Another 'what telescope should I choose?' Please help

[spanglysparkly]

Hi I have been a lurker on this forum for a while and have tried to read most of the questions for newbies about what se up they should have and to be honest I am now getting myself  confused.

I would like to view planets, I live in a town and at the moment I wouldn't be travelling to dark sky sites, it would be from my back garden.

Although I love the idea of photographing the images I will hopefully see, I understand this is out of my budget and a totally different set and I think for now, getting to knot the sky and viewing planets will be amazing enough.

I have a budget of around £200 (which I know isn't much but will get me mid entry?)

I have looked at the skywatcher heritage but have no table or anything I could put it on in the garden so something with a tripod/ mount thingy is what I'm looking for.

Thank you for your patience, I know you all must have answered hundreds of these types of questions, but your advice is greatly appreciated.

[Blazar]

HI and welcome to SGL,

So the basic recommendation would be a dobsonian mounted (or dob) telescope. These have their own mount (the dobsonian base), and can come in a variety of sizes.  as long as you are fairly fit you can move one out to the garden and use it (without the need for the table).

The 150p seems to be £199 all in.  These telescopes can be quite large, so somewhere to store it (such as a garage) would be a good idea. Here is the link that shows the scope as advertised by our sponsors site...http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-150p-dobsonian.html

You can still try and take pictures 'Afocally' IE through the eyepiece that comes with the scope with a phone camera, or a point and shoot, and this can be quite fun. If you are new to the roaming the night sky, a book called Turn left at Orion is also a good thing to have. It will show you targets and how to find them, as well as some basic telescope care and concepts.

There are larger dob's, but this fits your requirements as stated above I think

Good luck!

PS you get eyepieces with the scope, but spending a little more for some better quality ones is usually the first thing people do.

[spanglysparkly]

Thanks, will take a look now.

[Blazar]

More than welcome....you could also consider the second hand market, if you wanted to try and get the scope cheaper, and save money for EP's and the book as well...just a thought.

[spanglysparkly]

To be honest I am looking at second hand and have just found a Celstron Nexstar 130SLT for £200 - would this be ok?

[Blazar]

Automated scope, small reflector (smaller than the 150p in physical size and aperture / focal length), requires batteries to power it.

I am sure its a good starter scope to start with, though once you have used it a few times, you may get 'aperture fever', and yearn to see more..then you will be looking at upgrading straight away.

To set some expectations have you read Qualia's excellent post entitled 'What can I expect to see?" I think that may help show you roughly what you can see in a smallish scope.

To be honest I started with a decent set of binoculars and a small book on star hopping. learnt the night sky, whilst reading up on telescopes and their various uses. then sat down and looked at my budget, and what I wanted to look at. then got a 4" refractor....or 2, then decided I liked planets, so then saved up for the Edge 800 (over a year!)

[spanglysparkly]

mmmm ok, l'll go have a look at that post now. convalencing after an op is coming in useful for reading about all this 

[szymon]

I hope you get well soon :-)

I think the scope you linked (130SLT) to is a pretty good starter scope.  If it was a choice between that and a slightly larger dobsonian (like the 150p), I personally would go for the computerised one.  Many people seem to think that goto is a bad thing, because you're not forced to "learn the heavens" for yourself.  Well, the great thing about a computerised scope is that it can *help* you learn the heavens.  People seem to forget that you can still move it manually!  Yes, you can automatically "go to" a specific location if you want to, but when all I had was a Nexstar GTL I usually used the goto to find a "starter" star and learn where it is, and then move around manually.  The NexStar software has a wonderful "identify" function, where if you point it at a star it will tell you exactly what you are looking at, which I found invaluable for confirming that what I thought I was finding was in fact the thing I thought it was.

As mentioned above, you may well get "aperture fever" later and want bigger scopes.  (I know I certainly did, in pretty short order!).  However, when you do, you'll probably want to go bigger than the 150p -- perhaps an 8" or a 12".  The difference between the 130 and the 150 just isn't going to be that dramatic, unless you're at a truly dark site and know exactly what you're looking for.

