What Telescope

[Melman Giraffe]

Looking to purchase a telescope for my wifes Birthday and have a budget around £200 max.

Have seen this one.....

http://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/SkyWa...

Come anyone recommend a decent one in my price range?

[tonyvid]

That's probably a good one at that price range, it really is the tip of a very big telescope-berg!

I would check what sort of tripod/mount it has as that is critical - you can have the best scope in the world but if it wobbles it will be st!

[nellyleelephant]

Shameless plug for my thread!

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

Also, have a loot at stargazers lounge, loads of info on that site.
The telescope you've found often gets recommended for beginners, but like the post above says, be aware that if you want to upgrade to something bigger in the future, the mount won't take much more weight.

[fatboy b]

Melman Giraffe said:

Looking to purchase a telescope for my wifes Birthday and have a budget around £200 max.

Have seen this one.....

http://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/SkyWa...

Come anyone recommend a decent one in my price range?

I just sold one similar to that to a PH'er as I lost interest. It cost about £230 I think (Nexstar??). To be honest, it's only really good for looking at the moon. I used to look at Jupiter, and it was just a larger white dot, but you could see a few smaller white dots around it. Seems you have to spend £1000+ to get anything decent.

[nellyleelephant]

fatboy b said:

I just sold one similar to that to a PH'er as I lost interest. It cost about £230 I think (Nexstar??). To be honest, it's only really good for looking at the moon. I used to look at Jupiter, and it was just a larger white dot, but you could see a few smaller white dots around it. Seems you have to spend £1000+ to get anything decent.

Not too sure about the £1000+ bit.

How about something like this? A little larger, higher quality too. A much less complicated mounting system though, easier to use.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?pro...

[Melman Giraffe]

Great advice will looking into the last telescope

Cheers

[nellyleelephant]

The mount in the last one is very simple.

Unlike the mount used on the 130, there is no real set up time, place it on the floor and you're away. With the one in your first post, you have to polar align and then use the mount in a specific way, not the hardest thing in the world to do, but a bit daunting if you're just starting out.

Best to spend the money on decent glass rather than a not too great mount.

[johnbaz]

Hi

Have a look on fleabay, I 'won' this 8" Orion scope with the mount, some lenses and filters for around £130..

I don't know much about astronomy and wondered what the Moon filter was for- I found out by nearly being blinded just viewing the moon




John

[nammynake]

Telescopes are good for viewing small and faint objects mainly. The larger the aperture the smaller the field of view but the greater the light collecting ability. At that price point I would recommend a pair of binoculars - you will see a MUCH larger portion of the sky and IMO are much more suited to a beginner. Go for something like a 50x7.

[jmorgan]

I would be looking at more than £200. Does she have an interest?

[Nuclearsquash]

Definitely agree with First Light Optics as a place to buy from, excellent service.

I think £200 is probably a fair budget to start with, I bought a 6" Newtonian on a dobsonian mount for ~£170, and get cracking views with it. It's a doddle to use a dob as well.

Can i also recommend Stargazers Lounge as a forum, lots of very knowledgeable people there.

[nellyleelephant]

nammynake said:

Telescopes are good for viewing small and faint objects mainly. The larger the aperture the smaller the field of view but the greater the light collecting ability. At that price point I would recommend a pair of binoculars - you will see a MUCH larger portion of the sky and IMO are much more suited to a beginner. Go for something like a 50x7.

Agree with this. For under £200 you should be able to get some 15x70 celestron skymasters and a suitable tripod. They won't give great views of the planets, but for large widefield views to learn the sky they would be unbeatable.

Plus, if after a while she decides the interest isn't for her, you still have binoculars that you can use.

[al1991]

[MKnight702]

I bought a telescope several years ago, the only trouble is where I live I struggle to see any stars due to the light polution (nothing to do with not having the slightest idea what I'm doing!). In the end I've taken the telescope up to Scotland since there is the only place I can see more than a handful of stars.

[Stu R]

nammynake said:

Telescopes are good for viewing small and faint objects mainly. The larger the aperture the smaller the field of view but the greater the light collecting ability. At that price point I would recommend a pair of binoculars - you will see a MUCH larger portion of the sky and IMO are much more suited to a beginner. Go for something like a 50x7.

Bingo!

Listen to this poster - they speak sense. £200 doesn't buy a particularly good scope, new or second hand. It does however buy a superb set of binoculars which are more than enough to get started with and learn the basics of astronomy. You can see literally hundreds of thousands of stars on a clear night with a pair of binoculars.

Binocs have a wide field of view so they're far less frustrating to use when you're starting out, and you can home in on things far quicker - essential skills for Astronomy that'll also help when it comes to telescopes. They don't need any setting up and they're easy to carry, what more do you need

A 10x50 will be more than enough to get started with - they're common as muck, cheap as chips and for your money you'll get much better optics than you would with a £200 scope. You'll also have a decent pair of binoculars to keep should she get bored of stargazing after a week.

I've known so many people buy a cheap scope and because they've not had the patience to learn from the beginning, they've lost interest because they can't pick out a spot on jupiter like it was 5 feet infront of them, or make out the rings or see Saturn's rings. I've got 3 grands worth of scope and there's times I still prefer breaking the binoculars out.

Also important, is that you know what you're looking at when you're looking - There's a wealth of great videos on youtube for example, plenty of books, even iphone apps etc. It's really easy, and taking the time to read up if your wife isn't already an astronomer will likely make a huge difference to how obsessed she becomes with it

[kryten]

Stu R said:

I've got 3 grands worth of scope and there's times I still prefer breaking the binoculars out.

Definitely agree with this. I have mine in permanent setup but I still love using the binos.

The issue at that price is that whilst optics have become cheaper a) there's no substitute for apeture and b) engineering hasn't so most mounts are quite poor.

Try to find a local astronomy society and go along - most will have basic scopes (or someone that has one) and you'll also probably be able to pick up a good quality s/h scope off someone who is upgrading

[jmorgan]

al1991 said:

On my list to do, though not quite that small. I have read a few articles on DIY scopes and mirrors and the results are very good. Especially grinding your own (oh er missis).

[nellyleelephant]

kryten said:

Stu R said:

I've got 3 grands worth of scope and there's times I still prefer breaking the binoculars out.

Definitely agree with this. I have mine in permanent setup but I still love using the binos.

The issue at that price is that whilst optics have become cheaper a) there's no substitute for apeture and b) engineering hasn't so most mounts are quite poor.

Try to find a local astronomy society and go along - most will have basic scopes (or someone that has one) and you'll also probably be able to pick up a good quality s/h scope off someone who is upgrading

Oooooh, what permanent set up have you got?
I'm currently planning to build a pier to take my 12" newt, any tips?

[cwk]

Hi Melman.

If you're interested, I bought myself a Celestron Astromaster (I think?!) on an equatorial mount. It's barely used and just cluttering up my garage. I seem to remember I paid about £130 for it but can't remember if it's the 114 or 130 model Anyway, I don't want it any more, and live near J18 of the M25 so very close to Ruislip. If you PM me I'm sure we can come to an arrangement!

All the best,

Charles

[Stu R]

Oh you swines. I can't stop looking at new scopes now! Been toying with an upgrade for a little over a year, but I'd planned on upgrading my DSLR first.

Could get a cracking deal on a 14" tube in the states when I'm over too