In the early 1990's I used to write and rewrite catalogs for a firm in binoculars in the Netherlands. It was quite nice. Each year a big box with the new models arrived at my home, with the purpose to test them and write about it in their catalogus. Some of the models weren't even ready yet and I just received the "naked" sample from the factory. My children used to call it "the happy box" I was being paid in kind. One time they decided to have a line of astronomical telescopes too. That was more writing to do than I was used to. As payment I chose a 4 inch achromatic refractor of an unknown Chinese brand.
It surely was not the best one on the market. Astigmatism and
I was glad to see the little companion at 200X of Pulchimerra, when seeing was good. As a matter of fact I was a bit proud of it. When seeing was less good it became hard to distinguish the smaller star as it almost disappeared in the first diffraction ring.
Have a look at the picture. This is approximately how it looked like:
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Over the years I revisited Epsilon Bootis of course. Everyone revisits his of hers objects from the past. Nostalgia. Last monday I did another visit. Instrument was a "tad" better. Strehl 0.96 Evostar with a Pentax XO 2.58mm eyepiece. Seeing and transparency were good. I good easily establish the colors too. This is what I saw:
