Science

Review: Astronomers Without Borders' OneSky starter telescope

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The AWB OneSky is aimed at beginners (Photo: Astronomers Without Borders)
The OneSky in its shipping position (Photo: B. Dodson)
The AWB OneSky ready to be taken outside (Photo: B. Dodson)
The OneSky's collapsible truss tube turns a compact package into a full-blown scope (Photo: B. Dodson)
The OneSky's Red Dot finder projects an image of an LED onto the sky (Photo: B. Dodson)
Close-up of the focuser and the Red Dot finder (Photo: B. Dodson)
Upper end of the OneSky showing the secondary mirror, the light shield behind the secondary mirror (also shown), the focuser, and the Red Dot finder (Photo: B. Dodson)
Business end of the AWB OneSky (Photo: B. Dodson)
The AWB OneSky with upper end extended and ready for observing (Photo: B. Dodson)
Image of the upper end of the telescope as received, showing the secondary mirror mount badly bent out of position (Photo: B. Dodson)
Image of the upper end of the telescope as received, showing the secondary mirror mount badly bent out of position (Photo: B. Dodson)
Smartphone photo of the Moon taken using the 25 mm eyepiece. While overexposed, the detail around the terminator gives some idea of the excellent resolution of the OneSky (Photo: B. Dodson)
The AWB OneSky is aimed at beginners (Photo: Astronomers Without Borders)
The OneSky arrived with a bent secondary mirror mount. On the left is the initial view through the eyepiece, in which you can't even see the primary mirror, while on the right is the nicely centered image of a properly collimated scope (Photo: B. Dodson)
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Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) is a nonprofit organization aimed at knocking down national and cultural boundaries by encouraging a common interest in astronomy. Along with their message that we all share one sky, AWB is now selling a neat little grab-n-go telescope called OneSky. The scope is perfectly suited for a quick look at the heavens from the backyard, as well as for throwing in the car before heading to darker skies. I'm reviewing this scope, and it is a prize for the price.

Those of you who may remember one of my earlier amateur astronomy articles will realize that, in general, I think the average starter telescope is about as useful as a boat anchor when it comes to enjoying the skies. Between substandard optics, horribly shaky mounts, bad eyepieces, and inadequate finder scopes, it is hard to navigate the sea of inexpensive telescopes to find a good choice.

AWB OneSky

The OneSky is a good choice. At just over 130 mm (5 in) of aperture, the OneSky is larger than the usual run-of-the-mill starter scopes, which range from 50 to 114 mm (2 to 4.5 in) in aperture. Despite this, the scope is quite compact, partially because the paraboloidal mirror, at f/5, has a focal length of only 650 mm (25.6 in).

The OneSky's collapsible truss tube turns a compact package into a full-blown scope (Photo: B. Dodson)

What really makes the OneSky small, however, is a collapsing truss tube that reduces the length of the telescope to 388 mm (14.5 in) in a matter of seconds. The Dobsonian alt-azimuth mount has an integrated handle, making it very easy to carry this 6.3 kg (14 lb) telescope to and from your observing point. The mount is very stable and reasonably smooth in motion.

The telescope accessories are also good solid choices. Two quality Plossl eyepieces are included, having a focal length of 25 mm (1 in) and 10 mm (0.4 in), respectively. These provide magnifications of 26 and 65 power, just about ideal for this type of scope. The fields of view for these eyepieces are 1.7 and 0.7 degrees. To get a feel for these sizes, the Moon (and the Sun, but DON'T use this scope to look at the Sun) is about half a degree in width.

The OneSky's Red Dot finder projects an image of an LED onto the sky (Photo: B. Dodson)

The OneSky uses a Red Dot finder (also known as a reflex sight) to aid in pointing the telescope at a desired target. A Red Dot finder has a thin curved window oriented at 45 degrees. The light of a red LED is reflected from this window into the viewer's eye, where it forms a virtual image of the dot superimposed on the sky. When the dot is on your desired target, the object is centered in a low power telescope field of view. The Red Dot finder on the OneSky is excellent optically, but for me it is mounted too close to the telescope's tube. A little more room would keep my big head from banging on the tube.

