complete novice needs advice!

[greyknight]

Hi everyone. I'm completely new to astronomy and forums so please bear with me.

I've decided to buy a telescope and I'm excited about this new 'hobby'. The problem is that I've asked diiferent people to advise me on what telescope I should get as I'm on a budget but obviously want the best I can get.

The ones that have been recommend are:

Sky-watcher explorer 150 PL EQ3.2

Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT

Celestorn Astromaster 130 EQ MD

I've done a bit of homework on all three and the all seem to be pretty good. What would you all suggest is the best or even a different one altogether

Thanks all.

[Tinker1947]

Welcome to the SGL, Forums, you would do better to post in the beginners forum, many more people will reply....

[Charon]

Welcome to the forum.

[stevetynant]

Hi Greyknight - welcome to SGL

I think the main things to consider before everyone can really give you a hand are

what exactly is your budget?

what do you want to do with your scope - are you interested in photography, planetory observing or do you want a good all rounder - also consider is portability and storeage an issue for you.

If you could give some feedback on these issues I'm sure you'd get a more informed answer

best of luck

Steve

[marshy123]

Welcome to the forum.

[pel]

Hi GreyKnight ,

Welcome to the Forum.

I'd steer clear of the Astromaster 130eq, I had one and the mount was very fragile and made with poor materials. Daz on here said the motor drive gets in the way sometimes too.

As Steve says, you need to provide info on what you want to view with the scope. If you want to take images of Nebulas, galaxies with a DSLR you can't with some scopes as you won't be able to achieve focus.

Perry.

[Duns]

Hi and welcome to SGL

[greyknight]

Hi all, Thanks for the relies, I guess I didn't really give enough info did I? I told you I was new to this!

My absolute max budget is £300 if I really get into it as I hope and I'm sure I will I'll go better later on. I really want to see the planets and nebulae close enough to be able to see detail. I've seen some pics relating to the 'scopes I mentioned and there all close enough and probably as close as I'm going to get on that budget.

Is the GOTO really helpful as on the Nexstar I listed? Or is it as someone said a £150 toy on a £150 scope? Because if it is I'd rather buy a £300 scope and forget teh GOTO.

Sorry all i know I'm asking lots of questions but I really want to spend my money well and enjoy this rather than scrap it after a couple of weeks because the results are poor, I'm sure you know what I mean.

Thanks for the welcome too by the way, nice to 'meet' you all

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, greyknight!

Dana

[greyknight]

Hi.

Im sorry everyone, I just jumped right in with questions when I should've said hello to everyone first. Like I said I'm new to forums like this.

I'm 50 years old and have been suffering with depression brought on by stress. Shrink says I need to get myself a hobby, something that'll help me chill out. I've been interested in astronomy for years but never did anything about it so now I am. Just need some help and advice on what kit to buy with a max budget of £300 (ideally nowehere near that if I can help it!) Any suggestions are most welcome.

[ArmyAirForce]

If your budget for the scope is £300, then you are probably looking at a scope of around £200, leaving you £100 for eyepieces and other accessories, as you can be sure, you will find you need additional items.

[badgers]

The best views for the money would probably come from something like the 200P skyliner dobsonian for £270.

A Skwatcher 150P on an EQ3-2 will set you back £280.

I think both come with a reasonable 2x barlow and 2 so-so eyepieces.

£20 left over for a cheshire or something else.

The Dobsonian isn't a bad option for starting out at all, as you can always put it on an equatorial mount later if you wish for imaging etc.

I'd not spend any more until you were comfortable with the setup and have mastered the basics and know what kind of astronomy you want to focus on, i.e. planets, DSOs, visual, imaging etc etc.

[pel]

GreyKnight ,

I suffer from the same thing. I think my new interest in Astronomy and Astrophotography has helped or it might just be retail therapy that has helped as you have to spend a lot of money initially.

I'd take Badgers advice on what to buy.

