in place to keep my scope safe. If using it with the 10 OTA, you will have minimal 1 of padding all around. Sections of foam are pulled out to fit it to the 10 OTA. Some of these hunks of foam started coming loose on their own, so I pulled out the hot melt glue gun and fixed them in place more solidly. I ended up with a few extra places to stick things between foam padding at the butt end of the case since ther ewere sizeable pieces of foam left in place there. Things like my counterweights (well padded with extra foam and placed in the bottom section), a tool kit, and my Astrozap dew shield wraps around the mid section of the OTA, thus solving a vexing storage problem for it. On close inspection, things like the extruded aluminum moldings that mate the two halves together are fabricated and attached using methods and a degree of accuracy that indicate rather small scale garage shop manufacturing practices. This case is not waterproof, and should not be used to protect the scope from any serious amount of rain or dampness. It is for auto transport and home storage. It would be adequate for a long trip in an RV. Just dont lash it to the top and expose it to the elements. If you need a serious shipping case that can take serious abuse, then look elsewhere. I would rate the case a bit lower if I had the 10 OTA as I feel that 1 of padding is a bit skimpy for an OTA heavier than mine.

This is my standard filter for use in Maks and Newts. Deep sky views are significantly improved in town and even at dark sky sites. I almost never break out the UHC filter anymore when viewing galaxies and nebulae. Unless I have a specific reason to use another filter, its almost always being used. Improves planetary views as well as deep skyviews. This is my favorite astronomical filter.

I bought the model with pick foam interior. It is easy enough to customize to fit your equipment. The problem is that the foam is too easy for my equipment to tear apart. Its just too soft and fragile. I should have gotten the model with the harder foam panels. I used Gorilla Tape and hot melt glue to reinforce the foam padding, and now it works acceptably. I haul a 6 LOMO Maksutov-Cassegrain and all its associated accessories in my case. It would be a 10 star item with the harder foam panels. I suggest you pay the extra for the upgraded interior padding. It is available after the sale if you need to upgrade. The plastic case itself is very well made and protects my investment in a quality scope and accessoires very well. Its much more rugged than my JMI case for my SN8. The fact you can customize the interior to your liking and order extra foam when you change equipment makes it a good lasting investment. Buy with confidence.

Ed gave this a totally erroneous review. This is NOT a refractor color fringe reducing filter, and his review should be ignored. This is a light pollution reduction filter. It does the job by rejecting narrow bands of the most objectionable light. It is the brightest LPR filter I know of that still improves the contrast of images significantly. It is also a good planetary filter, do you get two filters for one price. If you only own one LPR filter, buy this one.

If you have outfitted your SN8 with a better focuser and expensive camera, you will need some protection. This product works as advertised. I dont know how long it will last as I have only had mine a few months and it spends almost all its time locked up in the travel case with the SN8. It looks rather durable. It isnt cheap for a bag that goes over your scope. If you go to star parties and leave your scope set up all day long, you had better get something similar to this. I knock it down a peg for costing too much in my opinion, but I dont know of anything better.

This is acceptable for terrestrial viewing up to about 60-80X. It doesnt work well at all on high power astronomical viewing, but you shouldnt expect it to. Well worth the modest price. Get a Baader T-2 erecting prism at 5 times the price if you need perfection.

I bought this for a LOMO 150 Mak-Cass. Optically, I have found no flaws. The images it throws up are superb. I wish it had two thumbscrews for holding my binoviewer more securely. The nosepiece fits rather tightly into my 2 Mercury back. It is a push fit. My TEC eyepiece turret does not have that problem. This diagonal is made in Asia, probably Taiwan or mainland China. You can now get 1/10 wave Asian dielectrics from other companies for a bit less. In a purchase with a Stellarvue scope its a better deal. The angle of view is narrow to the point of cutting off the edge of view in my Siebert 38mm Observatory wideangle eyepiece. I am finding this to be common in Chinese diagonals, and my 1.25 Astro Tech dielectric diagonal does the same thing with a 32mm Plossl. If you are going to use the widest FOV eyepieces, you might want something else.