Which telescope?
Discussion
Thinking of buying an offspring a telescope for his birthday.
I'd like something that can actually be used to look at the moon and planets and maybe stars as well.
I know less about telescopes than I know about what's in the latest edition of Heat magazine so I need some hard facts.
So far I've gleaned that you can get refractor or reflector and spend from £10 to £1000.
Wouldn't want to spend more than around £100 as he may hate it and end up using it as a sword during star wars role play with the remaining progeny.
But I don't want to get something that is completely useless incase he turns into some kind of astronomy genius and his new astronomy buddies laugh at his chav tat telescope.
Kids eh?
I'd like something that can actually be used to look at the moon and planets and maybe stars as well.
I know less about telescopes than I know about what's in the latest edition of Heat magazine so I need some hard facts.
So far I've gleaned that you can get refractor or reflector and spend from £10 to £1000.
Wouldn't want to spend more than around £100 as he may hate it and end up using it as a sword during star wars role play with the remaining progeny.
But I don't want to get something that is completely useless incase he turns into some kind of astronomy genius and his new astronomy buddies laugh at his chav tat telescope.
Kids eh?
If you buy a cheap 'scope what you can do with it is look at the moon. Perfect for a kid's toy.
If you want to look at the other planets and try and see the colour differences over their surface you will need a proper reflecting telescope. I bought the Mrs one on a sturdy tripod a few years back - £250 or so.
However - to REALLY have some fun looking at the heavens you should go further and get a jobbie on a motorised mount that you hook up to a PC. Punch in your location, orient the telescope properly and zip,zip,zip you've got the thing pointing in the right direction. Much more money - but far easier to find heavenly objects with. £££
If I were you I'd get the toy one. If he shows some real interest, reads the "Night Sky" book you get him and bangs on relentlessly about a better telescope for a year - get him the groovy one then.
If you want to look at the other planets and try and see the colour differences over their surface you will need a proper reflecting telescope. I bought the Mrs one on a sturdy tripod a few years back - £250 or so.
However - to REALLY have some fun looking at the heavens you should go further and get a jobbie on a motorised mount that you hook up to a PC. Punch in your location, orient the telescope properly and zip,zip,zip you've got the thing pointing in the right direction. Much more money - but far easier to find heavenly objects with. £££
If I were you I'd get the toy one. If he shows some real interest, reads the "Night Sky" book you get him and bangs on relentlessly about a better telescope for a year - get him the groovy one then.
Don said:
If you buy a cheap 'scope what you can do with it is look at the moon. Perfect for a kid's toy.
If you want to look at the other planets and try and see the colour differences over their surface you will need a proper reflecting telescope. I bought the Mrs one on a sturdy tripod a few years back - £250 or so.
However - to REALLY have some fun looking at the heavens you should go further and get a jobbie on a motorised mount that you hook up to a PC. Punch in your location, orient the telescope properly and zip,zip,zip you've got the thing pointing in the right direction. Much more money - but far easier to find heavenly objects with. £££
If I were you I'd get the toy one. If he shows some real interest, reads the "Night Sky" book you get him and bangs on relentlessly about a better telescope for a year - get him the groovy one then.
Spot on.If you want to look at the other planets and try and see the colour differences over their surface you will need a proper reflecting telescope. I bought the Mrs one on a sturdy tripod a few years back - £250 or so.
However - to REALLY have some fun looking at the heavens you should go further and get a jobbie on a motorised mount that you hook up to a PC. Punch in your location, orient the telescope properly and zip,zip,zip you've got the thing pointing in the right direction. Much more money - but far easier to find heavenly objects with. £££
If I were you I'd get the toy one. If he shows some real interest, reads the "Night Sky" book you get him and bangs on relentlessly about a better telescope for a year - get him the groovy one then.
Sadly a £100 telescope new will not let you see anything of the planets - maybe a smudge for the rings of Saturn, and perhaps, perhaps the 4 Galilean moons. It would be great for the moon!
A fairly old second hand Meade may fit the bill for viewing some definition on Jupiter and Saturn, but I wouldn't see the point.
Don makes an excellent suggestion - get the cheapo job, if interest is shown, upgrade to something with more power.
The two big issues with the 'cheap' telescopes are poor optics and a pathetic mount.
The first is mainly an issue with the 'toy' scopes you find in normal shops and toy stores and they really are awful - you can avoid it by buying an established brand telescope. Best way to do this is to avoid the toys and look in local camera shops or online.
The mount is pretty much impossible to improve on at your price level - it will be quite 'shakey' and won't track the sky so the thing you need to make clear is that the scope needs aiming and then he looks down the eyepiece _without_ touching it or the telescope. If he doesn't realise this (it might take 10-30 seconds for vibrations to die down) then the experience will be horrible.
See if there's a local astronomy society and take him along - then he can probably look through some larger more stable scopes (be prepared for buying requests though!).
