Looking to buy a telescope, help/advice please.

[AdzNWMT]

I figured the best place to ask for advice is on an astronomy forum, so chose the first forum on google (becuase I'm lazy like that).

So, here goes:

I have a basic knowledge of the sky but have never thought about a telescope until recently.I've done a little bit of research and it looks like a Newtonian reflector is probably my best option but I don't have an idea of where to look and if there are better/cheaper places around.

I'm willing to spend £150-250(preferably less, possibly more, if justified). I want to be able to view all the planets and to view the stars, but also if possible to do some deep space viewing (if that's the right term) of things like nebulars. I would almost certainly end up getting into astrophotography once used to the telescope, so relevant attachments are a must.

I'm in Burnley, Lancashire so I'm very close to the Pennines and would probably look to use the peak of Pendle Hill to use the telescope, so I would have an excellent place to view from. I just don't know how to get started or what to buy.

I don't really want to buy a "beginnners" scope because that would mean another expensive purchase in a few years. So what scopes do people recommend, how much should I be looking to spend and where is/are the best places to buy from? Is it worth looking to buy a secondhand scope?

I know there are alot of impulse buys for telescopes so there are bargains to be found in the secondhand market, but I don't know where to look.

Thanks for any help

[ManInTheMoon]

I had this terrible descision too lol, everywhere I looked the prices kept rising lol.

I wanted to do a lot, and also wanted to buy equipment with a long useful life with my goals.

I ended up buying a beginners refractor, putting a little more into the mount (EQ5 over an EQ3-2 for example, I also planned what I could use my refractor for later and I settled on lunar and solar, then when I wanted planets and deep space stuff I would go for a more pricey refractor later.

I saw these nice cheap scopes, but I always forgot that I had to get a mount, that basically adds much more, so I had to make my goals more achievable with my budget.

Astronomy isn't cheap

I have this sneaky feeling I will end up spending the price of a small car or two as I progress lol. mount Motors, eyepieces, filters, more scopes, lol

[Polar Bear]

The forum is a great place for advice and help and there is lots of information here along with equipment reviews.

One way is to decide what you would like to observe to get yourself 'acquainted' with the night sky as not all scopes will cover all bases.

Keep the questions coming as there are plenty here with lots of experience.

Another way is to call over to The Astronomy Centre which is not far from you.

Here you will get advice and be able to see different scopes.

Welcome to the forum....

[faulksy]

have a look at sgl sponsor top of the page first light optics. adding to what you said a reflector would be good or a dobsonian. for astro phptography your out of luck on that price range a decent mount (tripod)will cost around £500 upwards. its not like astronomy is dear its the same old story you get what you pay for.start of small i.e.cheaper end of the scale and get a feel for the sky then upgrade when you no you have chosen the right hobby

[ManInTheMoon]

I found FLO the cheapest, Harrisson telescopes don't deliver off mainland, greenwich are more expensive than FLO and I don't know if they deliver outside the mainland either, so if you are in the channel islands or isle of man etc then FLO probably is the better choice. It is about 26 GBP delivery from FLO if offshore for scopes (they use Fedex - next working day). Small items are usually free.

[Darkhorse]

I too recently started down this money pit of a hobby, like many other new guys here I found the more you come to know from the forum the more you realise how much you still have to learn. But on the upside, your in the right place to find all this out. Good luck with your final choice of telescope, take your time and choose the one that strikes the best balance between your expectations and your wallet.

[AdzNWMT]

Right so my best bet would be to wait a while and go for a £500'ish telescope? I'm not really in any sort of rush but it's something I've seriously considered recently. I've got a spare £1000 in the bank but obviously I don't want to go blowing all of it at once on a telescope.

Astrophotography would definitely be something I'd progress towards.

I had my eye on a few of the Celestron scopes but needed to get some sort of information before impulse buying.

I have expensive enough hobbies as it is lol. I'm a semi pro Muay Thai fighter and I also train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts so there is a big chunk goes on my training.

