The questions of a fourteen year old

[Connor]

I have a few totally noobish questions to ask and i don't know where to go to ask them, so I suppose I'll ask them all in this section. Any help would be MASSIVELY appreciated.

1. For anyone who has experience, what is the viewing quality of the night sky like in Cardiff?

2a. I'm specifically looking for a Refractor telescope because I've never done astronomy before and don't really want to ever realign any mirrors plus I want to do some terrestrial viewing.

2b. I'm also on a tight tight tight budget of £100 (I'm fourteen years old and am getting a paper round) and I know there's not many telescopes for that price but I've found a few.

3. Anyone had much experience with the Celestron Astromaster 70AZ before? Just think it looks like a good scope for me...

Thanks in advance for advice you can give on any one of those questions

[kniclander]

viewing in any town will be poor for anything faint (ie most deep space objects) but fine for moon and planets and double stars. Any celestron scope will be decent quality but dont be put off reflectors by the "mirror aligning" - I've had three skywatcher dobsonians and they've all been adequately collimated out of the box (and before the purist jump on me, I said "adequately, not "perfectly"). also, once you get the scope and have used it for a while, the "mystique" will lessen.

[nightfisher]

you will struggle to get a refractor for that price that will be any real good, if you can up your budget a little then consider the 90mm evostar

[ollypenrice]

On a budget I'd look for second hand scopes. You pay at most 60% of the new price.

There will be an astronomical society near you and someone is likely to have a small, old scope that they would sell cheaply. I gave a 70mm away myslef last week.

Olly

[Capricorn]

For anyone who has experience, what is the viewing quality of the night sky like in Cardiff?

Changes hour by hour.

[Tribal-Wolf]

There was a Skywatcher 130P went for £68 on ebay a couple of days ago, this is what you need to look for.

[hemihaggis]

Hi and welcome , well the night sky in cardiff will not be the best , but like the above posts say , they are still loads to see , star clusters , double stars, planets with lots of moons , our moon , even the brighter messier list objects .

Don't let collamination put you off a reflector , its quite simple really .

Save up some cash and look for a celestron 130

Have a look in your school library for books on astronomy , also ask your physics/science teachers about astronomy ,tell them you are interested ,they will be too ! Your physics teacher in bound to know about stuff like that and I'd bet the know about telescopes . Have fun , that's the main thing .

[onesmallstep]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

It might be worth contacting astro groups in your area, some of the members might have scopes and other kit for sale. As well as being picked up for a fraction of the new price you will get good quality kit as astronomers look after their scopes. They are also a good source for info and advice.

HTH!

[umadog]

Welcome! When I was your age I bought a small refractor because I too didn't want to mess about with collimation. Two years later I built an 9" reflector and never looked back. A 5" or 6" reflector will give you nicer images and much brighter views than a cheap refractor. The only concern is that you want to do terrestrial observing. It's true that a refractor would be better for that, but you will need to buy erecting prisms to flip the view. Most astronomy scopes won't come with those and so you may have to pay extra.

You'll get a better scope for your money if you get a nice second hand Newtonian on a simple mount than a refractor. I also suggest you find a local astronomy society and take a look through their scopes. They can show you how to collimate, so you'll see it's not hard. They may even have equipment you can borrow. You may be able to look through scopes of the sort you're considering.