advise for first time buyers

[Scott]

i've been thinking of getting a scope for a while now but only just decided to take the plunge. while seaching the net i found one that sounded pretty good. while wife was transferring money i decided to look at reviews and stumbled upon SLG where i quickley learnt that a) it was basically rubbish and it wasn't what i wanted anyway.Thankyou everone here for the sound advice. I'm almost there (choosing a scope) but i'm just going to an open night at keele to ask a few owners for a looksy and i'll be ready to go.

My advice,,,, take your time, spend many hrs reading these threads and ask loads of questions. nobody minds (i don't think) and it really helps. good luck and hope it helps someone not to make the mistake i nearly did.

[deltatango]

So what scopes have you narrowed it down too

Terry

[paul schofield]

Sounds like a plan, nothing worse than rushing in buying a scope that does not suit you and spending loads of money on it. The more research done the happier you will be in the long run. Good luck when you settle on a Telescope. Let us know what you settle on.

[BEYOND EARTH]

I started out with a Celestron AstroMaster 114 EQ Reflector Telescope. This scope gave me countless hours of great viewing. Great for looking at the moon, planets, and some deep sky objects. I did away with the red dot finder and bought a laser pointer and mounting bracket, this made locating objects of interest much faster and easier. In my humble opinion this is a great scope to get your foot in the door.

[Tribal-Wolf]

Similar to me then, I was sure the Astromaster 130EQ was the all the scope I'd ever need but than I read a bit more and thought the Skywatcher 130P would be a better bet. After a little more reading I thought the 150P Dob was the one. Next day.....I decide to go for the 200P Dob, now I am wondering if I will need a better mount so I'm thinking about the Explorer 200P. My head's in bits so I may just make one from a toilet roll tube and a pair of old glasses instead.

[Scott]

narrowed it down to Skywatcher Explorer 130P SynScan AZ GOTO or Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian. leaning heavily towards to dob though. i like the idea of goto but i want to get as close as i can for my limited budget. the rest can come later.

[Scott]

go bigtime tribal-wolf and use a kitchen towel roll

[Rigel-7]

Make sure you go and have a look at them to appreciate the size and understand where your going to store it (SWMBO tells me it has to live under the bed).

If you want to go into photography you will need an EQ mount but I believe you can EQ mount the dob at a later date ...

Hope that helps....

[Mikea]

go bigtime tribal-wolf and use a kitchen towel roll

Haha! Don't forget the eggbox, washing up bottle and sticky back plastic...