Some of the Blu Ray's I've bought recently like "Wonders of the Universe/Solar System" and the History channels "Universe" have got me really interested and it's only a matter of time before I buy something. I think a car needs to be first on the agenda and then the telescope should be something I should get afterwards. With Pendle Hill only being a 10-15 min drive away and a 40min'ish walk to the peak I'd have a great place to start that is far away enough from the towns of Burnley, Blackburn and Clitheroe to have very little un-natural light and it is high enough to be above a majority of the cloud cover that the Pennines always have lingering.

Polar Bear thanks for that link, I didn't even know about that place and I used to regularly work in the Todmorden and Bacup areas.

[Sharper]

If I wanted to spend around £150-250 and get a telescope capable of good views I would go for a dobsonian. A brand new 6" Skyliner 150 is £197 or you could get its big brother the 8" Skyliner 200P Dobsonian for £279. If you buy secondhand you could probably get something even bigger like this 12" SKYLINER-300P on eBay. Like others have said, you really need to see different telescopes first hand and see for yourself how big they are and how easy or hard they are to set-up and use.

[Capricorn]

AdzNWMT, make a choice for the budget you have given. Either consider visual only or save a lot more for astrophotography.

A mount alone for astrophotography is more then your budget.

Even if you wanted to get semi serious on photography you would need more then your budget for a lens. A reasonable Sigma lens for a DSLR say a 300mm f/4 is more. For AP ypou are looking at a 480mm FL, 80mm f/6.

Add in a good mount, motors DSLR, assorted attachments, laptop and you start to get an idea.

On the assumption that you will have to start with visual then eventually upgrade (everything) for AP. Consider a 130mm reflector, better still a 150P reflector.

If you get the 150PL then although f/7 or f/8 they are good for visual and will allow you to see the vast majority of objects. Being f/7 or so they are more tolerant of collimation, so less effort to maintain. They are also usable for basic astrophotography. However for AP you will need a heavier mount then the normal EQ3-2 that they tend to come with. If not immediatly at some future time.

[Veracocha]

This question is not limited to newcomers. I was at a star party over the weekend and I got to look through a few 14" & 16" dobs. My couple of grands worth of equipment is basically rendered inadequate now I now what is possible with a good sky and a big light bucket.

[AdzNWMT]

My budget is definitely going to increase after the advice given so far, but what sort of set up and how much are you talking for a decent astrophotography scope and/or good viewing scope?

I came onto here for advice because obviously you guys will know a hell of a lot more than I do. I just had a rough idea of a budget in mind but now I see that it wouldn't really be adequate for what I want or what I will want.

EDIT- Didn't mean to send.

I really don't want to buy a "beginners" scope despite being a beginner to astronomy, so I know that I'd need to spend more. I'm prepared to spend provided I know that I will be getting a quality product that will be good for what I want.

If I have an idea of what product/products I should be looking at buying, whether that is buying the main scope and then buying other bits afterwards or buying everything in one go, then I'll have an idea of how much more I'll need to save.

[John]

My advice would be to spend just a few £'s and then some time on the book "Every Photon Counts" by Steve Richards who is an SGL member as it happens:

Beginners guide to astro-photography

I'm not an imager myself but even my limited understanding of the topic leads me to believe you need to do lots of thinking, research, questioning and saving to get into that side of the hobby.

[AdzNWMT]

Cheers dude, ordering that now and I'll probably pick up a few other things before even thinking about buying.

I'm probably going to be buying something in a few months time and any research will probably make me want to buy quicker lol.

[Ags]

Maybe get the book and a good pair of binoculars?

[AdzNWMT]

I've just ordered a couple of other books too. It's probably the best way to start while I save and get a better idea of what I want.

So I've just ordered:

Every Photon Counts

Patrick Moore's Astronomy: Teach Yourself

Philip's Guide to the Nightsky

Philip's Guide to Stars and Planets

Dinah L. Moché's - Astronomy: A self teaching guide.

