mil5nov

30 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I hesitate to make a firm recommendation, as it seems risky to suggest a particular telescope as a present for a third party. The differences in telescope design between various types are more than cosmetic and affect their suitability for various tasks. I would suggest that rather than buying from your favorite online retailer, you buy from a specialist astro telescope retailer with a liberal returns policy. Seriously.

Having got that out of the way, here are some suggestions.

The 127mm Maksutov is a quality telescope and stands a good chance of being kept even if the recipient later desires something bigger or different. If you are looking at the Celestron 127SLT outfit, I have one and the tripod is distinctly on the wobbly side (it's almost at the max. load for this mount & tripod design) though far from unusable for visual purposes.

The 130mm Newtonian can be made to do various jobs even if it is not always the ideal instrument for the task.  It will need collimation which will put some people off.

I have not used an Intelliscope but it is a system often used with Dobsonians (mostly in the USA) as a full GoTo pushes up the cost to that of other varieties of GoTo outfit. If you are considering this one you may find you have fewer options for re-mounting it or dispensing with the table which could be a nuisance if you want to take it out into the sticks.

 

I note that all the outfits you cite are either GoTo or push-to.  I rate GoTo highly (as you can see from my sig), but it seems that some people just can't get on with GoTo at all.  In which case you have to balance the aggravation of being unable to make the GoTo work with the aggravation of great difficulty of ever finding any faint object (and no tracking) if you opt for the simple and more-aperture-for-the-money Dobsonian outfits.

Having the battery run out is not in practice a serious issue. You should be using an external power pack, or have spare primary batteries on hand.  I have several powerpacks...

As for "... some astrophotography", I suggest you forget about it till you have tried hanging a camera on the telescope of choice and seen how dire or otherwise the results seem to you.  Deep space and planetary astrophotography have quite different requirements. One cannot guarantee than a general purpose Newtonian will even come to focus with a camera.

Also be aware that whatever you buy it will come with the bare essentials to get it working on the first night, and it will be much improved by spending some money on a set of half-decent eyepieces at £30 to £50 each, and an external power pack in place of the near-useless primary batteries.  Many of the entry-level outfits are under-mounted, giving some owners thoughts about a sturdier tripod.

Thank you.

I am looking as well on refractor telescopes as suggested by Trikeflyer however combined with goto mount they seem to be a bit outside of my price range. 

The goto/ push to is a feature that I cannot budge on. I know there will be a learning curve to align it properly as well but I guess it's still easier than star hopping to see what we want to see

So based on your explanation do you think, the MAK would be the best for our needs based on the 3?

This is somewhat my primary choice but the narrow FOV is bit off putting (as the collimation is off putting in the other 2).

I seriously never knew there is so many factors to consider when buying a telescope.

26 minutes ago, Trikeflyer said:

 

 Then you have to consider the mount if you live in light polluted skies, I think goto makes sense, you will find more stuff, faster once you are set up. if you live in dark skies then maybe a manual mount can be ok. I prefer goto but there are many who don’t and this is personal choice.  I think it can be frustrating searching for stuff and just not finding it when you’re a beginner.  Also if The scope is mainly for visual use, I’d suggest avoiding equatorial mounts and going for alt az mounts.  Here are some possibilities, bot goto and manual - just make sure that the weight limit of the mount is ok for the scope you choose - if the scope is a couple of hundred grams over, this won’t really affect the performance.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth/sky-watcher-star-discovery-wifi-az-goto-mount-tripod.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi-alt-az-mount-tripod.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/sky-watcher-az5-deluxe-alt-azimuth-mount.html

Just my thoughts.

Good luck.

 

It's probably a stupid question but what the heck, can any telescope be used with goto mount? Not based on weight as you mentioned, but are all scopes attached in the same way?

If I would consider this option, I don't want to buy a scope and mount separately and then not being able to attach it.

Also, when converted to EUR it comes a bit above my budget so would have to research if I can get it somewhere bit cheaper.

I live in a town approx 20km from Dublin so the light pollution is not as bad as in Dublin (that's just my observation on how is see sky with naked eye vs what I saw when lived in Dublin) .

8 minutes ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Hi @mil5nov, how long have we got to solve your dilemma for you (ie. when is his birthday)?

I don't have experience with any of those scopes, normally I would say go for the biggest aperture of the Dobsonian, but they are not really suitable for photo astronomy, so I'll leave it to forum members with relevant experience to offer advice. Good luck!  

His Birthday is on the 27th so I guess I should order it next week at the latest.

The photo astronomy would be an added bonus and not really a requirement. So if my choice would be a scope that has photos of not great quality and mediocre viewing quality vs scope without photo option but the viewing quality is better, I would go with the viewing quality.

How hard is the collmination though? This scares me as obviously I don't want to break the new and expensive to my budget scope.

Hi All,

My husband's birthday is coming up and I decided to give him a telescope - something he's always been dreaming of.

I have narrowed down my research to the 3 below:

Celestron Nexstar 127MAK

Celestron Nexstar 130SLT

Orion Starblast 6i

I am looking for a scope that would be "best of both worlds" - to be able to watch planets and DSO's (since I cannot ask my husband which one he prefers and there is only few planets and many DSOs).

A bit of thinking behind my choices:

Celestron Nexstar 127MAK - best magnification from all 3 choices which will be great for planets but the narrow FOV can be an issue for DOS. It's a MAK so no collination, which we would have no idea how to do. Apparently this scope is a bit sturdier on the mount and tripod than 130 and it's possible to watch stars in zenith which I read is an issue with 130. 

Celestron Nexstar 130SLT - wider FOV which is better for DOS, but will this badly affect planet view? Also, the collination scares me.

Orion Starblast 6i - the obvious advantage is the 6" aperture vs 5" in the other 2. This is a dob with pushto, compared to goto in the other 2. The advantage of this is that it can be operated manually so it can still be used even if power dies, which will be an issue in the other 2. On the other hand the other 2 are tracking the objects where this one does not. Also, it's a tabletop scope so no tripod - not sure if this is a pro or a con. And again - collination. Also, in a lot of posts that I read, dobsonians are recommended as a beginner scopes as apparently you get more scope for your money.

As you can see, all 3 have their pros and cons, which makes it a really hard choice for somebody who has no clue about any of it.

Both of us are total novices so a goto or pushto is a must in order to find what we want to look at.

Additionally, my husband loves photography, so if any of them would be suitable for any photos, it would be a bonus (but it is not a mandatory requirement as I know neither of them is really designed for astrophotography).

Which one of them would you recommend or do you know of any other better scopes that would fit our needs (within budget EUR 550)?

I will appreciate any suggestions.