What scope?

[sponduke]

Hello again, I am looking to upgrade my telescope in the next two weeks and have a budget of £300. As i am new to this I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on what would be best for me?

I've not really had that much opportunity to look around with work and family commitments and only had a look in jessops and online with amazon. I have seen a celestron LM114 computerised or the skywatcher explorer 130p. I really am in the dark in regards to what is best. I do intend to research but as I've said work and family limits my time. I would also like to take photos of what I see. Would this even be possible on my budget?

Hope to get some good feedback

[Tinker1947]

Sort out which way you want to go, there's scopes for all types but i'm not sure there's a general purpose type....

[Carbon Brush]

Following on from the good advice given Tinker1947.

Forget Amazon and Jessops.

Start by looking at a 'proper' astro retailer. Not a general retailer.

For a web search and phone advice, try First Light Optics.

For an actual hold/look/feel in the shop, that depends on where you live.

[foundaplanet]

It would be helpful for people to know what scope you currently have.

As of how to answer the question . Realistically you will struggle to do astrophotography with your budget but that does not mean to say that it is impossible to get some images. That comes down to what your own personal expectations are? I have seen some decent shots of the moon taken with i-phone.

Do you already have a camera? If so is it a dslr.

Do you get lots of enjoyment out of seeing things visually? If so is that more important than than having the goto?

With the budget you have the best scope for visual would be this, it will give you hours and hours of pleasure.

The tough part with imaging is that you do really need to get a good eq mount.

The best thing to do is get to a local astro club and have a chat and see some gear.

Hope this helps a bit.

[sponduke]

Ideally I'd like to just have a good quality telescope that I can see good quality images. The one I use is a bottom of the range tasco one 50mm with a barlow x3 lens and a 2.5 mm eye piece (i think) I can se Jupiter but its tiny and can see some moons but no detail of Jupiter its self. I would like to take photos of what i see but its not a major priority at the moment, I don't have any experience of doing it and dont want equipment out of my league.

[sponduke]

Thank you for the advice so far, as I'm sure you can appreciate I am a complete beginner. I do have a camera but model I am not so sure of. I am only on my phone so when i get home on my computer I'll will add all the info of what i have.

[foundaplanet]

Ideally I'd like to just have a good quality telescope that I can see good quality images. The one I use is a bottom of the range tasco one 50mm with a barlow x3 lens and a 2.5 mm eye piece (i think) I can se Jupiter but its tiny and can see some moons but no detail of Jupiter its self. I would like to take photos of what i see but its not a major priority at the moment, I don't have any experience of doing it and dont want equipment out of my league.

Then the 200p would be a fine start. I may be wrong but I believe it to be the most popular of all scopes.

I trust you understand the nature of a dobsonian mount.

[SplintUK]

I would keep going on SGL with sensible posts to get to your 50 and get access to the buy sell section.

If you want to do any photo work, spend the money on the mount northeast scope eq5 is probably the least you should buy for that - with the motors and polarscope. I would budget about £800 plus to buy a very basic photo outfit, plus the camera.

If you don't have that, buy another visual observation scope 2nd hand here, and then you can always sell it on at little or no loss 2nd hand here when you step up.

I did that, and having just upgraded to a 2nd hand heq5 and a new SW explorer 200pds scope, I'll be selling my old SW explorer 130M (not the P version you mentioned) with eq2 mount & single axis clock motor soon on the for sale section.

[sponduke]

I'm sorry I don't know what a dobsonian mount is? I must apologise, I don't normally ask for help unless ive done some ground work myself but on this occasion I feel like im a child again so have no patience! Thanks again for the help. I intend to stick around and that scope you've suggested looks really nice. I'll have a more detailed look when i am home

[foundaplanet]

I'm sorry I don't know what a dobsonian mount is? I must apologise, I don't normally ask for help unless ive done some ground work myself but on this occasion I feel like im a child again so have no patience! Thanks again for the help. I intend to stick around and that scope you've suggested looks really nice. I'll have a more detailed look when i am home

All good then but please do not go on my words alone. Hopefully others will chip in too.

This should help explain a bit about how different mounts work. It will certainly do a better job than me anyway .

[SplintUK]

As a quick guide there are 3 basic types of mount, Equatorial (EQ), Altitude Azimoth (AltAz) and Dobsonian.

AltAz work like camera tripods, with a control for up and down, and another for left and right. As the stars move across the sky you have to move both Alt and Az controls in tandem to keep the thing you are pointing at in view.

EQ mounts also have tripods but they allow for where you are in the world so they use 2 similar axes, Right Atitude (RA) and Declination (Dec). Basically they are like an AltAz that has been set an angle so that as the stars move across the sky you only need to move the RA axis to keep the star in shot. They often have motors on at least he RA axis which go at the same speed as the earth rotates, so you can find a star (or whatever) and it will automatically keep it in view. The downside is for the EQ mount to work, you need to polar align every time you set up the mount to use it. That can seem daunting as a beginner, but it gets a lot easier with practice. If you want to do Astophotography, you really need an EQ mount, as with the long exposures you need to use, the stars will be moving and become streaks rather than points.

Dobsonian (dob) mounts don't have any tripod, they are effectively floor (or in some cases table) mounts which act like Alt Az mounts. They are easy to use (I've never tried one myself, but thats what I hear) and allow for you to buy a scope with a lot of aperture for not a lot of money. I think I'm right in saying that Dobs tend to be 99.99% for visual use rather than photography. You do get a lot of bang for your buck though.