If you're very Light poltuted though(?) you may find you want to upgrade to a Goto system later as you need to indentify guide stars to find Objects. These guide stars can be hard to see with a lot of Light polution. This can lead to some frustration, which has put me off slightly.

My wife can tell when I have found a new (to me) Nebula or taken a great picture as I am a lot happier, initially anyway (jogging helps too, but is less fun :-) ).

Perry.

[dag123]

Hi GreyKnight,

With a budget of £300 I'd go for a larger size than 130, although I'm personally not having as much hassle with my Astromaster than a lot of people on this forum.

With a Dob you have to drag it round the sky, but you gain bigtime with apperture. On a mount you get a smaller window (less light gathering), with Goto smaller again, but gain from a little help from technology.

Obviously you can listen to what is said here but perhaps there is a local society nearby where you could actually go and see people using the differnt types of scopes. That might help you decide, rather than pick poorly now and need to upgrade later.

Hope this helps

dag123

[badboybubby]

If you are observing from your back garden and have a shed, I'd go for a DOB - Skyliner 200P would be a very nice start.

[stevetynant]

+1 for the Dob (I'm completely biased so you need to take a cross section of views on this)

More aperture the better for DSOs - if your budget is £300 I'd forget the photography for a while and just see if you enjoy the hobby enough to persevere - the 200p seem to be on order lists everywhere at the moment so I would guess will hold their value pretty well if you eventually decide its not for you and sell - so £270 for the scope with 2 eye pieces, £20 for a colimating tool (loads of advice- don't worry) - if you could find another £25 you could buy yourself a wixey (small device that measures angles) add your own setting circle and you've got a cheap home made goto (push to in this case) so the majority of your cash is spent on the viewing and not the technology.

good luck with whatever you decide but don't feel rushed into it - ask a lot of questions.

cheers

Steve

[LukeSuppalot]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Good advice from Badgers and Dag123, especially finding a local astro club and having a look at the scopes they have. Sort of try before you buy kind of thing. It will also let you see just how big/small scopes actually are.

Happy hunting.

Luke

[greyknight]

That's fantastic everyone thanks very much for the advice. I'll probably pop back pretty soon and let you know what I ended up with and how I'm getting on. Like I said I'm new to forums but I'm really enjoying the experience you've all been great. Thanks again.

[telesto]

Hi and welcome to sgl

[Bizibilder]

Hello Greyknight and welcome to SGL!!

[Rusty Strings]

Hi and welcome

[JamesM]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Lots of good sound advice above regarding which scope to get. I would also endorse the virtues of the Skywathcher Skyliner 200P, its the U.K's best selling scope and for good reason. If astronomy is not for you as suggested above, resale value will be good so you won't have lost out too much in having a go. The scope comes with two eyepieces which are fine to start with and certainly better than the jam jars they used to give you years ago. Goto is great but only worth it if the scope is large enough to see what the mount has found for it. You will still have change to can get hold of a cheap cheshire eyepiece for collimation.

Having said the above, I would ask you to hold for a moment on buying anything, there's no rush, "...the stars aren't going anywhere". Go along to your local astro club or observing group and have a look through some kit first before making a decision. All the numbers and specification won't mean a thing to you unless you have some experience from which to hang them from. That way you will quickly work out what you ned in order to meet your own expectations.

Let us know how you get on and look forward to more questions!

Clear skies

James

[Marki]

Hi and welcome to the Lounge!

[JKB]

Hi and Welcome to SGL

Well I'm going to plump for the 150P (not PL) as thats what I started with and still use for observing and imaging. Personally I'm not a Dob fan because I feel they are a little awkward to use (just my 2p's worth sorry to all the loving Dob owners out there!)

I currently have the 150P, a 200P Dob, 127Mak and the 90 Frac. 99% of the time I use the 150P. OK I have upgraded the mount etc but managed to guide on the EQ3-2 with reasonable success. Take a look at my posts here to get an idea and my website below.

As has said before good luck and the people here are fantastic!

Cheers

Jamie

[spaceboy]

Welcome to the lounge