Which scopes did you buy the very first time?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The first one I built was a 6" F/8 Newtonian. The first one I bought was the GP-C8 I still have.

[RobH]

My first scope was a homemade job using cardboard tubes and a couple of lenses my Dad got for me.....saw Saturns rings with it though...what a thrill for a 10 year old kid

My first commercially made scope was a secondhand Charles Frank 6 inch newtonian.

My first scope with tracking was something of a jump from this...a 14 inch Meade LX200GPS....got that in 2006......then I took a bite from the apple and stuck a camera on the end

Rob

[foundaplanet]

A 4" Charles Frank which is still somewhere in the shed.

[MarkSix]

My first is my current telescope, bought it at the beginning of this year. Before that i was on binoculars.

[Damo636]

My first was a Celestron Powerseeker 127eq from Argos. It cost £175 at the time and imo was £174 over priced. Kept it 3 weeks, sold it for £90 on fleabay and then thank the gods i found this forum

[RIR]

A Tasco 60mm refractor

Ian.

[david_simons40]

After a life long fascination, the occaisional use of a pair of binos, and buying one of my kids a celestron firstscope (which was a disappointment) I took the plunge and decided to buy the best that I could afford. A Celestron Edge HD 1100 on a CGEM DX mount. So glad I did but I'm suffering the new scope curse and in nearly 3 weeks I've been able to use it on one night with far less than perfect seeing conditions. lol

[Carl M]

Skywatcher 200P dob, luckily found this forum before I wasted the money!

[Cjg]

The ultimate "grab and go" scope - combining a 5 inch mirror, reasonable magnification and the minimum set up time - a Skywatcher 130P Heritage collapsible mini dob.

Passed it on to a good home.

Chris

[Nitrogen]

I bought a 90mm Mak-cass from Orion initially. After my interest in the hobby was solidified (about a month later), I upgraded to a 10" dob. I expect the extreme portability of the 90mm will mean I'll still use it occasionally.

[heathenwoods]

The first I bought was a Celestron Firstscope 76x300 for my son. It has kept him amused since October.

I bought myself a Tal-1 two weeks ago. Love it

[Stargazer51N]

My first was a 'toy' refractor when I was a child that was only any good for looking at the moon. A few years ago my brother and I went halves on a Bresser Messier N150 refractor which I should really class as my first proper scope.

[KatieM]

My first scope was a Konus Digimax 90. It was a great little scope and I learnt a lot about astronomy with it. I passed it onto my eldest son when I upgraded and now he loves it as much as i did.

[Meerkat]

My first scope about 20 years ago was a Celestron C8 Computerised. It wasn't a goto scope but had readouts for alt-az so you could manually slew the scope to where you wanted. Very stable and also had a wedge. Had to sell it to fund a car, still miss it.

Looked something like this.

Steve

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

My first scope about 20 years ago was a Celestron C8 Computerised. It wasn't a goto scope but had readouts for alt-az so you could manually slew the scope to where you wanted. Very stable and also had a wedge. Had to sell it to fund a car, still miss it.

Looked something like this.

Steve

I thought about one like that when I got my GP-C8, but went for the German mount, because I wanted to do some imaging. Lovely scopes, these 8" SCTs.

[toxic]

my first scope was and is s/w 127 mak supatrack and last year got a s/w 200 pds and a celestron cg5 gt and love em both

[Meerkat]

I thought about one like that when I got my GP-C8, but went for the German mount, because I wanted to do some imaging. Lovely scopes, these 8" SCTs.

I think with the wedge you can still do imaging?

Steve

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I think with the wedge you can still do imaging?

Steve

Sorry, hit submit before doing the edit I should have done (duh )

I chose the GP mount because polar alignment with the built in polar scope was so much quicker than with the fork mounts I had seen. Just using the polar scope I could get between 5 and 15min of unguided tracking with the GP mount. The fork mount I was told needed very careful drift aligning. I may have been told wrong of course.

[Meerkat]

Sorry, hit submit before doing the edit I should have done (duh )

I chose the GP mount because polar alignment with the built in polar scope was so much quicker than with the fork mounts I had seen. Just using the polar scope I could get between 5 and 15min of unguided tracking with the GP mount. The fork mount I was told needed very careful drift aligning. I may have been told wrong of course.

Going a bit off topic here but I think the proper GP mount will always beat the alt-az plus wedge for accuracy.

(Still miss it though).

Steve

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Going a bit off topic here but I think the proper GP mount will always beat the alt-az plus wedge for accuracy.

(Still miss it though).

Steve

I bet. Much like I miss my first alt-az Newtonian (home brew).

[Nexus 6]

Celestron Nexstar 6se, great scope for a beginner

[NickK]

Vixen A80Mf.. on a Porta mount.

It doesn't get too much attention now though :/

[tich]

My first scope I have just brought recently a Skywatcher 200P EQ5 Synscan. I'm still trying to get my head round setting it up properly but I have already had some fantastic views with it.

[Alma]

Meade ETX 90EC. Dreadful mount which never worked properly, focal length far too long to be used without GOTO which you couldn't use because of the aforesaid crappy mount. OTA optically sound if you demounted it and used it as a daytime spotter. Expensive waste of money.

Thank goodness I persisted and went for my second scope - an Intes Micro MN56 mounted on a good old fashioned undriven EQ4... that one really got me going in the hobby!

[luna 2011]

a budget tasco refractor given as an xmas prezzie in my teens,it was better than the second tasco luminova i recived later.have a celestron now