Telescope for a beginner - HELP

[Adenauer]

Not too sure where to put this

I'm after a telescope for looking at the moon and possibly other planets, the main thing is that I need to be able to link it up to my Nikon D90 DSLR to also take pictures of what I can see.

Budget probably around 300 pounds (less is good), and I want a tripod mounted one so that I can move it around a bit (also outside) without needing to stand it on a table.

Can any of you recommend anything please?

I'm currently looking at this but I have no idea if I can attach a camera to it?

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Sky-Watcher-Explorer-130P-E...

[Adenauer]

or would I be better off getting something like this and just sticking the camera on it?

Maybe need a different lens?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Orion-Adventures-in-Astrop...

[nellyleelephant]

You'll get a lot more responses in the Science forum. There is a reasonably current thread in there asking pretty much the same question.

[Adenauer]

Cheers nelly, thanks for moving it. I saw that other thread but if failed to mention the camera thing.

[Moonhawk]

Take a look at this thread

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Toaster]

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/celestron-nexs...

Celstron build amateur and professional telescopes a 90 slt is a very good "go to" computerised telescope just get a T piece and you can start taking pictures some thing like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-T-Adapter-Univer...

Don't forget some filters the Moon is very bight http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-Filter-Set-1-25-...

also if using a Go to telescope it requires power and you won't want to keep on buying Batteries

http://www.outdoorgb.com/p/Celestron_7_Ah_Power_Ta...

Apart from the handset that comes with the celestron you can plug it in to a PC and control it from it

So much choice out there but get a decent make like celestron or Meade you won't regret it

[Adenauer]

Cheers Toaster

[Zad]

For anyone after an interesting Christmas present, this Thursday (Dec 4th) Lidl are selling the Bresser 70/700 refractor with tripod for £70. Mount Palomar it ain't, but there's certainly more than 70 quids worth of entertainment there.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?actio...

[don4l]

Zad said:

For anyone after an interesting Christmas present, this Thursday (Dec 4th) Lidl are selling the Bresser 70/700 refractor with tripod for £70. Mount Palomar it ain't, but there's certainly more than 70 quids worth of entertainment there.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?actio...

The 4mm lens will be useless on anything other than the moon.

That said, Bresser telescopes are held in high regard. The optics will be probably as good as you can get for the price.

You won't be able to see any detail on Mars, but you will be able to see four of Jupiter's moons, and you will be able to see the rings of Saturn.

[Zad]

Indeed, I have one. Forget the high magnification lens, but the other is fine for lunar / planetary messing around.

[Moonhawk]

Zad said:

For anyone after an interesting Christmas present, this Thursday (Dec 4th) Lidl are selling the Bresser 70/700 refractor with tripod for £70. Mount Palomar it ain't, but there's certainly more than 70 quids worth of entertainment there.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?actio...

Never buy a telescope which quotes magnification as one of it's selling points........especially not one as ambitious as what Lidl are quoting.

Generally speaking - under ideal conditions with excellent optics you can achieve a maximum of around 50x magnification per inch aperture.

This telescope has a 70mm objective from what I can tell which is around 2.75 inches (assuming it's not baffled or stopped down). This makes the maximum useful magnification for this scope 137x.

My own telescope - a 10 inch LX90 would struggle to achieve 525x magnification.

Not sure how they achieve 525x anyway. The focal length of the scope is 700mm and the shortest eyepiece is 4mm. That combination gives 175x. To get 525x you'd need to have a 3x Barlow lens included as well.

Edited by Moonhawk on Tuesday 2nd December 08:11

[MiniMan64]

Zad said:

For anyone after an interesting Christmas present, this Thursday (Dec 4th) Lidl are selling the Bresser 70/700 refractor with tripod for £70. Mount Palomar it ain't, but there's certainly more than 70 quids worth of entertainment there.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?actio...

For under £100 does anyone know of a better option than this?

A friend happened to ask me about a £100 pressie for her husband's first scope, nothing fancy and that seems to fit the bill.

Any alternative options anyone knows? I know plenty of Astronomy but not much of buying telescopes!

[IanMorewood]

Astrobuysell has a couple of second hand celestron 80's sub £100, other than that you will struggle to find much better so for £70 that lidl deal seems pretty good.

[Moonhawk]

You can pick up a new Celestron astromaster 114 eq for under £100.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras/accessories/b...

I'd avoid the Lidl scope like the plague.

Edited by Moonhawk on Wednesday 3rd December 16:32

[Zad]

Have you used the Lidl one? You seem to know all about it.

[IanMorewood]

One on astrobuysell is a refractor with a goto mount, personally I wouldn't touch a reflector that's less than six inches in diameter.

[Moonhawk]

Zad said:

Have you used the Lidl one? You seem to know all about it.

Nope - but I have used similar scopes in the past.

Small achromatic refractor, flimsy looking mount, quoting magnification well beyond what is physically possible even with perfect optics - it's a recipe for disaster.

I'm happy to be proven wrong though.

[MBBlat]

This might be worth a read - US biased but some good advice
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/12/0...