Buying advice please

[cus2000]

Hi everyone,

I lost interest in Astronomy when i discovered girls and booze many years ago. Now i have 2 young girls that are showing an interest in astronomy. This is a good opportunity for me to get back into it and share it with the kids.

Because its been so long i have no idea what to buy.

if i list what i want to achieve can i get some ideas on scopes please.

Budget £800 ish or less

goto

be able to take away in caravan or car

possibly attach a DSLR (but not essential)

good enough to see planets and nebulae to keep the kids interested.

cheers

Marcus

[SplintUK]

The skywatcher 200 dob seems to be most people's thought of what is a great place to start- the uks best selling scope. And you can always put it on an eq mount later if you want to do photography or go goto. Get in quick before all the retailers are caned with demand due to stargazing live on BBC next week.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html £270

You'll need a Cheshire collimator and / or a laser collimator to get it sorted for use too. About £30 each

You also need to think about eyepieces. I recommend the revelation starter kit as a good starting place. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/eyepiece-sets/revelation-photo-visual-eyepiece-kit.html £125

[Craig20264]

Hello and welcome, someone better qualified than myself will be along shortly to help you spend your £800.

Good luck

[Chris]

So many options with 800 pounds to play with. Dobs are good for just swinging around the sky, learning the sky by star hopping, I once almost completed a build on a 10" Dob but I ended up selling the mirror set before it was 100% complete as I had to move into a flat, they take up a lot of space! I recken a 200p will be a little more manageable than a 10" and the optics come highly recommended, good for both planets and enough light grasp for deep sky. I'm not quite sure how tall the eyepiece is off the ground at high Declination you might have to get a small step ladder for the kiddies to look through it. Also classic Dobs rely on the user to track the object which can be a little bit of a problem at high mag when you get the object you've spent a while finding and then you get the people with you to have a look and they say its gone , if you don't like the sound of this go for a EQ mount with a RA motor drive to track the Earths rotation or a Goto scope, but if you want very good optics and a very simple mount design for next to no money then a Dobs a gooden

As for goto, you could stick a 8" Newtonian on an EQ5 pro mount for about 730 pounds, or get one of those more portable alt/az single arm goto scopes like the Celestron SE series of which you would get the 6" SCT version for less than 800, or I've heard good things about Skywatchers AZ gotos very good for the money, you'd get a 5" Maksutov version for not much more than 300 pounds ans they are very good for planets and require no collumnation. If you got a scope on an EQ pro mount it would future proof you a bit if you eventually get into imaging. There is so much choice but thats part of the fun My gut feeling is that you should definately check out the Skymax 127 goto scope, or Celestron SLT or SE series.

Enjoy researching and buying your scope:)

Chris

[kenmyers]

Skywatcher scopes get the best reviews, the optics are very good. saving for one of these myself:skywatcher heritage flex tube dobsonian collectors edition scope...Ideal for the girls and only £140. This is a 5" dobsonian that will show you everything, and its extremely cheap but well made.

you should definately get one of these too:

skywatcher 150p 6" mirror dobsonian

or the

skywatcher 200p 8" mirror dobsonian.

three of the best scopes money can buy and with your budget you still have money left if you get all three.

[todd8137]

hi and welcome from me ,the goto is a lot of cash not well spent ,it will not point straight to the things ,the set up needs knowledge of the brighter stars and some targets will need to be found gotos are ok but money is better spent on mirrors and optics and eps

[Catweazel]

In my endless quest for the right first scope, I have tried to avoid GOTO's, but if it is a necessity, I have looked once or twice at the 127 MAK, which is also portable etc, and seems a popular scope. My budget is about half of yours, so I can't comment on the more expensive scopes, but if you want portability and something that will be easy to set up, use, keep the kids engaged and assess their longer term commitment, a smaller refractor might be a good scope to start with! Something like this:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/skywatcher-evostar-90-eq3-2.html

or this (slightly bigger)

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/skywatcher-evostar-102-eq3-2.html

That way, if you all really love it, you can buy a 200p Dob later on for the back garden, and still have the refractor for trips away in the car. You could do all of this within £800 budget!

I would think that the refractors would be 'ok' for imaging as well.

[Chris]

I see you've got a Meade Goto Tod, I used Meade Goto's during my Astronomy degree a while ago now and also didn't get on with them too well either, I don't know if they have improved much since then? However, I have heard good things about the Celestron handset at least, I think like absolutely everything in Astronomy they just take a little bit of practice

[Zul]

I would go for

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 150P EQ3-2 / EQ3 PRO GOTO

[SplintUK]

I have heard good things about the Celestron handset at least, I think like absolutely everything in Astronomy they just take a little bit of practice

If you want a good handset can I recommend a skywatcher mount with a mobile handset that supports skysafari then use a skywire or Skyfi to connect them. You can then use skysafari pro on iPod / iPhone /iPad / android to drive the goto which is rather fabulous. It works with other mounts but I've only used it on my SW HEQ5 pro. It really does put a great user interface in front of the mount.

[cus2000]

Thanks everyone,

Don't know if it was a good move or not, but I've bought a Meade etx125pe goto second hand. It has 6 eyepieces and a Barlow, loads of literature and carry cases for the scope and tripod, for £400. Set it up in the garden and it alligned first time. Slewed to Jupiter and bingo. My 7 year old was amazed and asked why it had lines around it. Couldn't have asked for more.

[rory]

sounds like a good investment. if you use it ,then its worth it. happy gazing.

[Tinker1947]

Hope you and the kids enjoy your new scope, seems one of the has asked the right question..