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£300 knowing what you know now :)

korginger

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korginger

korginger

Posted
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As the title is suggesting, can you give me the best idea of what to buy with a budget of £300.

I know its not a lot in terms of some of the rigs that you guys will be running around with, but I am a complete newb when it comes to all of this.

I bought the cheapest of cheap telescopes, a reflector design, and it was great fun seeing the moon so close up. I even got a little emotional lol

When it came to zoning in on some of the stars and planets, I barely managed to hold Jupiter in my view. It was magnificent, albeit really small. My main concern however was how unstable everything was, the slightest movement, even a little pressure on the eyepiece, meant i lost where i was.

So, with that in mind, what I would like to achieve within my budget is the following

Stability, would prefer it to be manual, with very fine movement, so I can learn the stars better.

Better magnification of planets

Ability to see galaxies and star clusters

Would also be nice to be able to use it for terrestrial use, kids like to see the ships out in the bay.

If i was ever to use it for photography it would most likely only be the moon.

All help and hellos welcomed :)

I've attached a photo of the moon post-29132-0-52736700-1361138142_thumb.ji got from pointing my phone up to the lense - its not great, cant quite see the craters that were visible at the time.

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stevetynant

stevetynant

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+1 for what John just said- without doubt and I'd have no hesitation in buying one again if I was starting again tomorrow. You can pretty much get up and going and not have to buy another thing if you didn't want to with this scope and still have change out of £300. Terrestial viewing is a no but photos of the moons and planets are possible also.

Don't hesitate and its low enough down for the kids to get to grips with aswel. Simplicity but a real observing instrument as well.

good luck with your choice.

Steve

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RMcCallum

RMcCallum

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Or if you want a reflector, I would recommend a Skywatcher Explorer 130M, I personally think its great. However, for £300 you could get Skywatcher Explorer 150P EQ3-2, but that would almost blow your budget.

Both great scopes.

Don't forget, quality eyepieces also play a role in what you can see and how well you see it.

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Paul M

Paul M

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My first functional telescope was a 75mm refractor from Dixons which I got for Christmas in about 1976.

It was well wonky but I got by with it until about 1985/6 when I upgraded to something more serious. It didn't get much use.

In fact I'm just in the process bringing it out of a 10 year hibernation.

So the secret is to get something easy to move and easy to set up.

As others say, go for a Dobsonian. See how you get on with that. You may eventually out grow it but it would still be a great scope to have ready to just lob in the back of the car to get out to an observing site at short notice. Good optics are more important than bells and whistles while you find your way round the sky.

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John

John

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Dew is not usually a big issue with a dobsonian although you can easily make a dew shield to wrap around the top of the scope to ensure that the secondary mirror stays dew free.

What scope do you have at the moment ?

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rory

rory

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have to laugh at the 'upside down ships'. It's exactly what we seen today lol

Also my daughter is convinced she seen someone walking on the moon :o before the dew set in lol

kids see things adults cant. they have a gift. i used to see santa on christmas eve in the sky up until i was about 12.
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CJE

CJE

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wow, super fast replies - thanks folks

Liking the look of the 200p - meant to also ask about dew? how do i stop that building up - ruined a clear night here for me tonight :(

Use a dew shield, Google away ...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

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jimbooz

jimbooz

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I have the 200p Dob and was up and running within 40 mins of opening the box. Its also the right height for small kids to easily view. My 7 year old can reach the eyepiece. Its reasonably portable as well. Weighing 20kg ish mine is set up and can be lugged into the garden in one go.

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swamp thing

swamp thing

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The 8" skyliner is a pretty tough act to beat, for the price. Personally if I were starting again I would go with the 6" version though. The cheaper price, longer f/ratio, slightly more portable package would win it for me. Yes the 8" will show you more, but plenty of time for aperture later. IMO start a bit smaller, makes your first upgrade a real treat :)

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nicks90

nicks90

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permission to say something completely different?

granted :p

if £300 is your top whack - including upgrades - i would suggest a slightly cheaper scope and a couple of decent eye pieces. The 20mm and 10mm that come with most scopes are very very marginal. replacing those with a decent vixen 20mm plossl and a couple of tmb planetary ii / BST eyepeices will probably give you better views in a 150p dobsonian than you would get with a 200 dob with the crummy standard eps....

However if £300 is just for the scope and you have some wriggle room over the following months to get some better eps without the wife finding out - definitely the 200 dob!

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skir

skir

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Having recently started things are very fresh in my mind as to what I'd do.

Assuming you are only interested in observing currently then 200 dob, telrad, right angle corrected finder a compass and copies of the stars by h a Rey and turn left at Orion. Plus if you got cheap bundled eps with the scope I'd replace the higher mag item with something else.

And I'd buy second hand as I've done with nearly all of my gear. I've only had a couple of slight mishaps following that route and the gear has virtually all been very good. Obviously some big savings to be made to stretch the budget further. I've used astro buy sell mainly and classifieds on here. eBay Is an option too but you need to be more careful than on abs IMO.

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sparkyjon

sparkyjon

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i would agree with nicks90 and swampthing , it would be an idea to start with the skyliner 150p only because the 200p is bang up to nearly the limit of your budget and it wont leave you much room for addon's like rdf or a few eye pieces..

but if the £300 is your limit for just the telescope and you are willing to pay a little extra for eye pieces then you might as well go for the 200p ...as you'll probably get aperture fever like every one does lol..

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zedzed

zedzed

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Go it it at £270 new they are an absolute steal.

Recently? From where?

To the OP - 2nd hand is the way to go if you can see it first, but the 200 dob is so popular the prices can get a bit silly on ebay etc. If you can wait it might be worth hanging on to the summer - 2nd hand prices may go a little lower as "Stargazing Live" fever dies away and light summer nights cause some people to sell the scope that they didn't use much last year anyway.

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