The designers of the SkyWatcher 450/1900 dobson telescope, this heavyweight champion, have come up with a radically different mechanism and tube than usual. The fancy "Truss Tube" mechanism allows the fifty kilogram telescope to be stored and transported in its component parts. assembly has been shown to take no more than twenty minutes, and no single component weighs more than 12 kilograms (main mirror).
The rigidity of the open-tube telescope is provided by 30 millimetre diameter tubes, which, when assembled, retain the collimation of the telescope. Assembly is very simple: the tubes are offset and can be locked in place with a quick coupling - no special tools are required. For greater contrast, a black plate is placed opposite the focus ring.
You can use this stellar giant with ease, as if you weren't working with one of the heavyweight champions. But designed primarily for visual observation, it's like an observatory instrument, giving you a view of the moon and planets on a quiet night out, whether you're looking at breathtaking surface features or gazing at deep-sky objects.
Impressive opticsThe forty-five centimetre diameter main mirror already puts the SkyWatcher 450/1900 Dobsonian right up there with observatory instruments. This, of course, is reflected in the "list"of objects that can be seen in the telescope. The star clusters can be broken down into small stars, and the spiral arms of quite a few galaxies are easily recognisable. Many interstellar clouds of gas and dust almost look as they do in photographs.
The instrument's extremely precisely machinedmain mirror is of premium quality, with minimum diffraction limitation, and is made of low thermal expansion Pyrex material. The binoculars can reveal objects fainter than 16 magnitude under a sufficiently dark sky.
It's also excellent for observing the Moon and the planets - on a still or clear night it reveals fantastic detail of our celestial companion's surface, while in Saturn's ring system it can even reveal the Encke's Rift. It is also a precise, high-quality instrument for studying close binary stars.
Precise mechanics, rich features
The SkyWatcher 450/1900 dobson scope has a telescope arm that rotates on four Teflon pads, providing precise glide bearing engagement. Naturally, the premium binoculars come with a precision 2" Crayford eyepiece. The 2" mount allows for a vast field of view - the mount also comes with a 1.25" adapter, so that eyepieces of this diameter can be used with the scope. The binoculars come richly equipped: with the standard 25 and 10 mm eyepieces, magnifications of 76x and 190x are available, and a 9x50 viewfinder is also standard.