
It works well and looks sharp.Īll in all, they tried their best to include solid upgrades in this department and they almost rescue this telescope. The tripod is a little wobbly but overall, better than some that I have encountered out there. Don’t worry, it still works with your phone app too. They clearly made the mount readily marked to try and play into their included handset. Most of the time, I don’t pay attention to the mount but this one stood out. This makes doing fine tuned adjustments easy to do. It is well marked with positioning dials on both axes. I don’t usually say this but I really like the mount on this telescope. A 2x Barlow scope is featured in an image on their website but I never received one, so that is up for debate. Instead of a single eyepiece, they have included three (4mm, 8mm, 12.5mm).

Unlike the hastily included “smart” technology, the Bushnell Voyager Reflector Telescope does have some solid upgrades to go along with it. Instead, they have included this handset in order to try and trick you into thinking you are getting these features when you are not. If it had a large database of obscure objects, an automatic positioning system to align your telescope for you or an automatic mount which found and tracked objects on its own, then it would be a different story. This feature truly adds nothing to this telescope. There are books, and there are charts, there are a dozen other things better than the included handset that do the same job. There are applications for your smartphone designed to guide you to your favorite night sky objects.
#Bushnell reflector telescope full
With modern apps and programs, you get rich visuals, advice, a full view of the sky, a list of nearby objects, and so on.
#Bushnell reflector telescope software
There is no reason why you would use this handset over say any of the dozens of high-quality night sky apps you can get on your phone or Starry Night, an easy to obtain a piece of software that helps map the night sky for you. The screen only displays very basic information via digits and letters. Without a goto mount or any sort of other computerized features, this only serves to try and do a job that much better software has been doing for years. Their system works off of an LCD handset which comes included that is supposed to help point you to planets and constellations. It sounds good on the webpage but the problem is, it just doesn’t work that well. Future Tech, Kind Ofīushnell boasts that they have included an “illuminated smart mount” which is supposed to “point the way” to your favorite objects. However, the difficulty level that it took to get any images at all to appear in a viewable way might turn off the complete novice to begin with. With a focal ratio of f/9.2, this telescope is giving fairly narrow views compared to some similar models.įor the complete beginner, they might not notice the drop in optical quality. Up until I fussed with the telescope for a while, the images were bad and they never really became good.Īnother issue could be the short focal length of this telescope.


Once everything was aligned the way I wanted it, the images weren’t bad necessarily, they just weren’t great. I’m not sure if this is an issue with the included eyepieces or something with the quality of the mirrors or some kind of collimation or focusing quirk that I just wasn’t understanding. Even when I had everything lined up properly, focused where I wanted it and stable the images just weren’t as good as similar models. Images rarely looked sharp and focusing was a chore. The problem is, the image quality just isn’t all that good. It is a basic Newtonian reflector that aims to give you the ease of use and image quality of similar Newtonian reflectors. That is a standard size for a telescope at this price and for this kind of audience. So-So Optical QualityĪt 76mm the aperture of the Bushnell Voyager Reflector Telescope isn’t bad. Overall, I would say your money is best spent elsewhere. If you want to try and take a flyer on a newer brand with a focus on added value, you might be able to find something here to like, especially on a budget.
