Best telescope for £350

[IoHady]

For christmas I could be getting a new telescope which is better than my current one. Could do with some suggestions, my budget is around £350. Even just a website that might help would be good.

Thanks

Hady

[acey]

What's your current one?

Skywatcher 200p dob would comfortably fit the budget.

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian

[pvaz]

The definition of "best scope" depends on what you plan to use it for. You won't find a design thats best then all the others on all possible areas.

For visual, a 200p or 250p will be the best all rounder.

[IoHady]

Acey: My current scope is the Celestron 76mm FirstScope. And I can see that dob being similar, correct me if I'm wrong

Pvaz: I mainly intend to use my scope for looking at planets, although me and my mum are interested in the moon too, so planets and the moon are the points i'm looking for.

Thanks again.

[ronin]

First Light Optics - Suppliers of Astronomy telescopes, binoculars and accessories from Skywatcher, Celestron, Meade, William Optics, Atik, Imaging Source, Starlight Xpress, ADM, Moonlite, Catseye, Hotech and others.

Telescopes and Binoculars from Green Witch of Cambridge, the Astronomy Specialists

Binoculars, Telescopes, Night Vision, Astronomical Telescopes, Bird Watching Binoculars - Sherwoods-Photo.com

Rother Valley Optics: Optical suppliers of telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes and accessories.

Altair Astro

Telescopes UK: Telescopes & Telescope Accessories in your only London shop

Lyra Optic - Home

Harrison Telescopes - Astronomy Telescopes and Binoculars for Stargazing

Welcome to Telescope-Service

By web site I assume you means retailers web sites.

The above are spread out through England.

Last one in the Germany but seem good.

[pvaz]

Then this one:

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skymax 127 SynScan AZ GOTO

Maksutov scopes excel on planets and you get a mount with full goto system and tracking for confortable observing. It will also be a huge improvement on your scope when observing DSOs, though a dobsonian for the same price would show a lot more.

[pvaz]

Acey: My current scope is the Celestron 76mm FirstScope. And I can see that dob being similar, correct me if I'm wrong

Aperture determines how much you see. A 200mm dob will gather almost 7x more light, while a 250mm will be about 11x.

[IoHady]

I found these:

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Startravel 120 (EQ3-2)

First Light Optics - Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT

I would quite like to buy a refractor because I've heard a lot about reflectors being hard to maintain, not sure if reflectors are better though :S. Thanks for those links, I will continue looking

So what do think of those scopes for planets?

[damnut]

Hi IoHady,

The star travel 120 is a great easy to use scope but you will get some false colour. I echo comments from pvaz above about the Maksutov 127 (Skymax127). Though it is altered reflector there is need to adjust any part of the optics as the secondary mirror is 'silvered' on the rear of the front corrector lens.

The Mak is ideal for planets as it is small but has a long focal length due to the folded optical path.

I would not buy before having a look at both and see which you prefer.

Good Luck

Ps stockport has a good astro shop! Where you will be able to get your hands on both!

[IoHady]

Alright, thanks Damnut. Will look at the Mak then

I'll get back to you when I've looked around, and thanks for telling me about that shop. I'm right near Stockport and didn't know it was there

[andrew63]

Those two choices would not be ideal for moon and planets, something like these would be better one is motorised with goto to help find things and one is on a mount which you have to move around yourself. The refractor is a different scope design to the others however - for one not nearly as compact.

First Light Optics - Celestron Omni XLT 102

First Light Optics - Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT

First Light Optics - Celestron NexStar 4SE

The Mak type may be your best bet.

Hope you get some useful advice and at least you have a bit of time before Christmas to decide!

andrew

[M4lcs67]

For my two cents worth, I have the Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT

First Light Optics - Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT

Great scope and 5" of apeture. Goto, portable, compact and easy to set-up. FLO have also recently reduced the price as well, so it is bang on your budget. Very easy to maintain. An all-round great piece of kit in my opinion.

