It's a terrific little telescope

I am a telescope nerd. I love telescopes. I own a few different telescopes but I don't own a maksutov. So, when the Sarblue company contacted me and asked if I would like to review their new telescope I jumped at the chance. And I got to keep the telescope.

Maksutov Cassegrain telescopes have a reputation of being very high in quality when it comes to the optics so I was looking forward to trying this telescope out. And there are some other benefits to this type of telescope including it's portable size compared to it's performance. A small maksutov usually performs much better than any other type of telescope of comparable size.

Let's take a look inside the box.

It includes the telescope, a right angle erecting prism, a tripod, an eyepiece and a cellphone adapter/holder.

The cellphone adapter/holder is a nice little addition. It allows you to very easily attach your cellphone to the telescop in order to take pictures.

This is what you see in this picture. And through the telescope we can see a tower on the top of a nearby building.

And another interesting thing about the telescope is that the top of it comes off so you can see the optics. This has been specially added for educators. It's a nice touch.

Let's start right out talking about the performance of this "little" telescope. I have a friend who is a beginner in astronomy. You see here on the left and right my friends two telescopes. And this ends up to be a perfect test for us. On the left is a 4": reflector and on the right is a 60mm refractor.

Right off the bat, when using the new sarblue telescope my friend said "Wow, look how sharp and crisp the viewing is."

And he is right, Maks have a reputation for sharp and crisp with good color correction.. My novice friend could see the difference immediately and so could I.

So.... right away my opinion is that the Sarblue telescope immediately outperfoms similar size and similar priced telescopes. Which is to be expected with a Maksutov.

But here is a really big point about this telescope: It's small size as compared to it's performance.

It's a reallly nice little on the go kind of telescope - Both for celestial viewing and for terrestrial viewing. So you can do bird watching and star watching with it, and because of it's compact size it is very convenient to take with you. And this is a definite advantage over the other types of telescopes like the two others you see in the picture.

What does Will say about this telescope?

It's a bargain at a little over a hundred dollars. You get a small in size but big in performance telescope that is easy to travel with. Get yourself a small carry bag and everything can go right in there. And, it has the added bonus of a smart phone adaper which is a twenty dollar value. If you don't have a small telescope and are looking for one this is a great choice.

It's available through this amazon affiliate link here:

Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope for Adults Kids Astronomy Beginners, Sarblue Mak60 Catadioptric Compound Telescope 750x60mm, Compact Portable Travel Telescope, with Tabletop Tripod Phone Adapter