Observing the sky

Finally the skies cleared after about two weeks of clouds and snow (usual for Albuquerque at this time of year), and I was able to start working with the OneSky in the wild. After setting up a new scope, one of the first things to check is the collimation, making sure that the optical elements (mirror, secondary mirror, focuser) are properly aligned. This was not even close to being true with the OneSky as I received it. It appeared that a shipping mishap had bent the secondary mirror mount from its nice square alignment.

Image of the upper end of the telescope as received, showing the secondary mirror mount badly bent out of position (Photo: B. Dodson)

The root cause was twofold; a heavy secondary mirror mount mounted on the end of a brass rod, and shipping packing that did not hold the secondary mirror firmly in position. These problems are easily solved, and Mike Simmons, the President of AWB, is taking action on these and other minor issues I encountered. This is his baby, and the whole intent was to supply a better portable instrument for newbies and folks wanting a scope to throw in the car. Indeed, his reaction to my comments was as if I were an alpha tester for the scope.

The OneSky arrived with a bent secondary mirror mount. On the left is the initial view through the eyepiece, in which you can't even see the primary mirror, while on the right is the nicely centered image of a properly collimated scope (Photo: B. Dodson)

Being the experienced amateur astronomer and optics expert that I am, I quickly fixed the secondary mirror mount by bending it back into place with a large pair of pliers. After the repair, collimating the telescope went smoothly, resulting in the nicely centered image on the right side of the photo above. The process was aided by the thoughtful inclusion of a collimation eyepiece, a device that guides one through a rapid yet precise collimation process. By this time, the telescope had adjusted to the freezing temperatures (though I had not), so further testing could be undertaken.

Star testing involves examining the image of a star with the eyepiece inside focus and outside focus. You see a pattern of rings whose shape, brightness, and symmetry reveal most flaws that might appear in a telescope like the OneSky. I examined the brightest star in the constellation of Taurus, Aldebaran, using one of my own eyepieces to give a very large magnification (about 200x) so that the ring structures could be properly examined. The OneSky optics were nearly perfectly corrected (meaning the primary was properly paraboloidal) and had only a tiny hint of astigmatism. These optics are far better than I expected, and well above the rather dismal expectations for most starter telescopes.

Now it was time for some fun, so I pointed the OneSky at the Moon, always one of the most breathtaking spectacles in the sky. I was able to see one of my favorite lunar features, a pair of craters named Messier and Messier A in Mare Fecunditatis. Each of the two craters are about 16 km (10 miles) in size, and are separated by about the same distance. There are two long rays (about 100-130 km/60-80 miles) of ejecta generated when a small asteroid on a grazing path skipped over the Moon's surface, digging the two craters and throwing the ejecta along the rays. The craters are about 8 seconds of arc in diameter and in separation, and were easy to find at 65x. This is quite good performance for a 5 inch aperture.

Smartphone photo of the Moon taken using the 25 mm eyepiece. While overexposed, the detail around the terminator gives some idea of the excellent resolution of the OneSky (Photo: B. Dodson)

Just for grins, I took a photo of the Moon by holding my smartphone up to the 25 mm eyepiece. While the result is quite overexposed, a good amount of detail appears in the band near the terminator (the shadow edge on the surface). In the original, I can see the Messier craters and their rays, which suggests that my hand was unusually steady that night. (This was the best of perhaps 20 shots.) I also took pictures of Jupiter showing its disk with a hint of the cloud bands and three of the four Galilean satellites, as well as a photo of Venus clearly showing the crescent shape.

Between the gibbous Moon and my city-edge neighborhood aglow with Christmas lights and the usual streetlights, nebulae and galaxies were hard targets, but I did spend some time looking in the vicinity of the Orion Nebula. The bright blue specks of light were more impressive than the wisps of nebulosity I could see surrounding the stars. The tale would doubtless be different in a dark sky. The Pleiades were also a wonderful field of blue-white stars, though in the light-polluted sky I could see no nebulosity.

