timfoster

Wow! These are amazing. This will exceed his (and my) expectation massively. If he's able to take photos like this with the Heritage 100p, he'll be absolutely made up. I've added the scope, a moon filter and a planisphere to the basket. I can't see a phone adapter though. I've asked the question of their support team. All he'll want to do is get the images as photos. I'd assume, in my astronomy naivety, that this was all a "phone connection" meant, so apologies to those saying I won't get a phone connection at that price point. If the adapter than allows him to take photos is available, this is what I meant

Thank you all for your advice. I think finding a club is a great idea. As far as expectations, I'm not really sure. The moon is an obvious one. Every Christmas he wants to watch the John Lewis Man in the Moon advert and he's constantly talking about seeing the moon. He was glued to news stories about the recent rocket launch but I don;t think he has any expectations as such. I googled that the IIS was visible over Northampton fairly often until December (https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_Kingdom&region=England&city=Northampton#.Y3pEM0JP9Yo.mailto) so that would be good I think. Pretty much anything beyond the moon is a bonus, I think. I'm looking at Sky-Watcher Heritage-100P | First Light Optics as recommended above. This is in the right price point. We're looking at this price simply because we don't want to spend hundreds if he loses interest. I have a garage full of keyboard, diving equipment etc where my kids have lost interest after a few months.

My 10 year old son is getting into space and astronomy. I know absolutely nothing about this subject and so I'm a complete novice when it comes buying a telescope for him. We've had a really basic (more a toy than scientific instrument) telescope for a while, but I want to get him something more serious. As I say, I have no experience here, so I'm looking for guidance on what we should be getting for him. The brands I've heard of are Celestron and Orion, but I have no idea if these are good or just good at marketing. My requirements (and feel free to suggest reasons why these are wrong): Small style (by this I mean not the traditional style of telescope that has a long body) Budget up to about £150 (or more if add-ons increase the price. His birthday is in Jan, so add-ons can be for his birthday) Ability to connect a phone (either remotely or as the screen) Not massively feature-laden but enough for him to be able to grow with it as he develops the interest Can anyone help?