Good luck whatever you decide!

-simon

[Twiggles]

Planetary imgaging is very different to DSO imaging, you can start taking basic images with just a phone or a (very easy to do) modified webcam costing just a few pounds. If it is planets you are interested in and potentially imaging, then a scope on an eq mount as opposed to a dobsonian may be a good investment, provided of course that the mount can be fitted with motors or goto in order to track the planet for a few minutes to take the required video footage.

[RC4U]

i had the celestron 130 and i liked it..i really could not do a dob...as i want to take my eye off and then go back to the veiw not keep moving it...but to each there own...and if you want someone else to see they can ..i like the moon..and if i am looking at something i can keep looking not keep moving...i am not very experianced thou...i did sell the 130 and after a while i know just got my celestron evo 8" ...i do move this scope manually more than tracking but i can see a better feild and to me that is the difference...jeff

[spanglysparkly]

oh wow thanks for all the useful advice - off to have a look around for second hand 

[szymon]

Actually for your £200 you could buy a 200P Dobsonian (there's one here on the classifieds which you will be able to access when you have 50 posts).  That's the point at which I'd take aperture over goto :-)

[spanglysparkly]

I've had a look at the 150/200 dob and they look fantastic but with a huge downside of the size and weight. I just couldnt move it, even though it does split into 2 parts and I think that this would put me off a little as if I did want to take it out and about it would be near impossible.

So... With that in mind, I know I will need to buy second hand, are there any others you could recommend?

Thanks for your patience and advice,back to the reading.

[Charic]

spanglysparkly........Hi , welcome to SGL. Just take your time. Its the hardest part, making those decisions.

can I suggest you try and locate your nearest Astronomy club, and have a look at what they do and what equipment their using? You don't have to join a club, to get advice, but often a club can arrange discounts, get-togethers, and sometimes a good dark site.  If you can find this facility, try a few of their scopes and get a feel for what's best for you. I'm a Dobsonian fan. I've had the EQ/GEM ( Equatorial/German Equatorial Mount) and  thats just not for me.  Far  too  much to adjust and set up every time, rather than  a solid, simple to use and reliable  telescope like the Sky-watcher 200P

[CSM]

I think the Celstron Nexstar 130SLT for £200 would probably be a good bet if light pollution is likely to be a problem.  Can be quite difficult to find objects if you are a beginner so GOT can be very useful.

[CSM]

What strikes me about this thread and quite a few others ones, is that there is so much advice being given that the recipients often end up more confused than ever.  And the fact that people differ so much in their opinions makes it even harder.  Choosing a first scope is difficult and I think the best advice is to go to star parties and look at and through different scopes.  The star party season is just about to start and everyone will be very keep to help you.  And take you time - the stars will still be there in 6 months time, just different ones.

[spanglysparkly]

Thank you everyone, I agree that it would be a good idea to go to a lcal astronomy group. I have emailed them for info of times etc so that I can look before I leap. Like so many of you have said, it's a big decision and if I can try before I buy this can only help me. Binoculars are out, I'm a bit too shaky. I'm now patiently waiting for my turn left at orion book that I bought off ebay.

Thanks again

[Moonshane]

the astronomy centre at Todmorden will be happy to advise. I think they are open every Saturday and have lots of scopes for members of public to try.

my recommendation would be for a 6" f5 Newtonian on an AZ4 mount - all bought used.

[spanglysparkly]

I put this as part of my 'hello' on the welcome forum but thought it belonged here too, advice

After discussing this with the hubby, he's said to increase total outlay to £400 and get the best I can. Early Christmas present

I would like to move the scope on my own as he's not interested and I am still torn between the skyliner and the explorer

but then i wouldn't have any budget unless i bought it 2nd hand http://www.firstligh...r-200p-eq5.html .

