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First Set-up for a 6 year old.... Advice needed please!

DoodleDragon

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DoodleDragon

DoodleDragon

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Hi there,

My son is 6 and has been interested in the skies ever since becoming obsessed with Doctor Who at the age of 3. He got a toy telescope for Christmas and is nothing short of frustrated at it's pointlessness (A kitchen roll inner tube would have done as well...)

he is currently saving for a "proper" telescope and we're keen to start him with something that will maintain his interest and that we could have a go with, although we don't want to go mad as he's 6 and he may decide he's not interested after a couple of goes. I'd like to spend about £100 to start him off (he's saved about £20 already, bless him).

Does this sound like a reasonable budget for this purpose? Could we get something for less than this or are we pushing our luck? And what would any of you recommend that's simple to use, sturdy and will show him some stars, the moon and maybe even a planet.... (he's been watching Brian Cox and wants to see Saturn! lol)

Thanks in advance. Apologies for complete noviceness but hoping to have a nice family hobby :)

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DoodleDragon

DoodleDragon

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He'll be able to see Saturn with a fifty quid telescope? That's amazing! He'll be delighted. Will be a few months before he has enough to pay for it (he's my "bob a job" boy at the moment and is getting pocket money for completed reward charts....) but I will be most likely on here a lot begging for help. Much obliged, thank you!

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Should be all you need to be honest. Although you could get a Planisphere and a Red Light Torch :).

I was originally going to suggest a second hand Skywatcher Heritage 130P. But the 76 will certainly do fine for your son, it's also going to be a lot lighter for him to carry! It could be an upgrade, should your son get even more interested :D:evil:

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nephilim

nephilim

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I dont know how much experience you have in knowing the night sky but this http://www.stellarium.org/ is very helpful (most of us on here use it) its free & all u do is enter your location & it'll show you whats in the sky at that time, you can also plan observing sessions (just 'fast forward' the time) so you can see when the planets will be observable, type what u want to see in the search box & it'll take u straight to it. Obviously for the time being this is for u, to show him. :smiley:

Steve

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DoodleDragon

DoodleDragon

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Thank you very much! All bookmarked.

I have bought us a book (Turn Left At Orion) so we can study that too. I learn things pretty quickly and he's bright for his age so I'm hoping that it won't be long before we can see something more than the dark smear we got from his toy one!

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dephelis

dephelis

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Red light doesn't affect your night vision as badly as white light. It takes 30 minutes or so to get fully dark adapted, which you will need to do each time you are exposed to white light. Red light cuts this down to about 15 minutes. So we use red light when we need some light to check our starmap/planisphere/where we dropped the eyepiece container :)

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JonF

JonF

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Should be all you need to be honest. Although you could get a Planisphere and a Red Light Torch :).

I was originally going to suggest a second hand Skywatcher Heritage 130P. But the 76 will certainly do fine for your son, it's also going to be a lot lighter for him to carry! It could be an upgrade, should your son get even more interested :D:evil:

That's exactly what I thought. Start with the 76 - if he really gets into it get him the 130 in a couple of years. A tip. Keep all the boxes and packaging. That way, if you want to sell the 76 on eBay to fund an upgrade, it'll sell better.

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DoodleDragon

DoodleDragon

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excellent advice, thank you so much everyone. we've had a small financial windfall this month (the bank messed up, we are £200 better off) so I'm going to order it tonight. sorry to everyone in the surrounding area, its gonna get cloudy....

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knobby

knobby

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You and your little one could make a red torch together, just buy him some sweets in a red cellophane wrapper ie; the red one in quality street... When he's eaten them, get the wrapper and tape it or use an elastic band to attach it to any old cheap torch you have laying around :D

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DoodleDragon

DoodleDragon

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Knobby that's brilliant! We have a maglite and a leftover tin of Christmas quality street....

So.... Our first telescope is bought! We have parent's evening at school next week and if he does well (he always does - he's bright and is in love with his teacher) he'll get it after that. Hes saved half the money himself though. I can't wait! :D

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zedzed

zedzed

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Another alternative is to get some red/pink nail polish and paint it (thinly) on the clear plastic of the torch. A bit more permanent though (although would come off with nail polish remover if needed, I guess).

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ScottT

ScottT

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If you really want to stretch the budget a bit you could go for one of these...

http://www.firstligh...p-flextube.html

A bit more aperture which can let you start seeing objects beyond our solar system.

I second this , I got one a couple of weeks back , its the perfect scope to start off with , very easy to setup and use and you can see a lot when the night sky is clear.

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