For those who have been around for a little bit, Gosky isn’t a name you might recognize immediately.

That’s okay, we scoped out this piece of kit so that you don’t have to.

We’re going to give you a rundown of the accessories included: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Let’s go.

TLDR:

This is our favorite beginner eyepiece kit for the money, though every telescope accessory kit has trade-offs.

Are Gosky eyepieces any good?

I’m going to jump right into the meat and potatoes on this one. There is a lot of talk out there about Gosky, from those who love the value to Televue Delos owners that can’t stand them.

Overall, they make a pretty darn good Plossl eyepiece, and the 2x Barlow lens included in this kit is totally workable, but this doesn’t hold for all products from Gosky, or any brand for that matter.

We’ll be doing reviews on more of their stuff in other articles, but as far as the Plossl eyepieces in this kit are concerned, we think they are a winner. The low cost and decent performance coupled with a 52 degree field of view makes them great on a budget, or as a nice cheap set for star parties.

The Eyepieces

Like I said, the eyepieces are fantastic. They are Plossl however, and I think some astronomers who have gotten comfortable with better gear might forget that point.

The four-element Plossl design was invented by Georg Simon Plössl in 1860, and it’s been a staple of astronomy ever since. Even so, it is not without its share of shortcomings.

Plossls work best in scopes that are slower than f/5 in focal ratio. Faster scopes cause a lot of problems, like coma and astigmatism on simpler eyepiece designs, and this can sometimes be an issue when pairing a budget short-tube scope with a budget eyepiece.

All that aside, the Goskys perform just as well as any other simple Plossl design in our inventory, so we’ll give them the nod.

The one think I really don’t like about this kit is the selection of eyepieces. It comes with a 6mm, 12.5mm, and 20mm eyepiece, and a Barlow. The 6mm in this case is a little redundant and totally unnecessary to have in the kit, to me, as the Barlowed 12.5 has almost the same magnification with a more comfortable view.

For most scopes a 3mm (6mm plus Barlow) is a bit excessive, especially budget scopes, so there’s no need to pull that much magnification.

A lot of manufacturers seem to do this, pushing a high magnification lens as part of the kit, but you aren’t going to get away from that. In this price range, it’s a nice selection that will provide a lot of viewing options.

The Barlow Lens

I’ve tested a few Barlows from Gosky, and let me just start by saying I haven’t been too pleased with some of them. In fact, the 2x is the exception to the rule in this case.

If you are going to get a Gosky Barlow lens, avoid the 3x and 5x offerings and stick with the 2x.

For all the trouble its siblings have caused me, the 2x Barlow from Gosky is actually a very nice piece of kit that will serve its role for a long time, so no hesitation there.

Also, if you are going for a starter set, a Barlow can be an essential option. It isn’t just the magnification, but other benefits from having a negative element in your optical setup. In the case of this kit, try the 12.5 with the Barlow for a bit, and then compare the experience to using just the 6mm by itself. You’ll start to see what I mean.

Telenegative elements flatten the view and reduce visual distortions, they also make Plossls much more serviceable as eyepieces even in fast scopes.

The Coatings

Only the Barlow lens is fully-multicoated. Unfortunate as that may sound, a FMC Barlow lens of this quality is easily worth half the price of the whole kit by itself.

The Plossl eyepieces do have coatings on them, but they might not be as great as a person would like. Still, they are a 4-element design, and short of a Kellner eyepiece or some cheap single-element, there are less glass surfaces to reduce light transmission than other designs.

That in mind, the views are still plenty bright in our experience, and it’s really hard to tell the difference between that lat 5-10% of light transmission, unless you are looking for a really tricky DSO with borderline aperture or sky conditions.

For the beginner, or as a star-party backup kit, the coatings work really well in this price range.

The Filters

There isn’t much to say here. Advertising will always drum up planetary filters as some magical bonus item, when we all know that we’re getting our kits for the glass.

They are fun to use, and can be helpful, but nitpicking filter quality (especially moon filters) can be a bad habit to fall into.

The filters work just as well as any we’ve tested, whether it is from Gosky, Orion, Celestron, Meade, or anyone else. They can make planets pop a bit better, but most of them pretty much work the same. There are no HBs or light pollution filters in the kit, which are worth discussing, so it’s a nice bonus to have some filters available when you really want to get better views of the planets.

Pro-tip: don’t put too much thought into your planetary filters.

The Packaging

The little flip open case that comes with these guys is great. It’s padded well and everything fits together nicely. It comes with a sort of packing list and some instructions. Give them a read through if you like before you toss them.

The little mini-kit design makes this a perfect accessory kit for star parties. You can break it out when letting others look through your scope while protecting your more expensive eyepieces. When traffic dies down a bit, pop everything back in the box and you are good to go.

Overall Review

If you are new to astronomy and looking to get your hands on a low-cost accessory kit that will last you a while, this is a good one. We would recommend adding a low power eyepiece as well, but you’ll have extra cash for that as this kit will cover all of your other needs.

There should be more than enough leftover to get another eyepiece in the 32-40mm range for low-power viewing. And to be honest, that’s where you want to spend your money on a better quality eyepiece.

The Gosky Astronomical Telescope Accessory Kit is also great for club members who will be hosting star parties. They are awesome as loan-outs or help-outs for the club, and great for crowd viewing so that you can keep fingerprints off your expensive eyepieces.

The price is hard to beat, especially considering the quality of the Barlow that comes with the kit. Overall, we give this one a thumbs up, even though there are a few things we wish were better, it’s hard to beat in this price range.