telescopes

[peterpan3494]

hi all

as a newbie to this hobby i’m looking for some advice

I have about £100/150 to spend on a scope of some description

Can anyone put me in the right direction of what is good, and

Anything that you would stay away from

Many thanks

Pete

[lw24]

Hi Pete,

First of all, welcome to SGL. I hope you enjoy the forum, and feel free to ask any questions you have (and I mean any!).

Right, now onto your query. A good starter telescope for around £100-£150. The telescope you want will depend on what you want to see/view through it. I've quickly found these two examples to show what I mean.

Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube - £135

This Dobsonian (called dobsonian due to the mount it's on) Reflector (as it contains mirrors) has a decent apeture of 130mm, plenty capable of showing you various Deep Sky Objects, plus the Moon, and the Planets. It's forte would be on Deep Sky views. It's nice and portable, however you would need a table to place it on when viewing.

Skywatcher Evostar 90 (AZ3) - £145

This Refractor (it contains a lens system) has an apeture of 90mm, which is fairly good for a starter telescope. It too will show you various Deep Sky Objects, however it's strong point will be on the Moon, Double Stars and the Planets.

___________________

To be honest, with £100-£150, you're probably better off getting a pair of binoculars/saving up for a larger telescope for around the £200 pound mark. At that price range, a lot more options become available.

An example of some decent binoculars are these: Revelation 15x70 Binoculars - £51

On a small camera tripod: Hama Star 63 Tripod - £16 aswell as the Tripod Adaptor option which costs £9.99 for use with binoculars.

This would make a great astro starter kit, and would be easy to move around, and portable (so that you could take it to darker skies/on holiday).

Hope that helped, although it may have made you a bit confused!

Clear Skies,

Luke

[Carbon Brush]

Hi Pete.

Welcome to SGL and the hobby.

Do not buy from ebay without advice from someone experienced. There is a lot of junk and you need to be careful.

Do not buy from a High St general photo shop, or a department store. Same comments apply.

Take a look at the specialist astro retailers. Ok your budget won't get you very far with them. But do you need to buy new? If you go along to your local astro club, you will gets lots of useful comments. Hopefully at look at and through some scopes. Maybe members will have something on sale?

Scopes come in all shapes and sizes. You could do with getting a feel for what sort of scope you would like to use. You also need to think about where it will be used, and how you will get it there. If you have to carry it down 3 flights of stairs, portability is important. All of these things will become clearer as you look around.

Take your time looking. The sky isn't properly dark at this time of year so you aren't missing much. When you have 50 posts + 1 month on SGL, you will be able to see the 'for sale' section. There are often scopes in your price bracket for sale by members who have moved on to something different. Generally the SGL members kit is well looked after and the sales are 'honest'. Unlike certain other places.

Whereabouts are you? You may find that an SGL member can point you to the local club, or offer local advice. Scopes on web pages all look and sound great. Hands on experience is very different.

Hope this is useful. David.

[CGolder]

+1 for the heritage,

a lot of people say bins are a good move but you cant beat a good scope and the heritage is a good scope, its a good scope for solar system objects and also has a decent aperture for some deep sky.

you will however need a table to set it up.

Its a portable scope and even a seasoned astronomer might own one for that reason with a larger scope that stays at home, it can be carried in one hand as it includes a nice solid handle... highly recommended and pretty much unbeatable performance at your price bracket

[hemihaggis]

:icon_salut:hi there , welcome to the forum .

[smudgeball]

Hi

Welcome to SGL

Probably one of the most direct and to the point topic titles

The bino tips might be worth looking at ?

You'll have fun with whatever you choose.

And don't be afraid to ask questions on here.

Regards

Neil

[peterpan3494]

many thanks for the coments so far guess il have to stick around and get past my 50 post +1 month :)

im not jumping into the fire with out looking around and taking advice (besides the wife wont let me ha ha ha )

i'm rather looking at a reflector type but hey i'm sure over the next few weeks il be be looking at all types shapes and sizes

changing my mind several times (and the wife saying will you please make up your mind )

again thanks for the replys

pete

[ollypenrice]

If you buy second hand you will about double your spending power but I would stay away from Ebay and look on here or UK Astrobuysell, or get along to a local astronomical society. Google Federation of Astronomical Societies for a member list.

Olly

ollypenrice's Photos

[great_bear]

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[Dodge]

The Heritage 130P was my choice for a first telescope. They're cheap, nice quality, the eyepieces aren't too bad and as already mentioned, the portability is a big plus for me.

It's not fantastic for planetary work as the focal length isn't huge, but you can always add a barlow or some higher power eyepieces. The 5" mirror has pretty good light gathering too, so you can see some of the brighter DSO's.

A good review here: The Sky Watcher Heritage 130 FlexTube Dobsonian telescope Telescope Reviews UK

[RoadRunner2009]

I would second the idea of getting a decent pair of bins to get you started, I'm still frequently using my Celestrons, learning the sky and getting ready for my first telescope (which I research every day to find the right one!) Baring in mind my research began almost a year ago...

[Herbig]

Much good advice already in this thread and not much I'd add other than to emphasize take your time. I took ages before I ordered my C8 SCT and then what did I do, bought a Refractor too LOL! I was warned however that once I got stared one scope wouldn't be enough - this hobby is contagious, I haven't' stopped spending since last November! I've spent more than your budget this month alone on a Duel mounting plate and solar filter.

[Daniel-K]

personly i hate bins dont know why just not for me ive used the 130p its a good scope but its a table top one altough very portable and the veiws are good. you could try getting bins and buy bits for your scope bit by bit thats very exciting unless your like me WANT IT NOW! as above stay away from ebay keep a look out on the forsale section here you mite get lucky i did i got a skywatcher 200p dob for £150 if you can get the 150p dob or the 200p dob the 150p is £200 new so a second hand one is right up your street

[peterpan3494]

ok thanks for all the advice some very interesting views aired

yes im one of those that wants it now for example

im also interested in rc helicopters

my partner got me a small one for christmas 20 or 30 quid a 3 channel

loved it so much flying it round the room

a week later i had 2 more ha ha :)

but this is a different kettle of fish

i think im going to hold on to my money and see what surprises await me in the for sale section

like some one said on here (sorry forgot who it was now )

id get better value for money buying from a member who is not going to rip me off and will also give advice

again thank you top guys

pete:headbang:

[Moonshane]

binoculars suit some and not others. I could never get on with them for astronomy either.

buying a used 150mm skywatcher dobsonian would be the best bet I reckon.

[Gregski]

Hi there

For what it's worth, for under £180-200 you can get the Explorer 130P 5" Newtonian Reflector. It's a bit shorter than some other 5" scopes, reasonably portable for back garden setup and has great optics for the price (a friend of mine has one). It's great as a general scope and if you genuinely are into it, will keep you going for a while.

Ditto the opinions on binoculars. They are actually better for some things like the Pleiades star cluster and the Milky Way and many an amateur will take them out regularly for a 'quick peek'.

That's my tuppence-worth!

Good luck, Greg

[great_bear]

For what it's worth, for under £180-200 you can get the Explorer 130P 5" Newtonian Reflector. It's a bit shorter than some other 5" scopes, reasonably portable for back garden setup and has great optics for the price (a friend of mine has one). It's great as a general scope and if you genuinely are into it, will keep you going for a while.

I think that this scope - in its SupaTrak configuration - really takes some beating.

We've got several scopes in this house, and our very first one was the Explorer 130P SupaTrak and it's still the one that I keep coming back to, time and time again.

It's a really fun telescope to use.

Furthermore, you can upgrade to premium eyepieces with this telescope, and it still delivers excellent views...