More Information  · Supplied Accessories  · Recommended Accessories  · Images of Some Features Price $259.95 Shipping $25.00 List Price $392.20 Highest Useful Magnification 225x Visual Limiting Magnitude 12.8 Focal Length 900mm Focal Ratio f/7.9 Resolution 1.02 arc seconds Aperture 4.5" Warranty 2 years

The lightweight and simple to use NorthStar is easy to transport to an observing location, whether it be to a distant site away from city lights or simply out into your own back yard. Once you’re there, place the telescope on its supplied adjustable height field tripod; do a quick, easy alignment of the telescope’s computer to the sky; and start observing. It’s that simple. If you can tell the telescope the day and the time, the name of the closest big city, and where North is, the NorthStar will locate the planets and thousands of stars and deep space objects for you at the push of a button. Once found, it will follow those objects automatically as they move across the skies so you can observe at your leisure.

All of the major planets except Pluto can be seen through the BNS4. You can study the rings of Saturn; the cloud belts and four major moons of Jupiter; and the polar caps and prominent features on Mars. You can see mountain ranges on the Moon, rilles and domes, and lunar craters by the hundreds. Within our Milky Way galaxy the NorthStar will find and let you view hundreds and hundreds of nebulas; star clusters; double, multiple, and variable stars; plus dozens of external galaxies – as many as 20,000 stars and celestial objects in all. The NorthStar reveals an amazing amount of celestial detail that is invisible without the telescope.

This Telescope’s Optical System . . .

Newtonian reflector optical tube: 900mm focal length f/7.9 all-glass optics. The 114mm (4.5”) aperture mirror gathers 265 times more light than the keenest dark-adapted eye. That’s over three and a half times more light than a 60mm refractor gathers, for significantly better performance on faint deep space objects like nebulas and galaxies. Plus, its larger aperture resolves much finer lunar and planetary detail than any smaller telescope.

Finderscope: The supplied battery-operated non-magnifying red dot finder attaches to the side of the optical tube. It seems to project a dot of red light on the sky exactly where the scope is pointed at all times. It makes initial scope alignment and object centering easy and painless.

Two multicoated eyepieces: You get a high power 1.25” 4mm (225x) eyepiece and a low/medium power 1.25” 20mm (45x).

Barlow lens: A 1.25” 3x Barlow lens is included that triples the magnification of the two supplied eyepieces to 135x and 675x. The 675x magnification of the 4mm eyepiece/Barlow combination is realistically far beyond the scope’s usable magnification capability, however. Do not count on using that optical combination very often, if at all. A lower power eyepiece, such as a 40mm (22.5x; 67.5x with the Barlow), would provide more useful magnifications than the 675x of the 4mm and Barlow combination.

This Telescope’s Mount . . .

Fork mount/drive system: The 4.5” NorthStar has a very stable single arm fork mount with two built-in motor drives. Precision drive systems on each axis permit smooth pushbutton operation of the telescope using the supplied computer hand control. A single 9-volt transistor radio battery in the drive base powers the NorthStar.

RVO computer: The RVO (Real Voice Output) computer hand control that store in the base of the telescope makes initial setup of the scope easy. Simply point the optical tube north and follow the few short instructions on the hand control’s two-line red illuminated LCD readout – or follow the verbal directions of the teeny, tiny human being hiding in the hand control (just kidding, the computer is only playing back a recorded human voice). Once it’s aligned on the skies, a procedure that takes only a few minutes, the computer lets you automatically locate and precisely track over 20,000 stars and celestial objects. Just choose the object you wish to observe on the hand control display. The display will show you how far and in what direction to move the scope to get to the object. If you prefer, simply press the GO TO button, and watch as the telescope rapidly moves all by itself to place the object in the field of view. Once centered on an object, the computer display will tell you about the object and the Real Voice Output will verbally repeat the information so you don’t have to take your eye away from the eyepiece to learn about what you are seeing. You can always turn the voice output off at the touch of a button if you’d prefer to observe in silence. If you don’t know what you’d like to look at, you can have the computer take you on an automatic guided tour of the best objects visible on the night you observe.

Tripod: The supplied field tripod is rigid and stable for shake-free high-power astronomical observing. The lightweight aluminum tripod permits altazimuth (vertical-horizontal) alignment of the telescope and easily adjusts for standing or seated observing. The tripod includes an accessory shelf that holds your eyepieces.

Lifetime warranty: The NorthStar optics and mechanics are protected by a lifetime Bushnell warranty (electronic components are covered by a two-year warranty).

If you add up all that you get – the 4.5” telescope, the battery-operated motor drives, the two supplied eyepieces, the Barlow, the RVO go-to computer, and the full length adjustable height field tripod – you have a telescope that was unavailable to the amateur astronomer at any price only a few short years ago. The fact that the 4.5" NorthStar exists, that it works so simply and so well, and that it costs so very little for all the performance and features you get, is a marvel indeed. For the beginner, as a gift for an inquisitive youngster, as a second or travel scope for the advanced astronomer, the 4.5” NorthStar is well worth serious consideration.