Galileo Visions CC-2800 800MM*60MM Astronomical Terrestrial Telescope

by Galileo

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 38.3 x 14 x 6.7 inches ; 20 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001FEP8W
• Item model number: CC-2800
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,303 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
  • #35 in Camera & Photo > Binoculars, Telescopes & Optics > Telescopes > Refractors
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 1, 2007

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Galileo CC-2800 800 x 60-mm astro/terrestrial telescope allows you to view across the land or sky and comes with a pre-assembled metal tripod with retractable rubber feet and 6-mm and 20-mm eyepieces. It has a 360-degree rotating head, an electronic Mars Eye locator, metal rack and pinion focus and includes a Galileo Planetarium CD (PC format only). Features include:

• 800mm focal length
• 60mm air spaced achromatic objective lens
• Pre-assembled metal tripod
• Retractable rubber feet
• Mars eye finderscope
• 3 eyepieces - 6mm, 12.5mm, 20mm
• 3x Barlow lens
• Erect image prism (for land viewing)
• 360 degree rotating focuser
• Micro altitude adjustment rod
• Carrying case
• Quick and easy assembly
• Galileo Planetarium CD ROM with instructional video
• Limited one year warranty

Product Description

The Galileo CC-2800 is mounted on an Altitude Azimuth yoke mount. It's easy use up and down, left and right movement is great for beginners and casual star gazers alike. Terestrial viewing is extremely easy due to the included 45° diagonal which produces a totally erect image. The Mount features a slow motion alitude adjustment rod for precision adjustments and is attached to a very sturdy, fully adjustable, pre-assembled metal tripod with retractable rubber feet. The telescopes optical tube assembly is finished out with a 360° rotating focus housing for the ultimate in convenience and usability.The Galileo CC-2800 optical tube assembly features a 800mm focal length. The objective lens is an 60mm two element achromat (color correct crown & flint) air spaced objective lens. The tube itself is aluminum, painted flat black internally, and fully baffled for excellent visual and CCD imaging. The objective is fully multi-coated and has a resolving power of 1.9 arc seconds. The optical tube assembly is diffraction limited at ¿4 (1/4 wave in Sodium light). The diagonal consists of a 45° Schmidt prism that is fully coated in Magnesium Fluoride (refractive index: n = 1.38). The finderscope is Galileo¿s Mars¿ Eye electronic Finderscope which helps by getting the observer behind the telescope without losing the surrounding field of view when targeting objects. Included with the CC-2800 are a 6mm eyepiece (52° apparent field of view), a 20mm eyepiece (52° apparent field of view) and a 3 element 3x Barlow.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Junk!, August 18, 2005

By 

kone "kone" (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Galileo Visions CC-2800 800MM*60MM Astronomical Terrestrial Telescope (Electronics)

This scope is not a good starter scope for anyone interested in astronomy. Here's why:

1. The objective is too small, only 60 mm, 2.36 inches, so it is too small to bring in the light necessary for even a beginning look at the universe. I suppose it is adequate for the moon, but that is it. The planets will appear as very small disks. One will be able to see Saturn's rings, but the image will be very small. Forget it for deep sky objects, clusters, galaxies, etc.

2. The mount is an altazimuth, which will not follow the celestial object in the sky. The earth is rotating, and anyone focusing on a star or moon will quickly find the object drifting out of the field of vision. A better mount is an equatorial mount which makes it much easier to track objects.

3. The mount will vibrate when touched, which will cause the image in the eyepiece to "shiver", which is very frustrating.

Even for the low price, don't be enticed by this scope; it has too many flaws. Save your money for a larger scope with a better mount.

Jim "Konedog" Koenig, astronomy buff

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stay away from this scope, March 9, 2007

By 

Doug Rice (Twin Falls, ID USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Galileo Visions CC-2800 800MM*60MM Astronomical Terrestrial Telescope (Electronics)

This is a good example of the kind of scope astronomers warn beginners against.

The first red flag is the ridiculously high maximum magnification of "800x." Do you know what you will see at 800x in this scope? Nothing but a dim blur. Note that the objective (main) lens is 60mm. All telescope optics have inherent limitations; maximum useful magnification per millimeter of aperture is about 2x. Therefore, with any attempt to use this scope at magnification of over 120-140x, increase in image size will be more than offset by breakdown, and that's even assuming the quality of the objective lens is any good.

To their credit, the marketers have added a red-dot finder in place of the useless 5x20 finders that plague most of these scopes. Still, the rest of the scope is not worth the money.

Using an astronomical telescope is not like playing an MP3 file and but rather like playing a guitar. It is a learned skill. And you must do a lot of homework before you buy a telescope. Buying without prior experience is like buying a car without knowing anything about driving. If you want to see the wonders of the sky, contact your local astronomy club and attend one of their star parties. The members love sharing their hobby and can set you straight as to how to get started. The best way is to learn the sky with the unaided eye and 10x50 binoculars (decent ones are available on Amazon), then graduate to something along the lines of a 150-200mm (6-8") Dobsonian; good ones can be found on Amazon starting under $290.

For more information on buying telescopes, see my encyclopedic guide on Amazon: "So you want to buy a telescope."

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for land and sky, April 22, 2008

By 

Rene Perez "Simply Human" (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Galileo Visions CC-2800 800MM*60MM Astronomical Terrestrial Telescope (Electronics)

I bought this telescope for my nephew to use it for views across the land as well as looking at the Moon and planets. As he is a beginner, the pre-assembled tri-pod and altitude / azimuth mount make the scope very easy to set up and use. After doing a little research, I found the 800mm focal length would be an additional advantage for his first views. We also found that the supplied 3x Barlow is useful with only the 20mm eyepiece. If it's used with the 6mm eyepiece, the resulting 400x power exceeds the capability of the 60mm lens. However the 6mm eyepiece used alone provides 133x and works well with bright objects like the Moon. The red dot locater, once I helped him align it to the telescope, proved to be very helpful in aiming at objects in the sky. I also found the diagonal prism enabled him to view objects on the ground right-side-up as opposed to upside down or backwards. Also the Planetarium CD has been very helpful for him as he learns more about his new hobby. I would recommend this telescope for any beginner who is interested in owning a telescope suitable for daytime and nighttime use. I am sure I'll be buying a larger more sophisticated telescope for him in the future.