The usual question

[Lauryn]

Hi all,

Im hoping you'll be able to help me...

Firstly, apologies for asking what must be the most commonly asked question on here but I'm looking for some advice on what telescope to buy.

I'm looking for a beginners scope as a present so hoping to spend around 200-250. My research so far pointed me towards the skywatcher explore 130p: www.microglobe.co.uk/skywatcher-explorer-130p-supatrak-130mm-reflector-telescope-p-8384.html however, I'm a little concerned it seems quite bulky. My key requirement is something we can pack up easily as we are just outside of London, so need to get in the car to see anything.

Any help much appreciated.

Thank you all very much,

lauryn

[swamp thing]

Not familiar with that exact model of scope Lauryn, but a 5" newt is a very portable package by anyones standards. You should have no problem getting that into any car.

whereabouts in London are you? There are a couple of Astro shops in London where you can go and have a good old nose about and check sizes of scopes etc

[JamesF]

For that budget I'd probably go for something like this:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-150p-dobsonian.html

which should still fit in a car and give better views. What you won't have is a motor for tracking objects once you've found them. You might also want to fit a copy of "Turn Left At Orion" and a red torch into the budget.

I'd absolutely agree though that given your location the opportunity to go and have a look a these things in the flesh is probably one you should not pass up on.

James

[lestergibson]

+1 on the Skyliner. I have a 200p and it's a cinch to set up - very important for me.

[Lauryn]

Thank you for recommendations so far. Im up in Borehamwood so a little outside london but will definitely venture in. Anything else you think I should look at, please do let me know. Thanks James, will order those extra bits now.

Really appreciate all your help!

Lauryn

[umadog]

Make sure, also, that it's a dim red torch. You can dim with red nail varnish if needed. Most torches sold are too bright. It's too bright if you're night vision becomes slightly impaired after looking at your star chart in the dark with the torch. The darker the location you're observing at, the dimmer the torch needs to be.

We regularly recommend Dobsonians to beginners. They're wonderful scopes. Very versatile for visual observing and generous aperture. Plenty of people stick with Dobsonians exclusively: they're more than "just" a beginner's tool. An 8" Dobsonian is an excellent starter scope and makes a nice auxillary scope should you every get anything larger or more complicated (e.g. an equatorially mounted SCT). A great addition is a Telrad (a red-dot type finder scope).

FInally, I rather like this site: http://www.deepskywatch.com/deepsky-sketches.html Those sketches show you what an experienced observer sees from dark skies with an 8". The dark skies are very important. I'm afraid you will see far less from light polluted skies so you'll need to travel. North norfolk coast, Devon, batter yet: darkest Wales. Find your spot from this image:

http://www.avex-asso.org/dossiers/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/UK-.jpg

[pallas15]

I have a skywatcher on an eq mount and although its not the biggest set up(130) it still is rather awkward to set up and strip down due to the nature of the mount.Its not overly heavy but by the time youve removed the scope.removed the counter weight.unscrewed the bits tray to collapse the tripod ,packed it away .THEN.. reassemble,polar align,balance etc you could have been already using the dob.Also the explorer tripod isnt the strongest thing to keep collapsing and assembling.After polar aligning ..i.e...DEC set to 89 degrees....RA set to 2h31(ish) and lat to 52 deg..i always use the south facing leg to tilt the tripod level and center polaris as I put the scope in various places....after a month I had to have a replacement leg sent out as the tighteners are plastic and split...just my experience with the mount.A dob mount is just fit the tube and off you go...of course all of the set up can be done whilst the scope is cooling down but an eq mount will require more messing with than a dob mount,,having set that a 200 on a dob mount isnt the smallest thing to move around but as stated before they are a lot quicker and easier to set up.....good luck with your choice

[JamesM]

No such thing as a beginners scope only one that works well and does what it says on the tin, so if you stick with a major producer like Skywatcher you won't go wrong. I would recommend either James's choice the 150P or lestergibson's 200P but as well as going along to view them in a shop, why not seek your local astro club or observing group and go along and look through one to see if the view meets your expectations. Also make a note of the eyepieces that are being used as this can make a difference to the view you see too. If you purchase either of the recommended scopes and astronomy doesn't work out for you in the longer term, those particular scopes hold a good resale value which means that in real terms, the scope purchasing exercise won't necessarily have cost you that much at all.

Clear skies and let us know what you end up buying!

James

[umadog]

No such thing as a beginners scope only one that works well and does what it says on the tin

Very true.

[Qualia]

Probably not much help and has already been said but just to reinforce the idea, certainly try to check out what you want to buy and the best way of doing this is to make a quick trip to a local astro club. Maybe giving these fellas a shout will help to get the ball rolling. I was in Somerset a few weeks back and noted how good the skies generally appeared on the two nights they were clear. Not perfect, nothing like real dark skies, but a whole lot better than a city, so you should be able to get some nice views from your garden.

What I have found is that a 4" to 8" telescope and probably beyond are really quite llight-weight objects but problems start when you take into consideration mounts. GEMs are generally quite heavy and do take time to set up, so maybe it is better to be looking at dobsonian mounts or alt-azimuth mounts for your telescope which are lighter and easier to set up and use.

Another consideration to take into account is to try and figure what you may want to be viewing. You see, unless you're mainly just into planets, the moon and splitting doubles, you'll want a decent amount of aperture, so if you start small, say with a 5" or 6" newt, you'll may soon be wishing you had gone for that 8".

Again, after buying a scope and mount the costs generally don't stop there.

Reflectors require collimation, so you need a special tool to do this, say about £30 - £40. You'll be supplied a couple of regular EPs - not often very good ones - so after a while you'll want to get some more, cheapish ones whether new or on the used market will set you back about £40 to £50 a piece; a decent barlow perhaps to keep costs down, another £30 to £50; you may feel the need to carry your pricey EPs and the telescope itself in a case or bag for protection, this can be done cheaply but still at a price. You might want to buy a red dot finder like a telrad, £30 to £40 and if not supplied a correct image view finder £60 to £70 to make it easier to find objects in the night sky. You might want to try a couple of filters, perhaps one for nebulae £50, one for the sun £20, colour ones to experiment with, a star atlas, and the such.

Of course all this doesn't happen at once, but after 6 months, maybe a year or so, you suddenly realise that buying a scope was in itself one of the cheapest purchases!

Another thing to look out for is what Umadog has already suggested, astronomy sketches. This is the kind of thing you will see when observing from a telescope. From time to time folk do crop up who are very disappointed, they thought they were going to see those colourful galaxies and nebulae and wide and super bright globular clusters, only to see a faint splodge, a faint fuzzy in grey, a planet the size of a pea.

I say all this not to put a downer on things. I wanted to say these things so you come better armed and stronger.

This is a fascinating and wonderful hobby and I hope you stick about. Welcome to SGL, Lauryn.