Bushnell Voyager 100mm x 4.5" Family Reflector Telescope

by Bushnell

Product Details

• Item Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 16 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009R6SN
• Item model number: 78-2010
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,709 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 11, 2003

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Voyager telescopes offer impressive optical quality and precise mechanical construction resulting in the clearest view of the most distant objects in the sky. Loaded with innovative features - such as our zoom eyepiece, patented Penta mirror technology, and our rotary power turret - ruggedly constructed, and convenient to use, there is no better choice when it comes to balancing performance with affordable price.

Specifications for this Bushnell telescope include:

• Power/Obj.: 100x4.5"
• Style: Reflector
• Focal length: 500mm
• Features: Pre-Assembled, Cradle Mount, Precision Rack & Pinion Focuser, Tripod Adaptable, 1.25" Format Eyepieces, Convenient Shoulder Strap, Camera Adaptable

Tech Talk
Magnification (Power): The magnification of a telescope is determined by dividing its focal length by the focal length of the eyepiece being used. For example, a 500mm telescope with a 5mm eyepiece would magnify objects 100x. Thus, a telescope can provide nearly any magnification required depending on the focal length of the eyepiece used.

Objective Lens Size (or Aperture): The size of the telescope’s objective lens, or aperture, limits the amount of power that can be used effectively. As the magnification of an object increases, the brightness of the image decreases. This is because the light gathered by the telescope is being spread over a larger area.

Reflectors: Reflectors feature larger apertures for a wide range of viewing at an affordable price. Designed with the eyepiece located at the top of the tube, reflectors are more comfortable to use for viewing night-sky objects such as nebulae, the Moon, planets and galaxies. Reflectors tend to be heavier and larger than refractors.

Focal Length: The measured light path of the optical system (tube length), typically measured in millimeters.

Product Description

100 x 4.5 reflector

Focal length: 400mm

Eyepieces: 4mm 25mm

Magnifications: 16 100

Cradle mount

Precision rack and pinion focuser

Tripod adaptable

1.25 format

Convenient shoulder strap

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Nearly As Bad As Its Reputation, October 22, 2003

By 

Lawrence Curcio (West View, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bushnell Voyager 100mm x 4.5" Family Reflector Telescope (Electronics)

I mean this to be more of an endorsement than it may seem. This scope has been villified repeatedly because:

1) It's made by Bushnell;
2) It has a spherical mirror; and
3) It's a copy of a scope (The AstroScan) that many folks cut their teeth on.

When the scope is out of collimation, stars present as gull wings, and this effect is automatically attributed to the spherical mirror, because Bushnell is the big bad guy among astrosnobs. Here's the good news: You can adjust the thing when this happens, and the gull wings go away. If you get an out-of-collimation AstroScan, the darling of the astrosnobs, there ain't nothin' you can do about it. (Heh! I gotta expect a lot of 'unhelpful' votes because of comments like this.)

This is a wide-field, low power scope. Period. Outfit it with eyepieces from the AstroScan, and you have yourself a nice casual picnic table telescope. Collimate it and crank it up to ~60X, and you get a very nice view of the sky - somewhere between a binocular and a telescope. (Search at about 15 X) In the Northern Hemisphere you can use it to see (among other things):

1) The Moon
2) The rings of Saturn
3) The moons of Jupiter. You'll even see a couple of belts on Jupiter
4) The phases of venus
5) Open clusters galore
6) The Dumbbell Nebula
7) The Andromeda Galaxy
8) The Lagoon Nebula
9) A bunch of globular clusters - though only as blurry balls
10) Comets, as they come around
11) The Great Nebula In Orion

Is it pro quality? No. If what you have is $... it's not a bad way to spend that. IMHO, the Orion StarBlast (a similar instrument) beats it squarely for ~$...dollars more. I've compared the Bushnell side by side with the new AstroScan, though, and the Bushnell comes out well ahead. The difference isn't subtle.

It's biggest disadvantage is decidedly negative snob appeal.

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the China Astroscan, June 9, 2007

By 

HighonBeingNormal - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bushnell Voyager 100mm x 4.5" Family Reflector Telescope (Electronics)

Bushnell Voyager 78-2010 (a good clone of the Edmund Astroscan)

Since Edmund Optics sold Edmund Scientific, the Astroscan has got a cheap China face lift. The body of the famous Astroscan is now cheap and the optics are not worthy of the originals. The Astroscan was made in the USA in in the 1970's, then Japan and finally China.

I have the US Astroscan from 1980 and this Bushnell Voyager (a clone) that got a bad name when it was introduced.

The Bushnell Voyager is a great scope, Made in the Philippines. It is well made and can be adjusted where the Astroscan cannot.

This model is Old Stock not on Bushnell's Website.