In a small 70-80mm refractor you can see all sorts of things, certainly enough to enjoy the night sky along with a decent book to figure out what is where!
Might be worth looking somewhere like http://www.cloudynights.com/ for more info/advice.
The first is mainly an issue with the 'toy' scopes you find in normal shops and toy stores and they really are awful - you can avoid it by buying an established brand telescope. Best way to do this is to avoid the toys and look in local camera shops or online.
The mount is pretty much impossible to improve on at your price level - it will be quite 'shakey' and won't track the sky so the thing you need to make clear is that the scope needs aiming and then he looks down the eyepiece _without_ touching it or the telescope. If he doesn't realise this (it might take 10-30 seconds for vibrations to die down) then the experience will be horrible.
See if there's a local astronomy society and take him along - then he can probably look through some larger more stable scopes (be prepared for buying requests though!).
In a small 70-80mm refractor you can see all sorts of things, certainly enough to enjoy the night sky along with a decent book to figure out what is where!
Might be worth looking somewhere like http://www.cloudynights.com/ for more info/advice.
Good advice.
Telescopes are not the be all and end all of astronomy. It's amazing how much can be learned using binoculars or even the naked eye.
Does the kid actually have an interest in space and astronomy or are you hoping that buying him a telescope would kick start an interest? Buying the kit and then hoping that the child will develop an interest hardly ever works. The interest has to be there in the first place.
Telescopes are not the be all and end all of astronomy. It's amazing how much can be learned using binoculars or even the naked eye.
Does the kid actually have an interest in space and astronomy or are you hoping that buying him a telescope would kick start an interest? Buying the kit and then hoping that the child will develop an interest hardly ever works. The interest has to be there in the first place.
When I was a kid I had a cheap 60mm refractor from Argos and it gave pretty reasonable images of the moon, and I could see the rings on Saturn and cloud bands on Jupiter. Oh, and the phases of Venus. That was pretty much all I could see, but it still kept my interest enough to do a degree in Astrophysics and I now have a 10 inch reflector 
I still use the 60mm cheapy telescope for projecting the sun though and looking at transits and sunspots etc.
Do your research, but in a nutshell the "power" of a telescope is determined by the aperture - this is what is meant by 60mm, 10 inch, 6 inch etc. The bigger that is, the more you can see and the higher magnification you can use. A Refractor is a lens, and a reflector is a mirror. The other big thing is the mount - consider: a) sturdiness b) there are essentially two types of mount: equatorial (swings in the same plane as the stars rotate, but needs to be set up to the pole star etc) and alt-azimuth (which, as the name suggests just swings up and down).
With your budget I'd personally be looking at buying secondhand. Whether you go for an equatorial mount or not will depend on your son's age and patience, but you'd be better off going for a sturdier simple mount IMHO.
Feel free to mail me if you'd like more info.
I still use the 60mm cheapy telescope for projecting the sun though and looking at transits and sunspots etc.Do your research, but in a nutshell the "power" of a telescope is determined by the aperture - this is what is meant by 60mm, 10 inch, 6 inch etc. The bigger that is, the more you can see and the higher magnification you can use. A Refractor is a lens, and a reflector is a mirror. The other big thing is the mount - consider: a) sturdiness b) there are essentially two types of mount: equatorial (swings in the same plane as the stars rotate, but needs to be set up to the pole star etc) and alt-azimuth (which, as the name suggests just swings up and down).
With your budget I'd personally be looking at buying secondhand. Whether you go for an equatorial mount or not will depend on your son's age and patience, but you'd be better off going for a sturdier simple mount IMHO.
Feel free to mail me if you'd like more info.
MX-Si said:
I think the best advice would be to by them a decent pair of binoculars and a star chart and get them learn about what's up there first. If they're still interested in checking out the heavens after that then I'd look at buying them a starter scope.
Indeed. Have you considered a bird-watching scope if the moon is your main target? They tend to have a mag of 25-30 and lots of light catching ability(they will be really bright on the Moon!) The upside of this is you can use it for normal stuff when he gets bored with it 
fatboy b said:
I've got one of these for sale if you want. It's 2 years old, hardly used, and gathering dust. I've just lost interest. Make me a n offer if you want, I've got all the packaging still.
Oooooooooooooo that looks nice.I'm still hiding behind the sofa incase Eric comes round to tell me off for considering impulse buying a telescope.
I'll PM you later as I'm currently earning the beans to pay for the toys and the battery on my HSDPA UMPC is about to die.
(I like toys).
rfisher said:
fatboy b said:
I've got one of these for sale if you want. It's 2 years old, hardly used, and gathering dust. I've just lost interest. Make me a n offer if you want, I've got all the packaging still.
Oooooooooooooo that looks nice.I'm still hiding behind the sofa incase Eric comes round to tell me off for considering impulse buying a telescope.
I'll PM you later as I'm currently earning the beans to pay for the toys and the battery on my HSDPA UMPC is about to die.
(I like toys).
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