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Yes - that one is optical tube assembly (ota) only and would require a tripod.

@Inter - it may be a good idea to visit your local astro society so you can actually see and maybe try out one or two of these scopes. Alternatively a trip to an astronomy retailer would be a good idea. You'll soon see the difference between the Argos one and a proper instrument - it would help to settle your mind a bit more than what we can do here in text.

But you won't get a bad recommendation here - all the scopes above will work properly - it's just some scopes do better with certain aspects of observing than others. The Mak for instance is great on planets because it has a long focal length - but not so hot on the deeper sky objects because it lacks aperture and has a narrow field of view.

I still maintain a 130P is a good all round budget starter instrument which will cope well with both planets and the deeper sky. :)

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Oh and that's great information from everyone!!! And yes I am aware that I will be doing most of the work for my kid but I am optimistic that over time (a very long time) she will learn herself :)

My daughter is 9, after a few sessions together she was a bit despondent. When I asked her what the problem was, it turned out that she wanted to control the scope. Having dad set it up and her just look through it was not what she wanted. The next session I spent teching her how to adjust the scope and aim it at the stars she wanted to see. After that she was much happier

So I would advise that you pick a scope that the child can aim and focus themselves.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

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thanks everyone!

ur right brantuk i will visit a local telescope retailer to see what is available and how thwy work too. i only wanted a telescope so that my kid look at the planets and moon etc i dont think she wants to look much further than that yet :) i appreciate all the help from everyone and i think the three everyone seems to agree on are:

c90, mercury 705 or heritage 130p

oh and brantuk the link is

http://www.365astronomy.com/celestron-c90-maksutov-spotting-scope-with-backpack-p-1961.html?gclid=CNKkj-i_8LoCFU_MtAodNykAXQ

oh and its £154 + p&p

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sorry one more thing-

the 705- will that allow my kid to see the planets like jupiter, saturn etc also is it really fragile? what i mean by that is, will a slight touch send the telesope flying out of control. i know if she moves it u have repostion it again, but what i am trying to ask is will it flop. oh i dont know how to explain what i want to ask :(

also we have a canon 5d mkii with a tripod. if i was to get a telescope with no tripod can i use any tripod for the telescope or does it have to be a specially designed for that particular telescope? so will the tripod work with the c90 or 130p?

many thanls

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sorry one more thing-

the 705- will that allow my kid to see the planets like jupiter, saturn etc also is it really fragile? what i mean by that is, will a slight touch send the telesope flying out of control. i know if she moves it u have repostion it again, but what i am trying to ask is will it flop. oh i dont know how to explain what i want to ask :(

also we have a canon 5d mkii with a tripod. if i was to get a telescope with no tripod can i use any tripod for the telescope or does it have to be a specially designed for that particular telescope? so will the tripod work with the c90 or 130p?

many thanls

I will try to answer your points without pushing you in one direction or another.

In general the higher the focal length of a telescope the more magnification you can use to see details of planets, the moon etc the downside of this is the fragility of the setup the slightest movement can send the image wizzing off also vibration will make the  image unsteady unless the mount is very rigid, even if the mount is ok the image will move through the field of view quite fast.

A camera tripod will work with the Mak but for the reasons listed above might not be ideal but the supplied eyepice gives a mid range magnification so could work ok.

The shorter focal length scope (705) will be more stable and the mount includes slow motion hand controls so finding and object and following it will be easier again there is allways a downside the lower magnification available would be fine for the moon but planets will be a bit dissapointing.

The 130p will give the best views of all but is more fragile and requires collimation from time to time probably not quite to intuitve to use.

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Ok - last thing first - photography. This is a bigger subject than you will currently appreciate. Your Cannon will make a very fine camera for astrophotography - but not for planets/moon - you would need a webcam for that. The cannon would be good for long exposures of deep sky objects - and I mean very long exposures where the shutter is held open for 5-10mins at a time. You'd also need highly specialised mounts, highly spec'd telescopes, and sophisticated software for both, and you would be looking at around £2k for a basic imaging set up and a very steep learning curve. It simply isn't going to happen with the scopes we are looking at here. So I would advise putting that on the back burner until you are more "into" the hobby.

As for the tripod - even though it's a basic scope - vibration at the eyepiece will cause much frustration for both of you. So you need a good solid mounting. There are very few camera tripods that cut it in this respect - better to stick with a tailored scope/mount combination that won't flop and is straightforward to track manually with.

What we need here is a brief overview of how to calculate magnification and guidelines on what to expect visually. To calculate magnification for any scope simply divide the focal length by the eyepiece size. Eg a 650mm focal length scope with a 10mm eyepiece yields 65x magnification. For detail on Jupiter I typically view around 150x to 200x with any scope. But the image is still small and requires patient scrutiny to discern increasing detail.

