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Hello to all from the Birmingham newcomer.

chrisfellows

By chrisfellows
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chrisfellows

chrisfellows

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Hey!

Just a general hello to all as I'm new to 'forums'.

I'm Chris, 23, have two kids (i know....young right? :shocked: ) and have a real interest in astronomy. I've been viewing the night skies with my very old, handed down, low powered telescope (from what looks like the 1960's) for around 2 years. Have managed to catch glimpses of Saturn (just) and Jupiter (with slight view of cloud bands) as well as the moon of course.

Looking to get a new telescope for Christmas and wouldn't mind some friendly advice.

I have looked at the Celestron Astromaster 114EQ but am swaying towards the SkyWatcher Skyhawk 1145p....mainly for the parabolic mirror which i understand give sharper images.

I think I'm right in swaying towards the SkyWatcher but not 100%.

Any help would be really appreciated.

So a big hello to all, look forward to hear back from anyone.

Thanks.

Chris

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chrisfellows

chrisfellows

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Thanks for the welcome all.

Welcome to SGL, I'm not from B'ham, but commute their for work. What's it like for light pollution?

p.s. I'll let someone far more experienced than I advise you on the scope.

Regards,

m12

M12, The light pollution is pretty bad unfortunately (can only see a few hundred stars here rather than the hundreds of thousands view-able in rural areas). Saying that....as i said before, i have made out the cloud bands on Jupiter so it cant be terrible, right? :confused: Weather is the worst though living in the uk!

Thanks for getting back to me though.

Chris

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Chris and welcome. You might want to post your scope question over on the "Getting Started General Help and Advice" section as you might receive a great response from other members. My view would be to go for the Skyhawk as the build quality is a little better and the red dot finder is better than the Celestron. Having said that, all scopes at this price point suffer from 'twitchy' mounts and by that I mean every time you touch the scope (focusing and slow motion directional control) the scope seems to take forever to settle down to allow steady viewing. As you might imagine, trying to get precise focus on for example a planet whilst at the same time keeping this object in the eyepiece (magnification of an object also magnifies its apparent speed) can sometimes test the patience of a saint! :grin:

Now an easy way to help solve the mount problem would be to remove one of the reasons to touch the scope and here I'm thinking of the tracking. The solution would be to employ a motor to do the tracking instead, leaving you only with the task of fine focusing. Now I have done a little tracking down of my own and I have found for you the same scope but with the suffix of 'M' in its title meaning motor. You can find the scope here listed on the right side of the screen (2nd scope down) and more importantly, it's currently on offer with the 'M' variant costing only an extra £20! No idea if they have sufficient stock left but I will leave that for you to enquire.

A popular alternative scope is the Heritage 130P Flextube which you can view here. It is a bit more expensive, has a dobsonian mount which is more stable that the above equatorial style mount (around this price point) but has no available motor and will require you to nudge it along to keep the object in view. Its big advantage however over either of your original choices is that it has more aperture just over 5" rather than just over 4" and more light means more resolving power on detail.

At the end of the day its down to personal choice as to what best suits you, but I would argue weighing up the motorised Skyhawk with the Flextube dob is where your final decision lies. Others no doubt will be along to offer there views too.

Clear skies and enjoy the forum

James

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chrisfellows

chrisfellows

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Thank you so much JamesM. I really appreciate your input here. My very maximum budget is £130 and the link you just sent me for the skyhawk is the best price I've seen yet!!

I would have liked to have gone for the motorized version to be honest but i understand it is an available upgrade so i shall have to purchase the motor at a later date :sad: i guess.

A few years down the line i shall have to upgrade again to a scope with a larger aperture....but for now i guess the Skyhawk seems the best bet within my price range and I'm SURE anything would be better than the scope i use currently (it has a wooden frame and everything!).

Already I'm so glad i signed up to be part of SGL.

Thanks again for your advice, its really appreciated.

Chris

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jason.p

jason.p

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Welcome Chris. You'll find everything you need to know here, just ask, no matter how basic it may seem.

(Well done on Saturn. I'm still waiting for a clear morning for my first glimpse :shocked: )

Best of luck, let us know how you get on :smiley:

Jason

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chrisfellows

chrisfellows

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Thank you all for the very warm welcome. I can tell I'm going to really enjoy being part of the SGL.

look forward to getting my new scope and hopefully have some incredible views.

Again, thank you all so much

(really look forward to taking my new scope into the country to get some really clear views.....fingers crossed)

chris

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