Please be
Seated - A review of 3 popular observing chairs
By Geary Keilman
The need for a good observing chair becomes obvious to most people during or shortly after their first observing session. Standing up is fatiguing; especially if one has to bend over due to an inconvenient eyepiece position. Using a good observing chair not only increases one’s endurance but more importantly, adds greatly to the enjoyment of the hobby.
There are several commercially available observing chairs ranging from $70 to about $200. This review will be of three adjustable seats of similar design that are specifically designed for observing and advertised in both Astronomy and Sky and Telescope. Neither magazine, to the best of my knowledge, has done a review of them.
Apogee’s Chinese made Astro Chair is the least expensive; being about half the price of the other two at $70. It is also the lightest and most portable. It has a fairly large flat seating area and uses preset stops for height adjustment. There isn’t much padding on the seat but I personally find this to be an advantage as this allows scooting my fanny about to obtain the best position for observing without having to move the whole unit which always entails the risk of bumping the tripod and knocking the alignment off. It folds up flat without having to remove the seat and, which combined with its light weight, makes it nice and portable. Moving the seat up and down is fairly easy but takes a little skill to get both sides even. It does not have as much upper vertical travel as the other two which might be a limiting factor for some telescope types and for vertically challenged astronomers. It’s not as robust as the other two so weight challenged astronomers may need to look elsewhere. The plastic end caps on the bottom of the steel tube frame tend to fall off or wear off but replacements are available at hardware stores.
Hands On Optics Stardust Chair sports a fold up foot rest and a seat that can tilt slightly fore and aft. The seat is adjusted vertically by re-moving the seat cushion from the chair and reengaging on horizontal cross bars that are spaced evenly across the uprights. This is more awkward than simply standing up slightly and tilting the cushion for adjustment as on the other two chairs but does make for quicker breakdown for transport. It has the best rubber leg pads of the bunch. I’m not really enamored by the tilting seat cushion feature although some people may find this an attraction. The fold out foot rest is really a nice comfort feature for vertically challenged astronomers when the seat cushion is positioned near its upper limit. The Stardust Chair is well made, has a vertical adjustment range of 13” to 35” and sells for about $160.
The Star Bound Chair is also a very well made chair which features a seat cushion that may be positioned at any point along its vertical travel and sports a vertical travel range of 9” to 32”. It also runs about $160. The seat is the easiest to adjust. Like the Stardust Chair, the cushion must be removed to fold the chair flat for transport but requires the removal of two hand knobs that most be unscrewed to remove the seat. The rubber leg pads tend to wear our quickly, especially the front ones. I installed metal end caps into the bottom of the front leg tubes and then slipped on the rubber caps to help keep the metal leg tube from cutting into the rubber.
In summary, the Astro Chair is probably the best value. It’s also the chair I use most often because of its portability and large flat seat. If cost and transport weren’t an issue, I’d go with the Star Bound chair due to its ease of operation, greater vertical adjustment and sturdy construction. That leaves the Stardust chair as the odd man out. But, the high quality, foot rest, tilting seat, greater vertical adjustment and ease of transport may be what you need. If you can’t decide, you can do what I did and buy all three!