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what telescope

Stormtroops

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ronin

ronin

Posted
Posted

Someone else asked similar so much the same answer:

Sherwoods

One of the first 4-5 refractors, although I would suggest not the Mercury 705, it has an erecting prism and I do not think these are a good idea.

The 705 is shown on the Rother Valley Optics site with a right angle diagonal, but the description says 45 degree erecting prism. The Telescope Service site also shows it with a right angle diagonal.

The TS one is about £100, the Rother Valley is more, think it said about £120.

The 705 would be a better/nicer size, shorter, but check about the diagonal before doing anything, if you went for one.

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JamesM

JamesM

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This is always a tricky question to answer given the available budget. The best value scope that is available is the dobsonian, as nearly all the money goes towards the optics rather than being split between scope and equatorial mount, and mounts at this price bracket are nearly always too 'twitchy' to observe effectively from. The cheapest dobsonian that I could find and which other members on here have used and provided favourable reviews on has been the Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube, which retails at about £140 of which the details can be viewed here. This scope being a reflector type (i.e uses a mirror rather than a lens) might be a better option than the a refractor scope in this price bracket because it has a larger aperture which can gather more light (light = resolution = detail) and won't show any false colour (colour fringing) on brighter objects such as the moon or planets. However if astronomy proves to be something that will interest you greatly, as I'm sure it will, then you will naturally want to upgrade pretty soon, meaning that the money spent on this scope could have gone towards a larger scope that would have benefited you over a much longer term. To that end, it might be a good idea to buy as Qualla has suggested above, a good pair of binoculars that will help you learn the sky but would also represent a piece of kit that you can keep and which will assist you finding objects in the night sky when the larger scope has been saved for. The key in my experience, is to try and avoid spending money on upgrading when you could just save for a good scope from the outset and by that, I mean the possible purchase of a scope like this one, the Skywatcher 200p which you can see here. This is a very popular scope, has a great deal of aperture which is of a size that in my view will make observing very interesting, as it is at this size of scope that detail and structure start to become more noticeable on celestial objects. Being so popular, it is guaranteed to hold its value very well should you ever want to leave astronomy or upgrade to an even larger scope (.....you can never say never! :grin:) The smaller scopes have their place but in my view you will lose more money on them because most potential buyers will also want to upgrade to the slightly larger scopes too. Please don't think I am trying to spend you money for you or ignoring the fact that you might be on a restricted budget as I'm not, I only want to offer you the best advice that will save you money in the longer term and which will offer your better value for money along and greater satisfaction from your observing.

Whilst perhaps saving a little extra as suggested above, it will also provide you with some time to do a little practical research, and by that I mean attending a couple of public observation meetings (sometimes referred to as outreach events) that are often organised by your local astro club/society. This will at least confirm to you the type of view that different sized scopes can provide and will also help you understand what those specifications that are listed alongside retailed scopes actually mean. Establishing abench mark of what will sustain your interest is only something that you can decide. Hopefully you will have an opportunity to look through a 200p in order to appreciate my suggestion of it above - it's such a good performer. In making a connection with a local astro club, you might want to think about joining it as many clubs have a policy of lending out scopes to members, which would at least keep your thirst for buying a new scope at bay for a while till available funds are increased. Lastly, there is of course the option of buying used telescopes which is a practical solution but one that requires a bit more research. If this is going to be an option for you, I would strongly recommend buying from "U.K Astronomy Buy & Sell" which you can view here as the kit is typically supplied by fellow astronomers and traders and where the kit is typically in very good order, I would be very wary for a new person starting out at buying their first scope off of Ebay, as you really do need to know what to look out for when buying used kit and where in my experience, the written description supplied has on occasion not always matched the actual scope being sold - buyer beware! Please feel free to ask us any questions on a proposed scope so that we can at least advise on what to look out for etc. Hope my suggestions have helped.

Clear skies

James

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E621Keith

E621Keith

Posted
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I'd suggest a nice pair of binos to practice with and save up for a decent 4" frac or 8" newt.

Welcome to SGL, Stormtroops.

I second this first binocular then decent dob idea. If your budget is less than £100, I'd go for binoculars. Below that price point you can be certain there will be some major flaws with the scope. There are two possible outcome if you buy too cheap. The good one is you will be disappointed and need to spend again and buy the right one, which cost you even more than buying it right the first time. The bad one is you will be disappointed, so disappointed in fact you decide to leave the hobby.

The Heritage 130p James suggested will be a good general purpose beginner scope.

Used scope is another good suggestion. However, ABS doesn't have many cheap beginner scopes, and sub £100 bargain is rare. Ebay is a resonable source for beginner level scope, but you need to be very careful there because for every good scope listed, there are probably 10 junk scope listed next to it. Some are also way over priced, especially beginner stuff and junk scopes. Look for brand names like Skywatcher (avoid the mercury series) and TAL. I just looked through ebay's listing and there is nothing worthwhile that fitted your budget.

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E621Keith

E621Keith

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Having spoke to the wife and with xmas approaching she has said that we could go a bit higher in budget to around 130. i was looking at the Celestron Astromaster 114eq or push up to the 130eq. What do you think?

Thanks

I think I would ask for a bit more and get the Skywatcher Heritage 130p dob at £138.

Most of the money goes into the scope in the dob, while the Astromaster waste a lot of money in the flimsy mount. Also equatorial mount may not be intuitive for beginners, a dob will be a better choice.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

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John

John

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Having spoke to the wife and with xmas approaching she has said that we could go a bit higher in budget to around 130. i was looking at the Celestron Astromaster 114eq or push up to the 130eq. What do you think?

Thanks

I think the Skywatcher newtonians are better made scopes than the Astromasters. Do try and get a 130mm scope if you can - they are a decent starting point in the hobby in my opinion whereas 114mm is just a bit too little aperture.

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JamesM

JamesM

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Congratulations on getting your scope and glad you went for the 130p than the astromaster, which isn't a bad scope itself, but the mount is too twitchy and the red dot finder in my opinion unusable (poor adjustment and too bright).

Lets hope the weather plays ball for its arrival!

James

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E621Keith

E621Keith

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Congratulation on your scope purchase.

It's always better to buy from a reputable dealer specialised in astronomy products even if it cost a bit more. After sale support is very important in astronomy and most box shifters do not know enough about the product they sell to provide those support. Occasionally a scope may come with a very specific fault (eg. pinched or collimated optics). Specialist astro dealer will understand those faults, but box shifters may assume that's how it suppose to be and refuse to give you a refund. I can't count how many time I walked into to a high street shop and see reflector telescope mounted up side down and pointed to the ground.

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Thanks guys, I can't wait for its arrival and I think i will end up getting on the wifes nerves until i have it in my hands hahaha.now all I need is clear skies over Edinburgh

If you've got any questions, feel free to ask, there are a lot of Heritage owners on here, and it's a brilliant scope for the money!

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