advice for a father please!

[marcel1]

Hi,

Am after a little advice please. My son is very interested in astronomy and is wanting me to buy him a telescope. He's had 'toy' ones in past, which to be honest are rubbish and were a waste of £70 quid. Im wanting to buy him a decent beginners one, id be willing to go upto £200 or so if is better and encourages him more (as felt his other ones left him disapointed) .

Any recomendations be appreciated.

Thanks

[spaceboy]

The wife and I purchased our 5 YO son his first scope Xmas. A Celestron 70AZ. What a pile of poop! I wanted an AZ mount so it was a simple point and go and figured the 70mm refractor would be a manageable size not requiring collimation. The mount is an absolute nightmare to use, the scope although a manageable size isn't collimated and cannot be to solve the misalignment so all in all he has used it probably 3 times since Christmas. I am now in the market for a second hand Heritage 130P for him but the enthusiasm he had has now subsided due to the upset using the 70AZ. If a heritage was to come up at the right price I would take the gamble this might get him interested again.

So asking a parent for his advice after learning from my previous mistakes I would say get your son a Heritage 130P. I feel there is sufficient aperture to keep interest, the mount should be simple enough to use and offers a sturdy support for the scope. It is also compact enough that it can be stored easily when not in use IE: on school nights .

HTH

SPACEBOY

[rwilkey]

Hi there, I bought my wife an earlier version (90mm) of the following and we have never looked back, a great starter scope, and a friend has just bought this one, he is very pleased with it. It's a good quality make and comes with two eyepieces, a 25m and a 9mm I think:

eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace

[a10ken]

Hi

i bought my lad a skywatcher 150p dobson from FLO. thats is a good as any for him to learn with, you both can be involved in building up the base and moveing it from site to site.

if you get a TELRAD sight aswell that will make finding objects simpler and hold his interest. both should come in about on budget

ken

[rwilkey]

That's a great first scope a10ken, big enough to 'wow' him and impress his friends! Telrad is great, the red dot finder (RDF) on the Meade is pants, my only criticism about this scope.

[marcel1]

thanks im bout to google suggestions now so any more ideas be appreciated. didnt realise be so many choices when he asked for one

[Damo636]

+1 for the 6" 150p dob. Best bang for buck in your price range imho.

[spaceboy]

Sorry Marcel1 I didn't notice you are new to SGL.

Welcome to the lounge!

There are many choices there are but choosing for a child/teen is a hard one as attention spans can be short. A lot of scopes on the market require collimation and even the novice astronomer can find this a little daunting to begin with. Refractors Refracting telescope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Maksutov Maksutov telescope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia scopes are in general often free from the need of collimation while most reflecting Reflecting telescope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia telescopes will at one point require a tweak of the primary and secondary mirrors. Unfortunetly a common problem with refractors in your price range is that the images can show false colour due to Chromatic Aberration Chromatic aberration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Depending on how old and competent your son is will be a deciding factor in which scope to choose. While the scope I recommended First Light Optics - Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube is reasonably user friendly. As it is a reflector it will not suffer from false colour like the refractor but at some point it will require collimation Collimation

While everyone is available on SGL to offer you advice as and when you need it I thought it best to offer an idea of the differences in design and a brief description of some of the pros and cons.

[marcel1]

thanks for that info there

i must admin the 130p looks appealing for its size. my son is only 9 but short for his age and think this would be easier for him to handle. i get that the skyliner 150p will prob give better viewing for him but my main concern is the difficulty he will have using it. is it very tall? looks it from pictures when googling it.

i agree im worried about his attention span lasting only 5 minutes though at same time I quite looking forward to him getting one so I can use it to so hopefully wouldnt be wasted that way

[JamesF]

I think your choice has to be tempered by the age of the child, their degree of patience and how much mechanical sympathy they have.

My eight year old son loves using our Startravel 102 and so he doesn't get as irritated by the lack of darkness before bedtime during the summer I've made a solar filter for him. He hasn't yet developed the kind of patience that allows him to spend half an hour finding a DSO by hand though. In fact, even finding the larger planets is a bit borderline at the moment, so generally I have to work with him. I'm quite happy to do that as we can have a scope each and hopefully I get to see things that I'm interested in as well.

I think there's a lot to be said for GOTO mounts where younger children are involved. Older ones may well be able to cope without and take advantage of being able to put more of the budget towards a larger scope, for example.

James

[spaceboy]

This site will help give you an idea of the scopes available and also allows you to pick between several scopes to compare dimensions etc. TELESCOPE SUPPLIERS - SKY-WATCHER TELESCOPE

[lw24]

thanks for that info there

i must admin the 130p looks appealing for its size. my son is only 9 but short for his age and think this would be easier for him to handle. i get that the skyliner 150p will prob give better viewing for him but my main concern is the difficulty he will have using it. is it very tall? looks it from pictures when googling it.

i agree im worried about his attention span lasting only 5 minutes though at same time I quite looking forward to him getting one so I can use it to so hopefully wouldnt be wasted that way

This is what I'd worry about with a child (attention span). Your budget doesn't really offer any room for a GoTo mount, so hmmm.

How about getting some binoculars like these (£83), and mounting them on a tripod, like this (£35), aswell as getting some binoculars like these (£31), for handheld use. Here comes the logic.

