You can get a wide range of Gskyer Telescope accessories to greatly increase your enjoyment of your telescope, although not from Gskyer directly. They seem to not sell any of their accessories directly to consumers but only bundle them with their telescopes.
That’s OK, you do not have to have Gskyer branded accessories. In fact, most people do not use accessories from the same manufacturer as their telescope.
Table of Contents
Gskyer Telescope Eyepieces
The first thing most people consider upgrading is their eyepieces. This is because it is the one thing that can dramatically improve their views. The problem is that they do not understand how eyepieces work so they do not know what eyepieces they should buy. Take a look at the following video for an introduction to eyepieces and learn enough so that you can make good decisions regarding eyepieces.
Don’t want to watch the video? Here is the quick and dirty….
- Eye relief is the distance from the eyepiece your eye must be to see clearly, more is usually better as it is more comfortable, and this is particularly true if you wear glasses.
- Field Of View (FOV) is how wide the view appears in the eyepiece. The ones that come with most telescopes are around 40-50 degrees, 60 degrees is nice, 82 degrees is awesome, and 100 degrees may be over the top.
- You only need 2 or 3 really nice eyepieces. A 25mm, 18mm, and 10mm (or the closest you can get) will handle 99.9% of everything you need. I do 70% of my viewing with a 17mm 82-degree eyepiece.
Now that you have a good basic understanding of what you are looking for in an eyepiece, the next question is what brands and models are worth looking at? There are tons and tons of eyepiece brands and models out there so sorting through them all can be overwhelming. Fortunately, I have a video for that too!
If you don’t want to watch the whole video, or you just need a list, here it is:
- Good – Orion Sirius Plossls https://amzn.to/3x2EgJh
- Better – Celestron XCEL LX https://amzn.to/3xalOj9
- Much better – Baader Hyperion (Orion Stratus are not available) https://amzn.to/3xaCMxQ
- Best – Televue Naglers https://amzn.to/3NcA9S0
What about zoom eyepieces?
Glad you asked! More information coming soon!
Gskyer Telescope Camera Adapters
One of the most popular included Gskyer telescope accessories is the camera adapter. Maybe your telescope didn’t come with a camera or phone adapter at all, or maybe yours is missing, either way, you can get a new phone or camera adapter to fit your telescope. Naturally, I have an excellent video to show you some different ways to connect your camera to your telescope.
- Canon T-Ring: https://amzn.to/38HsQCC
- Nikon T-Ring: https://amzn.to/3akbBHW
- Prime focus adapter: https://amzn.to/3zeAmQn
- Afocal camera adapter: https://amzn.to/3N7zgKl
- Phone adapter: https://amzn.to/3x9GQOW
- Universal camera adapter: https://amzn.to/3zg7Gqk
One thing you need to watch is the weight of your camera or phone. Telescopes like the AZ60350, AZ70400, and AZ80400 will not hold up a DSLR or even a heavy point-and-shoot camera or large phone. The AZ90600 will work if you have replaced the diagonal, and the 130EQ will support large phones and DSLR cameras without a problem.
Telescope Diagonals
Refractor telescopes such as the AZ60350, AZ70400, AZ80400, and AZ90600 all have a diagonal. This is the piece between the eyepiece and the actual telescope tube. The ones that come with these telescopes are ‘correct image’ diagonals or prisms. This means when you look into the telescope the image you see looks just like when you look without the telescope. Objects that appear at the top of the viewfinder are indeed up in real life.
Why replace a diagonal?
In most astronomical telescopes this is not true, the image is flipped upside down. The diagonal is one of the most popular Gskyer telescope accessories to replace. One might ask, why in the world would you buy one that was not right-side-up? I am glad you asked!
- Correct image or erect image prisms have a prism inside of them, this makes the image darker and less sharp.
- They also suffer from optical defects such as introducing spikes on bright objects such as stars.
- Correct image prisms reduce the maximum magnification you can use by somewhere near a factor of two. In other words, if you could view Saturn at 50x and get a good image with a correct-image prism, you could expect to get a comparable quality of view at around 100x magnification with a standard diagonal.
Now you know you can get better views with a better diagonal, but you might be replacing yours because the screw is stripped and it will not stay upright. This is a common problem with the less expensive telescopes such as the Gskyer.
Can you just get a cheap diagonal or should you spend some good money on one? With an inexpensive telescope like the Gskyer models, you will not really get much from an expensive diagonal. You are better off with something in the low to mid-range. I would personally recommend an inexpensive dielectric model as it will get you the best image you can, without breaking the bank.
Suggested diagonals
Here are some suggested diagonals, all of which are threaded for filters, unlike the Gskyer versions, in ascending order of price:
- Good basic metal tube 90-degree https://amzn.to/3ae6QzL
- Metal tube dielectric 90-degree https://amzn.to/3zcy308
- High-end dielectric 90-degree https://amzn.to/3NdMe9z
