![]() The StarBlast 6 uses the same tabletop “Dobsonian” mount design as its smaller cousins. Lastly, a basic smartphone adapter to take photos of the Moon through the eyepiece is supplied with the StarBlast 6 along with a basic Moon map and a star chart showing the locations of 600 deep-sky objects which can be seen with the telescope. ![]() You also get a red dot finder to aim the StarBlast 6, which works but has a rather small window and difficult-to-use adjustments replacing it may significantly improve your viewing experience. ![]() The 10mm is very short on eye relief – typical of the Plossl design – and requires you to jam your eye into the lens to take in the full field, which is rather uncomfortable, and as such you will likely want to replace it with a sharper and more easily used ocular with a wider field and more eye relief. These eyepieces are a little lower in quality than the old Sirius Plossls Orion used to sell, and while they are functional, they have some glare/internal reflections and certainly aren’t the sharpest. The StarBlast 6 includes two Plossl eyepieces, each with a 52-degree apparent field of view: a 25mm for 30x and a 10mm for 75x. They don’t have to be super tight, as you want to be able to rotate that tube or slide it forward or back to gain the best balance and eyepiece position. You assemble the telescope by bolting the rings to the mount, and then you slide the optical tube into the tube rings and snug down the knurled ring clamps. The StarBlast 6 attaches to its mount with a pair of tube rings, which could also be bolted to a Vixen-style dovetail plate to use the scope on another mount if you wish. The use of 2” wide-angle eyepieces with the StarBlast 6 enables an absolutely huge field of view, though said eyepieces can add up to a significant proportion of the cost of the StarBlast 6 itself as well as looking a little silly on such a small scope. This focuser is not as smooth as a Crayford design but works well enough, and the removable extension tube allows for enough focus travel that a coma corrector will work in this telescope if you wish. The focuser on the StarBlast 6 was finally upgraded to a 2” rack-and-pinion unit in 2023. Collimation is also a bit more of a pain. However, at f/5, you’re beginning to run into coma, and cheap eyepieces will struggle to produce sharp images across the entire field of view. Consequently, the StarBlast 6 produces about a 60% lower magnification and a wider field of view with a given eyepiece vs. Unlike regular 6” Dobsonians which have a focal ratio of f/8 and a focal length of around 1200mm, the StarBlast 6 is a stubby f/5 with a focal length of 750mm.
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