For example a Skywatcher 200p on a manual EQ5 mount is £396 wheras the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian (identical scope in Dob mount rather than EQ mount) is only £271 (FLO prices). The Dob should be easier to pick up and go, whereas the EQ5 mount is upgradable with motors, polarscopes, goto systems etc. The optics and the optical tubes are identical (apart from one gets painted white, the other black).

I'm afraid you get to choose your own poison. I woud still say look 2nd hand, then you can look to upgrade once you know more about what you want.

I went the EQ route, but it was a pain at first to learn how to set it all up. I am now glad I went through that learning pain, as I know more about the subject and how to do it, it's no longer scary. A bit like Collimation. Whatever you buy, leave money aside for collimation tools. I ended up with a laser (£30+) and a cheshire (£20), and use both to collimate my scopes. Again it sounds intimidating until you have done it a few times, and then it gets simple. There are lots of guides on the web (check out Astro_baby's site for some good guides).

if you shell out for a new scope, I can almost guarantee the mirrors will be completely out of collimation when it arrives, I know mine were, so without the tools to collimate, I would have had a really pretty big Black paperweight that was no good at looking at the stars...

My key advice is read a lot online, read a lot more online, and buy 2nd hand to start with. until then a pair of 10*50 binoculars have a lot to offer... you can see Jupiter's 4 big moons, the pleiades, Andromeda Galaxy, and Orion is coming to a sensible time of night pretty soon, all of which look great in bins.

[SplintUK]

All good then but please do not go on my words alone. Hopefully others will chip in too.

This should help explain a bit about how different mounts work. It will certainly do a better job than me anyway .

I wish I'd have known that link before I started typing off ;-)

[foundaplanet]

I wish I'd have known that link before I started typing off ;-)

A good job done though.

[rwilkey]

SplintUK, well done, a very good explanation

[sponduke]

Hi guys, ok I said i'd post my current kit so here goes....

Tasco 60mm refractor

12.5 mm eyepiece and 4mm eyepiece

1.5 x erecting eyepiece

3 x barlow lens

I've been looking at jupiter since it's appeared in the sky tonight and i'm fiddling with all the eyepieces but can't seem to better the quality I had with just the 12.5 mm and the standard diagonal connection (I can see jupiter and 3 moons) they appear very small and no detail of jupiters colours at all. It looks like a bright circle with three pin size moons.

With what I have does anyone have a rough idea what I could possibly see or a configuration of my kit that would enhance my viewing?

I know this may sound silly but I use an app called planetaria X pro to find things. It tells me when planets are above the horizon and the general direction to look for them and the same for constelations, stars and messier.

Any help would be appreciated on this and I'm hooked big time and have a week before I have saved enough to upgrade my kit.

[Luke]

If I had £300 to buy a first scope I'd probably go for a Skywatcher 200P Dobsonian.

For me it's one of the best value scopes out there.

A great review here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/member-equipment-reviews/132996-skywatcher-skyliner-200p-8-dob.html

[Chas1203]

I was in the same position as you and based on the advice given on here I opted for the Skywatcher 200p from first light optics.

Can;t comment on the scope yet as I haven't been out but based on the advice given here and the service by First light I would say it is a very good buy.

[perrin6]

8 inch dobsonians are the bees knees - an excellent first serious telescope. It will get you into serious moon & planetary observation, give great views of star clusters, the brighter nebulae and many galaxies ( dont expect to see any as spiral-shaped, it takes rather larger aperture to show galaxies as anything more than amorphous blobs - quite pretty blobs even so). Oh and hundreds of double stars and coloured stars.

[brantuk]

FLO are just down in Exeter and they would be my first port of call for advice and possibly arrange to visit and see some scopes in the flesh. After the tasco you'll be surprised how big a 200P dob is.

The 200P dob is a fine scope and excellent size for beginner but being alt/az it's prone to star trailing during photography - at best you'll only be able to snap planets to any degree of satisfaction.

An alternative you would do well to consider is the 150P on an equatorial mount. Brand new they come mostly with EQ3-2 but I would look at the EQ5 or CG5. These mounts can be upgraded with an RA (and/or Dec) tracking motor, or full goto when budget allows making elementary photography a much more realistic prospect.

Hope that helps

[rwilkey]

Hi Sponduke, you will not see anything with the 4mm, probably too high a mag and probably an SR4, not very good quality I am afraid. The best thing is to upgrade as has been posted, the 200P Dob would be a great scope and will certainly give you the orange equatorial bands on Jupiter, and a lot of detail in other objects too. Star clusters will be amazing, there is so much waiting out there for you!

[Orion_the_Hunter]

The 200p Dobsonian is an excellent 'scope for visual astronomy.

My best advice would be to forget astrophotography. It's a steep learning curve and an expensive one.

Just learn your way around the Sky, enjoy visual astro and you'll be able to take some pics of the Moon and some Planets.

As you become more experienced you'll understand more about what astrophotography entails.

[rwilkey]

I would suggest you get a copy of 'Every Photon Counts' by Steve Richards, if you are thinking about astro-photography here: First Light Optics - Books

[Telrad]

I would suggest you get a copy of 'Every Photon Counts' by Steve Richards, if you are thinking about astro-photography here: First Light Optics - Books

I recommend this highly too. It begins with a chapter on equipment that acts as a guide to telescopes and mounts, as well as CCD technology, and whilst relatively brief, it does give some good practical advice on selection and set-up of equipment. This chapter alone could almost warrant an entire book, but as equipment changes so rapidly, it would be out of date very quickly! From thereon the rest of the book is split into chapters describing the six ‘F’s of astro imaging – Find, Focus, Frame, Follow, Film and Finish..