Firstly, that all adds up to about £150, so under your budget. The idea behind this, is that either you, or your son could use the smaller hand held binoculars, to 'scout' objects, whilst the other lines up the larger binoculars on the tripod. This could work as you'd both be taking part and exploring the night sky together.

The 20x80 binoculars give you great aperture (80mm), and decent magnification (20x). 80mm aperture and 20x magnification is enough to see the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the Moon in great detail many open clusters, and loads of Deep Sky Objects. The 10x50 binoculars could be used more for some quick peeks around the night sky, and as I said before, for scouting.

Plus, the binoculars shouldn't require any maintenance.

I know that's a bit off track, but I think that could work very well.

Clear Skies

Luke

[Vali x]

marcel, first of all welcome ! i got to congratz you also being a good parent by trying to offer your kid a better hobby, rather than buying him a PS3 or Xbox. you should give example to other parents ! good for you sir !

[great_bear]

Surely it has to be the Skyliner 150P ? <click here>

- it's almost a no-brainer!

Binoculars - even at 20 times - don't let you see surface detail on planets, nor do they let you explore the main features of the moon in detail.

The moon in a good telescope at 150x magnification is an incredible sight!

- and he'll even be able to see the Great Red Spot on Jupiter!

[great_bear]

Forgot to say - when it comes to height - people with big telescopes just use something to stand on (like a milk crate)

[rjsc2001]

Hi all

When i started, i had a 114mm newt on a equatorial mount. The scope was old but the mirror was ok.

I spent many hours looking for something to view and couldn't find it. Now i have a goto kit on a 130mm newt and i've seen in one night more objects than with the 114mm.

My point is, it can be frustrating to look for objects in the sky and don't find them. Believe it when i say that even with the 130mm i look and i almost don't see it. Some are just a little smudge, and i live in a semi-rural area.

I have two advises.

If you can go to a star party and look through the several scopes there, specially the small ones.

Check the prices of the Orion with inteliscope. They might be more that you are willing to pay, but it can find objects with ease.

Ricardo

[great_bear]

Check the prices of the Orion with inteliscope. They might be more that you are willing to pay, but it can find objects with ease.

The problem is that we get ripped-off in the UK for Orion gear.

The 6" Intelliscope is £400 - and it doesn't even "go-to" the object in question - you have to push it by hand. The SkyWatcher 6" dob - which has no "push-to" is under £200 in comparison.

[Doug]

Hi

I must agree with Damo a sky watcher 150p for £197.00 from First Light Optics

I have looked at one of these at a star party and was amazed looking at Jupiter and this scope you would love it too, let us know what you dicide

Clear skies

Doug

Essex UK

[rjsc2001]

The problem is that we get ripped-off in the UK for Orion gear.

The 6" Intelliscope is £400 - and it doesn't even "go-to" the object in question - you have to push it by hand. The SkyWatcher 6" dob - which has no "push-to" is under £200 in comparison.

The inteliscope is a push-to feature. Allmost equal to go-to. Instead of the motors you have your hand, but i think its as easy as a goto.

You can get some books to help find. 'Turn left at orion' is a good one. If you can take a laptop to the observation site, use stelarium.

Ricardo Carvalho

[great_bear]

The inteliscope is a push-to feature. Allmost equal to go-to. Instead of the motors you have your hand, but i think its as easy as a goto.

Sure. I'm just lamenting the fact that it's £258 in the USA and £406 in the UK (!!)

[rjsc2001]

Yeah. It happens in Portugal as well. But not that big a difference.

[George!]

I am young myself but have researched alot and would reccomend the First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian

How old is your son though? - For seeing if he can Colimanate

I myself have the 200p for £80 extra than the 150p

[Madhatter]

Welcome to the forums:)

My vote goes for the 130p heritage-its small enough to store easy, it will be easyer for him to move around..should you ever go on holiday somewhere with nice skys you can easily take it. Here is a video to show the size of it, its a proper peice of kit that many keep even when they buy bigger scopes just for the "grab and go" factor, also it comes with a red dot finder scope and i think that is deffinatly easier too use than a finder scope-a good thing for a child. any spare money could be spent on a shroud (probably needed if you are in a light polluted area) and an extra eye peice or two.

You will need a table to set it up on, a coffee table will probably be fine with a chair for him.

For an extra £60 you could get the 150p what is a more capable scope.. but it dosent have the portability, and the main question is will he be able to move it??? if he cant take it and use it when he wants to he may not get into the hobby.

And if he takes to the hobby when hes abit older mabey a 200p dobsonian.

[marcel1]

Thanks for all replies I'm surprised yet extremely grateful how many people are willing to advise. I must admit to being torn between the two being mentioned. (130p/150p). Part me thinks I should get the best I can for the money but then Madhatter makes great points and it maybe beat to get the post practical smaller option and get a lot of use from it. One question and excuse my lack of knowledge but a shroud to stop light pollution? Where would I get one these? I'm assuming light pollution meaning light from other houses/buildings etc?

[swamp thing]

Hi

Welcome to the forum. A 6" f/8 dob is around 4' long.

That should give you some idea on size.

HTH

Regards Steve