I definitely will be buying something within the next 6 months, I just don't know what yet. I'd definitely like to get into Astrophotography though because I'd like to document any observations and would like to place my own pictures with that too. The astrophotography would definitely be an afterthought once I had got used to the telescope and used to being able to read the sky, but it would definitely be something I would be looking towards doing. I know that it would be more cost effective buying a good telescope and mount capable of Astrophotography now rather than buying a cheaper telescope now and having to buy a better one later. So I'm definitely open to spending more money, I'd just need an idea of what I would need to buy and how much I'd need to be spending, but for now I'll just continue with more research.

[studio1one]

From a personal perspective, and that's all there is I guess at the end of the day, I would buy an 8" dob. This will give you a good idea if the whole thing is for you or not and if you enjoy your visual obvserving you can take it off the dob mount and mount it on an EQ later. This will give you an option to start making the move towards photography. You will have an 8" f5 reflector, which will take good pics if you want to go that way and when upgrading the only redundant bit will be the dob mount itself, which has cost you very very little.

[AdzNWMT]

Maybe get the book and a good pair of binoculars?

What should I be looking at spending for a decent pair of binoculars and what sort of lenses would I need?

[Ags]

10x50s are a common size. If I'm not mistaken FLO check the collimation of bins before shipping - you'd best confirm that with them. Most people advise to avoid zoom bins.

You can also pick up a pair of Celestron 15x70s for 75 pounds, but these can be quite hefty and hard to hold steady.

[AdzNWMT]

Cheers dude, just looking through on FLO at the second at the Dob scopes.

I'll check the binoculars out now.

[AdzNWMT]

Just found some Celestron- Skymaster 25 x 70's at £75 - RRP £110.

Worth a purchase?

I take it 25 x 70 are better than 10 x 50?

[John]

Just found some Celestron- Skymaster 25 x 70's at £75 - RRP £110.

Worth a purchase?

I take it 25 x 70 are better than 10 x 50?

15x70's would be better - you can at least handhold them for very short periods whereas the 25x70's will need a sturdy and tall tripod at all times. Even the 15x70's would benefit from a similar tripod to give of their best though.

10x50's can be hand held pretty much all of the time I find.

[AdzNWMT]

Cheers, I'll look into some 10x50's instead then.

If I was looking towards a Dob with future ability to take pictures, how would the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P be on a decent tripod? > LINK to FLO <. Or would even the 250px be any good?

Ideally I would want to use the telescope mainly for viewing but also would like to be able to take pictures of what I see and keep some sort of blog.

[John]

Dobs are not really the way to go for imaging. It's really difficult to find a scope which is good for both imaging and visual to be honest. Sketching is a good way to record what you see visually - imaging really can't reproduce the subtleness of the visual view - it's an entirely different process to the way our eyes perceive the light. Sketching also makes you observe the object rather than just look at it, if you see what I mean.

[earth titan]

Errrrr.... Don't want to offend anyone here, but why do we tell everyone astrophotography is v expensive? Sure if you want to get some of the photos you see in the fabulous imaging sections but I'm having great fun and reasonable result with a £200 quid scope, £175 mount and a £200 digital camera. These were all bought second hand and in the case of the mount, needed a little bit of repair, but it's keeping me happy.

As someone said to me a few years ago, the most expensive telescope you will buy, is your first one....

[ManInTheMoon]

Errrrr.... Don't want to offend anyone here, but why do we tell everyone astrophotography is v expensive? Sure if you want to get some of the photos you see in the fabulous imaging sections but I'm having great fun and reasonable result with a £200 quid scope, £175 mount and a £200 digital camera. These were all bought second hand and in the case of the mount, needed a little bit of repair, but it's keeping me happy.

As someone said to me a few years ago, the most expensive telescope you will buy, is your first one....

You could always use a cheap webcam, most are high resolution nowdays and dirt cheap.

I even have old webcams laying about here that are high res. Drivers on the other hand for later OS's maybe a different matter.

Telescopes are cheap really, it's the mounts and accessories that add the price lol , unless you are into the highest quality optics or solar.