I have decided that although it would be handy to have goto capability, I would rather have the aperture,as I have read loads on this forum over the past couple of days about aperture fever and I understand why the skyliner would be go (i'm recovering from an op, so i'm talking 5 hours plus)

After all the amazing photos on here I do want to be able to take photos mainly of planets, moon, still abit unsure about deep space objects. I know this can be expensive but I've also read you can start small and build, this is what I aim to do.

seen this on ebay http://www.ebay.co.u...=item33959d428d

I'm going to a couple of shops this week and one I'm fit I'm going to try to get to a local meeting.

I just want to get this right, I'm trawling ebay and also had a quick look on uk astronomy buy & sell but until i know what i need it seems a bit pointless.

What do you think? Thoughts please

[ronin]

Imaging, you have in effet 2 relevant bits: Planetary and the Moon, or, DSO's.

Planetary and Moon can be done with a Mak/SCT on an Alt/Az mount. You get a webcam and take a video of the offending object, then stack and process the frames from the video.

DSO imaging needs a short fast scope and an Equitorial mount an a webcam is no good.

So one set of equipment for one and a different set for the other.

Next problem is there are 3 planets and 1 moon, and Mars is a real pain in the rerar and only ambles into view at about 2 year intervals. So although a planets is around somewhere or will be soon, they do rather inconveniently orbit such as to be awkward to imagers. Inconsiderate of them.

DSO imaging is not cheap, you could get away with an EQ5 with dual motors and then a small scope - 130PDS or 70mm ED refractor - then attach a DSLR and obtain 60 second exposures for stacking. That is likely the lleast costly way but £800 I would guess. You can watch ABSUK for used items as they do appear if you are happy to wait.

Which of the above could double up best for viaual, well probably the first - Mak/SCT on the Alt/Az. However it could not then be applied to DSO imaging. The mount and the scope are wrong.

By the way neither of the links point to FLO or ebay ?

Have you a scope at the present time ?

Just wondering if it is possible to build on something.

[spanglysparkly]

Hi ronin and thanks for the info

No scope at the moment, and in no rush..... well hopefully this year.

rubbish at links - don't know what i've done.

Unfortunately there's no way of £800 and £400 is pushing it. still thinking about the 200P dob. 

[ronin]

What generally happens is that a person buys a Skywatcher 127 Goto Mak, use it for visual then they drop a webcam into that and take the video of usually Jupiter - it is sort of big and bright, 2 useful qualities to get going.

Then an image of Jupiter is obtained and they start getting more video's and improving their knowledge and ability, then Saturn wanders into view, smaller and dimmer but those rings are irresistible. So images of Saturn are obtained. When Mars arrives off everyone goes for Mars and images are often questionable and no way match Jupiter and Saturn.

The moon is there every month, however fitting it all on a webcam is generally not possible, But it is convenient for webcam imaging. Also usually easy to identify and locate, again very useful qualities.

Then having got the bug the question is What next?

That means DSO's and that means new equipment and so an expenditure.

If you want to go imaging then really the dobsonian is not the scope for it. Good visual scope and that is what the scope and the mount is intended for.

[Caldwell14]

the astronomy centre at Todmorden will be happy to advise. I think they are open every Saturday and have lots of scopes for members of public to try.

my recommendation would be for a 6" f5 Newtonian on an AZ4 mount - all bought used.

That is extremely sound advise

[happy-kat]

I also think a trip to actually seeing these scopes and mounts first hand would be a very good idea.

If the scope you buy is too big and heavy it may end up not being used even if it has a nice big apperature.

An EQ5 is quite heavy with the weights as well and there was an earlier comment about size and weight as the 200p Dob mounted is going to have a base leighter then an EQ5 I think the Eq5 is just under 11 kilos excluding the weights and tube. The dob base for a 200p weights in about the same around 12 kilos but the dob does not need the added weights of the Eq5.

So you can see that a visit to see real telescopes will get you an idea on real size and weight.

It might be that apperature fever is too heavy

[szymon]

This might be a good buy:

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=87708

For £300 a decent mount with goto.  Add a second hand £200p and you're within budget.  If you later want to do more serious imaging, this mount should be capable of it with e.g. a lightweight widefield refractor.

-simon