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Best Telescope for £100

Kayl

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dick_dangerous

dick_dangerous

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I use a wide-field refractor - an Skywatcher Startravel 80. It's very portable (It can be slung over the shoulder and taken to the park), and the wide field of view makes it quite easy to find stuff. Recommend it whole-heartedly, although obviously a good pair of binoculars is indispensible.

It's a lovely idea getting him a scope for Xmas - a lot of partners post similar messages here every year.

If my wife posts anything like this, tell her to get me a Skymax 90...

DD

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brantuk

brantuk

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I use a wide-field refractor - an Skywatcher Startravel 80. It's very portable (It can be slung over the shoulder and taken to the park), and the wide field of view makes it quite easy to find stuff. Recommend it whole-heartedly, although obviously a good pair of binoculars is indispensible.

If my wife posts anything like this, tell her to get me a Skymax 90...

DD

If mine does the same tell her I want a Tak 120 and a full set of TV eyepieces lol :)

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jonathan

jonathan

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So, a £70 pair? I don't really want to spend as much on them as I would a telescope....

At this price range you can easily spend £130 on a good pair of binoculars that are particularly suited to astronomy and it will be worth it.  When you go down in price probably the biggest thing you lose is focus and image quality at the edges of the field, a high quality pair of 8x42 would be preferable to a poor quality 15x70 pair; that said, you can get a decent pair of 15x70 binoculars for around £50 if they are on special offer, or about £70 at other times, you just need to not expect too much detail at the edges of the field.  The same is true of 'cheap' telescopes - the ST80 is a brilliant small wide field telescope, I own one myself and will take it up to a hill top in the car if I need a clear horizon away from the village, but the contrast and detail is noticeably lacking on some objects compared to a scope of similar design and magnification that's worth £1000+ (as you might expect!)

There is a rather nice gadget that you could get that you could both enjoy without knowing anything about telescopes or the night sky, and that's a Celestron SkyScout.  I have one and really enjoy using it when I can't be bothered with a telescope.  It is like a hand-held GPS goto finder scope, no magnification, with details on thousands of objects, astronomy concepts, and a really nice audio tour of the more popular things to see.  This costs about £180 and can be upgraded with a portable speaker unit (it just has a standard audio jack so any speaker or headphones could be used) and add-on SD cards containing extra astronomy information and more audio tours.  Worth looking into if you can find one cheaper.  There is a companion Celestron telescope that it can hook up to, although this is relatively expensive for the optics that you get.

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jnb

jnb

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I'd recommend binoculars because they are convenient, portable, flexible, always to hand, need no cool down or preparation, provide an immersive experience that only comes from using two eyes and have the flexibility to be used for non astro purposes.

I'd recommend avoiding binoculars because to get a large pair also means getting a mounting adapter and a decent tripod which together could exceed your budget, they make it very difficult to view the zenith, there is no way to adapt them to photographic use, cheap binoculars can be good value but also seem to suffer from quality control issues and they're not a telescope.

What you should get possibly depends partly on what you / he expect to get next. If this is a one off purchase for primarily visual use then the heritage 130 give the biggest aperture for that budget. If somewhere down the line that will be replaced by something bigger then resale value should be your consideration. If somewhere down the line you expect to get a second telescope and keep this one then I'd go with the startravel 80 as it can then become a glorified finder scope / ultra budget photo setup.

I have 10x50 and budget 15x70 binoculars. But in retrospect I would have bought the 10x50 but a startravel 80 inplace of the 15x70. I would have bought 15x70 binoculars but would wait until I could spend £250 + on them.

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nicks90

nicks90

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go with the heritage 130p flextube telescope thats been mentioned several times above.

I bought a 130mm telescope as my first scope and it is a fantastic introduction to astronomy and you and your other half will be able to see some great sights from town and some amazing sights from a dark location. I still own it and it goes with me as my travel scope when we zoom off in the caravan on holiday. The only issue with this scope is that you need to put it on a table to use it. If you are camping you may not have one or it may be a wibbly wobbly camping table, which can make it hard to use. However it has all the eye pieces you will need to get started and if / when his passion grows, then the scope can grow with him with some better eyepeices and maybe a modded webcam to take pictures of the planets. If it continues to grow into a full blown obsession, then you wont loose much selling it on second hand to help fund his upgrade.

plus it has the added advantage of its a 'cool telescope' too!

alternatively - look at the celestron astromaster 90AZ - a 'traditional' refractor telescope on a tripod. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-astromaster-series/astromaster-90az-telescope.html  It doesnt have as a big an aperture (the hole at the front the lets the light in), but its a very good well made scope and very very simple to use and maintain, its also better on planets and gives probably better views using cheaper eyepieces (dont ask why, it just does :-) ) Its also a 'proper looking telescope' and does tick all the cool factor boxes. Again it has everything he will need to get started and it comes in a big box and looks properly impressive when you put it together in your living room!

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bingevader

bingevader

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Bins or 'scope? Bins or 'scope? Bins or 'scope?  :grin:

He's already said it's a great idea but he'd like to buy a "good" one when you have the money and space.

So, get the bins. A pair of bins would definitely not be a scooter!

I have a small pair of 10x25s, they're out every time I go out with my 'scope and they're great.

The telescope suggestions people have made are great, but there's more of a chance of getting it wrong if he already has something in mind. The bins will whet his appetite for astronomy and then complement what ever you decide on at a later date.

Any of the binos people have already suggested would be super. An excellent introduction to astronomy and very portable, versatile and also great for camping (wildlife and birdwatching too!).

If you are still worried that this wouldn't fit the bill, then any of the books or subscription magazines people have suggested would be great too (I get the Sky @ Night magazine and thoroughly enjoy receiving that every month after Xmas too!)

And if this really doesn't help and you're still worried, then the vouchers!

Cheers

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