Questar : Solar Eclipse 2017

Of all the telescopes in our RainyDayScience collection, the 3.5″ Questar is our favorite for a variety of reasons: amazingly sharp optics, quick to setup, and extremely easy to use. So it was a no-brainer which scope would be “the one” we would use for the solar eclipse!

The Questar came with a glass solar filter especially designed for the scope. It is completely fool-proof to use as it screws directly onto the OTA. Once it is on, it is ready to go, and one uses the scope in exactly the same way as one would for night-time viewing.

Another reason why we love this scope is how easy it is to take afocal shots with it. We got shots of the eclipse using an old iPhone4 and a $15 eyepiece adapter. Granted, the scope will set one back a few clams. but other than that one can’t really have a less expensive astrophotography setup 🙂

So, for a “grab & go” scope, one would be hard pressed to find a better one than the Questar 3.5. In fact, for most serious amateur astronomers, there is really no better choice. Trust us, we have looked at a few 🙂