To see what you will see with your chosen scope - a good rough guide can be seen by inputing the spec of the scope to this piece of software:

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/astro.htm

This covers many popular telescope models and will show you the view - remember to set it to "Observing" rather than "Camera". All the scopes recommended above are manual tracking and need to be either "nudged" or a slo mo knob turned. Tripods tend to be wobbly at the entry level, whereas dobsonians are comparatively stable being mounted on a heavier wooden base with rocker box and turntable. Hope that helps a bit more. :)

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Inter1234..........What about a pair of 7x50  or 8x42 Binoculars. Your daughter can use them Day and Night . More portable than a telescope, nothing really to set up,  wider views, no more lenses to buy! probably better optics than the Argos supplied telescope.(If  not opened, I think you can return for a full refund, but expect trouble if the wrapper is off?) The 130 mentioned  on this thread sounds like a nice scope, but  its open and fully exposed to the elements?  Im certain while your eyes are averted, there will be a tendency  for fingers to see if  one can rotate that secondary mirror, or try to wipe the primary mirror. Any knocks or misalignment inside will mean you`ll need to rectify if the images becomes blurred. Failing that, your daughter should  still be amazed at looking at the Moon with the already purchased telescope.

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Inter1234..........What about a pair of 7x50  or 8x42 Binoculars. Your daughter can use them Day and Night . More portable than a telescope, nothing really to set up,  wider views, no more lenses to buy! probably better optics than the Argos supplied telescope.(If  not opened, I think you can return for a full refund, but expect trouble if the wrapper is off?) The 130 mentioned  on this thread sounds like a nice scope, but  its open and fully exposed to the elements?  Im certain while your eyes are averted, there will be a tendency  for fingers to see if  one can rotate that secondary mirror, or try to wipe the primary mirror. Any knocks or misalignment inside will mean you`ll need to rectify if the images becomes blurred. Failing that, your daughter should  still be amazed at looking at the Moon with the already purchased telescope.

From what I've read children don't get on much with binoculars, they are far more likely to use a telescope.

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FWIW. If not too late I would go with a refractor at this age with nice wide FOV. I agree that the heritage is an  ideal starter scope, with best allround bang for buck, and offers the better aperture at a cheap price BUT, for a lot of the aforementioned reasons  I'd say a refractor a bit more logical, without the upside down views and all the exposed parts of the heritage. The heritage may look a bit like a toy scope, but it is a full blown proper reflector in the end of the day, just smaller. 

Perhaps I am underestimating the power of children these days not having kids myself, but 6 years is very young. The simplicity of a refractor, no collimation needed and looking after it which would have to be done by a parent is more straightforward, as long as they don't put their fingers on lenses which I am sure if disciplined enough can be explained and be avoided at that age. In any case if your child takes to the hobby, shows a real interest perhaps the heritage would be a good next scope.

The refractor would be ideal for planets and  moon  and makes it easier to find targets with a wide FOV making that easier.  While the heritage will do better on deep sky I doubt at 6 years they'll be hunting down faint fuzzies, and arguably will not get excited by that anyway.  The more obvious deep sky targets they may like to see, like M31 (Andromeda galaxy)  for example a wide FOV is more important than anything, and can be seen in a small aperture instrument as well.  I think if your child shows a real curiosity and a gift for going further, I imagine you'd sense that and find out soon enough  and then think about something a little more advanced.

Best of luck :)

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No not late yet. I have only just returned the Argos bought telescope and was thinking of purchasing the mercury 705. I think if she can view the moon and other planets then for now that will be enough...although if she needs a more advance telescope then I shall return to the forum in the future and ask for more advice lol!

Although one final question before I purchase this telescope...is the view clear? ie when viewing planets such as Jupiter is it blurry to the point where it looks like a blob or is it clear enough to clearly identify it as Jupiter?

Many thanks

Ps- no promises that this is my last question :)

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"There is a Sky Watcher 707 which is again a 700mm diameter scope but with a 700mm focal length. Should reduce the CA, but also reduces the field of view. So a 6 year old could find it a little more difficult, at least at first, to use. Advantage is that it cost £76. Another advantage is that you should get 100x reasonably easy = 7mm eyepiece. A 7mm should just about be OK to use and not uncomfortably close to the eye."

This was my first telescope, got it when I was 14. I still have it and I still love it! I think it's definitely a good starter scope but for a 6 year old something like this may be better.  I've never tried it so I can't give any personal feedback but Sky-Watchers tend to be good and this looks like it fits your requirements. 

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Thanks for the video link! I have finally decided to get the mercury 705 :) I'm sooo excited! I took all ur input into account and watched a couple of videos & finally took my daughters age into account and decided. I think this is the best choice for now and just wanted to thanks everyone for all your help!

Thank you so much :)

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