[pvaz]

With Newtonian reflectors you have to collimate and you get 4 refraction spikes on bright objects, caused by the secondary mirror spider vanes.

With Maksutov or SCTs composite reflectors it's easier and they rarelly require collimation but the design means longer cool down times.

With refractors you can avoid this small hassles for a lot more money. The cheap ones display halos around bright objects (color aberration) the good ED or APO ones will cost over 5 times as much as a newtonian with the same aperture. The cost per inch means you'll see less for the same amount.

It's really a case where you have to pick your poison.

[M4lcs67]

Yeah there is the Stockport Binocular and Telescope Centre.

Telescopes and Binoculars from one of the UK'S premier specialists

[IoHady]

The NexStar 127 SLT does look like a very good scope. I'm really looking towards that one now. But just wondering Malcspring, how much detail do you get on Jupiter or Saturn etc.?

[damnut]

Hi IoHady,

I used to have a 102mm Mak in my kit and with that the four moons and banding are visible, Saturn looked great too, so your 127 will be better as it gathers more light. Stockport bino & telescope centre will have em all for you!. If you can keep some pennies for a couple of eyepieces BST explorer are excellent for the dosh c£35.(barter your socks off with them!:-))

Kitbag here is ST 120 frac, 127mm F9 frac, 254mm sct.

Cheers

[IoHady]

Alright, thanks for that damnut. Pretty sure I'll be getting the 127 now. Thanks everybody for your help

[M4lcs67]

Hi IoHady.

A wise choice. I have only been doing astronomy for a short time and my first view of Jupiter was a little bit of a disapointment as it was so small, but I had no pre-concieved ideas as to how it should look out of a scope of my size. I was put straight though by the peeps on SGL. If you are expecting to see big very detailled objects like the ones on the tv and magazines then prepare to be as dissapointed as I was. However once you have realised that you can still see great things including the moons of Jupiter as well then you will be totally blown away.

With Jupiter appearing as small as it is you will need time at the eyepiece in order to tease the detail out of it.

As far as Saturn is concerned I haven't seen it with this scope yet. It will be good for viewing in a few more weeks time.

I did however look at it through a friends 40 year old reflector earlier this year. It was fuzzy, but it was unmistakably Saturn. My brother and I were in my back garden leaping around going nuts with excitement when we saw it for the first time

[Orion_the_Hunter]

Alright, thanks for that damnut. Pretty sure I'll be getting the 127 now. Thanks everybody for your help

Hi, yea the Skymax 127 or the Celestron 127SLT are a great choice for Planets and Moon.

The two 'scopes are pretty much the same but I'm led to believe the mount and electronics are a bit better on the Celestron.

Whatever you choose I wish you many nights of enjoyment.

[IoHady]

Thanks a lot, and you too

[kharga]

If you go to http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm you can put in the scope make and model and eyepiece and it will give you a rough idea of what things will look like!

[IoHady]

Wow! I looked at some planets and that's awesome!! Thanks for that

[fbassett]

Hi Hady

I went for the Celestron Nexstar 90 SLT and I am really pleased with it, but the thing I notice most when looking at planets is how much wobble there is. From what I have read on the forums this is down to the mount, so you may want to take this into consideration, any way my tuppence worth. Hope you have great fun choosing your scope and clear skies using it.

Tony

[rory]

If you go to http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm you can put in the scope make and model and eyepiece and it will give you a rough idea of what things will look like!

ive got to say, when ive tried this site i found it quite poor in true comparisons. if someone bought a telescope on the view of a galaxy on there,they will be very dissapointed i recon. sure someone who used a scope for any length of time would realise that you'd need to take most of the views with a pinch of salty optimism. but a beginer should be warned before hand.

[brantuk]

With 12dstring you need to remember that you won't see colour in dso's - make sure you choose the telescope view (not the camera view) and be prepared for everything to be shades of grey and black/white.