Gem85

I have just sent back the Celestron travel scope 70mm as I didn’t find it at all good enough for what I wanted to see. But Can I please ask what’s the difference between a reflector and a refractor? What’s better? 

4 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

thanks @SthBohemia but there's one thing I did forget to ask @Gem85 and that was what's the aspect of the garden where they want to view from?

Ideally faces south-ish with view to E and thu S toward the west. That'd give the moon and planets best as they rise and track across the sky. Fences and tall border bushes/trees can be a nuisance but if not too tall you can position further away to get a slightly lower view. With kids then the E-S region could be very useful as they won't have to be staying up too late 😉

Downside would be a north facing garden with the house blocking the southerly view. That's how I came across my SW130 as the couple that had it only had a north view so the hobby they were interested faded quickly and the scope just got parked in a back room. Now of course you may be able to use the front garden to get around that but street lights play havoc then, this couple didn't have much frontage tho so not an option for them. 

Of course you can make a trip to go somewhere with better aspect, harder with a clutch of kids maybe, but possible if the gear will all fit in the car along with everyone/thing else. I've yet to bother doing that myself, laziness a little but time when needing to do other things too. Besides, is much simpler at home, easy access to hot/cold drinks, the loo etc 😄 

I have a south facing garden and it looks out to a very large field! I must admit I have a very good view of the night sky from my garden! 

Thank you all for your opinions and recommendations. I have a family of 3 children the youngest are 10. My budget is £200-£300 really for our 1st scope!  At the moment we love just watching what is moving in the sky, watching the stars and last night I had a great view of Jupiter from my garden but gutted we haven’t go a telescope yet to take a closer look 😕 

Hello there, 

I am new to stargazing, I moved to High Wycombe a couple of years ago and the sky  on a clear night is amazing up here! 
My partner & I  are looking to buy our first telescope to explore the skies but don’t have a clue what we’re looking at in terms of aperture, sizing, lenses etc…. We don’t want to spend a huge amount on our 1st whilst we get used to it but don’t want one that is not very good with images. I hope to get some ideas on what are the best ones about  to buy. 
many thanks in advance.

Gem.