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Chris6963

By Chris6963
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Chris6963

Chris6963

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I'm a total novice to the world of astronomy and haven't spent my money as yet on a telescope.

I was after some sensible advice on aquiring a scope for around the £500 mark.

I've done a little research and quite like the sound of the SKYMAX 127 GOTO.

I've been asked what I want to look for and in honesty, I want to look at as much as I can i.e planets in detail and deep space. I'm aware I live in an area of high light polution buti'm willing to travel to avoid this.

Has anyone got one and or can recommend another of a similar price. i might be able to stretch a bit more if the results are worth the extra cash.

Many thanks

Chris

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Andymarrison

Andymarrison

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Hi Chris

There's plenty of great kit out there for around the £500 mark, but it's worth deciding on your priorities first, e.g. purely visual or are you planning to do any astrophotography; do you want goto or are you happy to go without, etc, etc. Answering these questions will give you a useful steer towards the type of scope that will suit. There are some good threads on choice of first scope in the Beginners Help and Advice section. A popular first scope is a dobsonian, which has a simple mount that allows the manufacturer to offer a lot more aperture for a similarly priced goto or equatorially mounted scope.

Good luck with the quest - it took me a good 6 months before I made up my mind, so I'm probably not the best to be offering advice.

Oh, and welcome to SGL!

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JamesF

JamesF

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Welcome to SGL.

Andy is right on the button. If you want GOTO then you can't spend as much on the scope itself. If you want to do some planetary imaging then that will set certain constraints. If you're happy to work at star-hopping and will think about imaging later then you can blow lots of it on a bigger scope. Unless of course you don't have much space to store it or you'd like something smaller because you have to carry it up eight flights of stairs at the end of the night :) The easy thing to say is that on that kind of budget you can't really consider imaging of deep sky objects.

James

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Bizibilder

Bizibilder

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Hello Chris and welcome to SGL!! You can get a variety of really useful scopes within your budget. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a "best" scope - each has its virtues. For faint Deep Sky Objects you need aparture - the more the better! but for planets and the Moon (and Sun with the correct filters) you really need longer focal length (and hence the ability to get higher magnification, if the atmosphere will allow you to!).

I would suggest not going for goto - you are spending a considerable sum on a small computer! Much better to spend your money on the optics and mount. By the way the mount is important - you dont want a weak and wobbly one!

You say you could travel to a dark site? That means a portable and easy to set-up scope.

Overall I would strongly reccomend that you look at something like a 200mm Dobsonian ( See http://www.firstligh...-dobsonian.html ) which is under £300 - this leaves you some cash that you will need for a star atlas (although you can print your own) and a red light torch.

This particular Dobsonian (Mr Dobson invented the mounting) has a good aparture and will allow good views of the Moon and Planets as well - put it on your list of scopes to consider.

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Chris6963

Chris6963

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Thanks guys for some quick responses. I don't want to rush into a decsion as yet and would probably like to see them in real life to have a feel for the size. Can anyone recommend a good retailer in the North West with a good range on view?

Chris

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Spikey

Spikey

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Hello Chris & welcome to SGL :laugh:

Stockport telescope centre have a showroom but I've never been. You will get plenty of help and advice ion the beginners section; Don't be afraid to ask anything :)

I like the Mak127's, I use mine as a travel scope and as a solar scope. They are very good scope on the planets and very forgiving on eyepieces. They are also a good scope to start with planetary astrophotography.

I've also had some nice views of brighter DSO's with them such as M31,M13,M27,M57.

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Chris6963

Chris6963

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Hello Chris & welcome to SGL :laugh:

Stockport telescope centre have a showroom but I've never been. You will get plenty of help and advice ion the beginners section; Don't be afraid to ask anything :)

I like the Mak127's, I use mine as a travel scope and as a solar scope. They are very good scope on the planets and very forgiving on eyepieces. They are also a good scope to start with planetary astrophotography.

I've also had some nice views of brighter DSO's with them such as M31,M13,M27,M57.

Thanks Spikey. Went there on Saturdat. Very helpful chap but not much in stock unfortunately.
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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Chris and welcome to the forum. Some very sound advice above and of the key thing is to take your time, "...the stars aren't going anywhere". To that end I would recommend waiting till the nights get a little darker to participate in your local astro club's public observing session, as actually looking through a scope is the only way to make sense of all those specifications. Aperture is the key and as great as goto is, if you don't have a scope that will show what the mount is now pointing at, slightly defeats the object. All of the goto mounts will claim that they have menu of some 14,000+ objects to view but of course this figure takes no account of what you are looking though on top of their mount. If it were me in your shoes, I would go for this scope, which has great resolution but not too bulky to move about with some change left over to buy a cheshire collimating eyepiece. The dobsonian type of scope represents the best value for your money and will keep you busy on planets and deep sky objects alike.

James

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