This telescope has Newtonian optics, with a 1/8th wave parabolic primary mirror located at the base of the metal tube and a flat elliptical secondary mirror deflecting the light cone to the rack and pinion focuser at the top of the tube. The mounting is Dobsonian and is particularly suitable for astronomers wanting the simplest most trouble free mounting arrangement.

The telescope is robust, light weight (for its aperture), easy to manoeuvre and simple to transport. The tube is longer than the lower aperture telescopes in the ASTRONZ range - if you envisage transporting the telescope frequently, perhaps to dark sky sites, consider the transport logistics carefully.

It shows all types of astronomical objects, planets, nebulae, open clusters, globular clusters, stars and galaxies.

The 300mm diameter mirror collects 44 % more light than the smaller 250 mm diameter mirror. With an f ratio of 5, the telescope has a focal length of 1500 mm. The 25mm and 9mm Plossl eyepieces provided as standard, will provide magnifications of x60 and x167 respectively. These translate to fields of view of 50 and 18 minutes of arc, or approximately 1.7 the diameter of the full Moon and 60% of the diameter of the full Moon respectively.

The telescope will provide excellent viewing of the Moon and planets; sharp views are helped by the small secondary mirror and thin struts on the supporting spider. The Cassini division in the rings of Saturn or the great red spot on Jupiter are visible. Nebulae and globular clusters are easily seen, and from sites with darker skies, many galaxies and fainter objects will be available. The limiting magnitude for discrete stellar objects will typically be in the range magnitude 13.1 - 13.6.

The GSO 980 comes with a spring friction system. Even with heavy accessories, the telescope will not move by itself, but remains smooth in operation.