In fact, just visited Toys R US the other day to buy something for my kid and the edu science section actually had a newspaper clipping showing some Singaporeans using the toy scope during Mars opposition.
But even the edu-science scope is probably better than what Galileo had in his day which used poor glass and a very flimsy tabletop tripod (unless the edu-science scope has plastic optics in which case Galileo's scope would have been better)
The way light is refracted around a plastic and a glass lens is very different. They are nearly 2 worlds apart. The biggest difference, though, should still be the price of the 2. That's y edu-scopes are plastic, maybe? So they're cheaper than the real scope I've been wanting for god-knows how many years.
anyone seen the edu science barlow? haha its damn long!!! They have all these funny numbers like 3.2X something liddat. How ya going to use THAT? OH their eye pieces also have a 2 lenses each.Interesing how they image REAL scopes
I have the edu science barlow. Their barlow and eyepieces are all made of plastic. However, the prism inside the diagonal is made of glass if I am not wrong.