OneSky? Thumbs-up!

Business end of the AWB OneSky (Photo: B. Dodson)

The AWB OneSky, although not perfect, is a very good starter scope. The OneSky is a dual-purpose offering from AWB, providing a solid, affordable telescope while at the same time supporting their global programs. Celestron is donating its services in importing, warehousing, and shipping the telescope at the company's actual cost. The result is that AWB is able to offer the 130 mm (5 in) diameter f/5 OneSky at the very reasonable price of US$199.99, while pocketing nearly half that amount to support their good works. I recommend it with very few reservations.

Source: Astronomers Without Borders

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8 comments
P51d007
I use a red dot sight on my dSLR camera. When shooting fast moving airplanes at airshows, I use a 500mm lens, making it very hard to track them, so I just aim the red dot at the object and shoot away.
Shahin Mokhtar
My old Sony H50 camera takes better and clearer images of the moon than this telescope.
socalboomer
Shahin - that was his cellphone through the telescope. I would guess a dedicated camera would do a better job than a cellphone through a telescope. . .
Roger Garrett
The best test of a beginner telescope is to give it to a beginner and see how he/she uses it. Is it easy to set up? Are the instructions for collimating clear and easy to follow? Does the beginner get frustrated by having to go through the collimation process? Is it easy for the beginner to actually point the scope and see what he's trying to see? Does the target object (Moon, planet, star) move too quickly out of sight resulting in frustration by the beginner?
Roger Garrett
I love the fact that it's collapsible. I would REALLY love it if there were an extra attachment you could purchase that would make it a GoTo scope. Anything that can be done to make Astronomy easier for the beginner is always welcome, and GoTo scopes are definitely the way to go.
The Skud
i agree with Roger - any sort of 'star finder' attatchment would worth a gold star to novice stargazers. That is the hardest part, locating an elusive little speck in the heavens.
Bob
Interesting design but it seems rather crude to take advantage of a 5 inch aperture. My $49 spotting scope is more sophisticated. At least one more support for the secondary mirror would help along with a third telescoping rod to hold things steady. Nothing was said about the mount which could use a built in level and some leveling screws. Some sort of fine adjustment to facilitate star or planet tracking would be nice. The red dot finder is interesting. On a side note about viewfinders, I have made a crude but effective view finder for my cameras. It is a short section of graphite tubing cut from an old arrow. At the highest magnification, I epoxy the tube in alignment for my field of view. Crude and low tech but it makes tracking fast moving objects much easier.
gjsmason
The OneSky includes everything necessary to "grab-and-go" outside and enjoy the night-time skies. The OneSky appears to be similar to a Bushnel scope which is not being sold anymore. Skywatcher version found on Canadian websites, but accessories not as complete as the OneSky - and price lower on the "American" version. My first encounter with the prototype of this scope was as the 2013 annual NEAF Show in Suffren, NY. The gentleman showing the scope was rightfully happy about offering this fine, compact scope sometime that year. His organization sounded like a wonderful idea also! I liked the simplicity of it's design and for the price, there is no other scope, of that aperture, which comes close to being as "complete" as this one. I ordered mine and can't wait for "first-light" (around beginning of February, due to backorder). This is not a robust design and, as stated by others. The secondary mirror support may, or may not be one of it's achilies' heals, but if treated tenderly, I'm sure this little gem will offer many years of satisfied star-gazing for the owner. It includes a vixen-like rail so I will also use it on my MiniTower dual scope goto system - at outreach events - with my refractor on the other side. Should be a treat for the public to see this odd-looking scope mounted-adjacent to a "real" scope and compare the views. A very nice package for the money: 5" F5 "nicely configured" optics; useable dob mount; adaptable mounting; 2 useable eyepieces; collimator and also easily transportable. In the next year, I'm pretty sure the tinkerer's out there will find ways to customize this little scope to make it even better. Fun times ahead!