![]() You can achieve balance with some pretty heavy accessories on the front end as a result, but the balance tends to go out of whack if you switch from heavy to light eyepieces, which requires tightening the bearings and thus sub-optimal movement. Instead of using Teflon pads, the Z8’s altitude bearings are ball bearings that can be adjusted for tension and can slide along the tube for balancing. The Zhumell/GSO Dobsonians are a bit different from your typical Dob in their mountings, but the changes are at least somewhat for the better, if a bit strange compared to other offerings.įor one, the altitude bearings are far different from pretty much any other Dob. It will dim the moon, but you probably don’t need it, and if you must have a moon filter, there are much higher-quality ones available. The “Moon filter” is little more than a piece of cheap green-tinted glass, not a true polarizing filter. The included 9mm Plossl works okay, but you have to press your eyeball right up against it to see the entire field. While there is some edge-of-field astigmatism, the 70-degree apparent field of view and the 40x magnification it provides with the Z8 make it great for low-power viewing of deep-sky objects. The included 30mm SuperView is a decent low-power eyepiece based on the Erfle design. ![]() This can be solved by making a makeshift V-block and adjusting the tiny Allen screws in the collimator – tricky but worth it. However, the laser itself is frequently misaligned with the barrel, making it useless. The included laser collimator is really well made. It’s best supplemented with or replaced by a zero-power reflex or red-dot sight. You have to sight along the barrel of the finder/telescope, then look into the finder itself to center your target. The 9×50 right-angle correct image finder is decent but can be difficult to use. Read why we prefer High Point Scientific to Amazon The Zhumell Z8 Accessoriesīuy From HighPointScientific Buy From Amazon It also uses a brass compression ring so as not to mar your eyepiece barrels (as does the included 1.25” adapter). The dual-speed part comes from the fact that it has a 1:10 fine adjustment knob for precision focusing at high magnifications. This focuser (like all Crayfords) rolls the focuser drawtube against four rollers for precision and smooth motion. The Z8 comes with an extremely high-quality dual-speed Crayford focuser. As such, it may not fit in the trunk or boot of some cars and must be laid across the backseat. The tube of the Z8 is longer than that of some other 8” scopes on the market, such as the Synta-made Dobsonians marketed by Sky-Watcher (Classic Dobs), Orion (SkyQuest Series), and Bintel, among others. However, this is a minor inconvenience at most and can be solved with a trip to the hardware store for a cabinet knob and drilling a hole or two. It is not very tight-fitting, and there is nowhere to grab it from the middle. The Z8’s front cap is a bit of a weak point with this scope. The Z8 has a built-in, DC-powered cooling fan that runs off a small battery pack supplied with the scope. The mirror locks really just serve as a great way to get confused while collimating or break your mirror if you drop the scope (since the locking bolts directly contact the glass). Supposedly, these are to compensate for any weakness in the springs, but the springs can handle the mirror just fine, and they could always be replaced if necessary. The Z8’s mirror cell is collimatable and uses springs, but there are also three “mirror lock” bolts on the back.
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