Help for buying first Telescope

[DGU]

Hi

No doubt you have been asked this before but I am a complete novice with telescopes. My budget is around £150 (or maybe a tad more).I know that will be nothing compared to what you experts will have but i'm sure it will do me

One that seems to be popping up in recommendations is the skywatcher explorer newtonion 130p. I'm guessing though these cheaper telescopes wont have the function to be able to plug in a camera to take pictures? I know i'll need to buy a moon filter but why do some scopes come with the 2x barlow lens and some don't? and what does it do?

thanks

[rwilkey]

Hi DGU, the Sky Watcher Heritage 130P scope is a very capable one, but will not be good for astrophtography in my opinion, the mount is not stable enough and it also has what's called an alt-az dobsonian mount, which allows the telescope to be pointed up/down and left/right, for AP (astrophtography you need an EQ (equatorial) mount which allows movement similar to the Earth's rotation, but in the opposite direction so that you can keep your target in sight as the Earth moves, most likely you will need this motorized. Unfortunately, there is a lot more to AP than just sticking a camera on a telescope.  As for a 2x Barlow Lens, this is a short optical tube that doubles the focal legnth of the telescope, this in turn doubles the magnification of any eyepiece you are using with the telescope - it fits between the telescope focuser and the eyepiece.  A Moon filter is by no means an essential item, the ones given away with telescopes are often not fit for purpose anyway.  Some people prefer to use a Moon filter (I do) and some people do not, for visual work only, not usually used for AP.

Hope this helps.

[DGU]

Thanks for the info

[DGU]

and thanks for explaining the mounts, the scope I am looking at has a EQ2 mount do you think this will be adequate enough for my needs?

http://www.tringastro.co.uk/sky-watcher-explorer-130p-eq-2-1773-p.asp

[ronl]

Is this the scope you had in mind http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

if so it's a very good starter scope, as Robin has said it's a very 

capable scope, you will see a great deal, for that sort of money

you could also get this http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-130.html

with this scope you get an EQ mount, and a Barlow lens, both

scopes are good value for money.

[rowan46]

There is a problem with the explorer in that it is not great for photography with a dslr as there is not enough inward focus. Some people have got round this by modifying the secondary and skywatcher have designed a version for dslr use. Your best bet for photography on an explorer is to piggy back a dslr on the back of the scope taking wide field shots or if you are determined enough take a drill to the tube and move the secondary. You will need to put a motor on the mount in either case but to be honest the mount is not really good enough to take good  prime focus photo's

[DGU]

ronl the one I had in mind was this one http://www.tringastro.co.uk/sky-watcher-explorer-130p-eq-2-1773-p.asp

[brantuk]

You can save yourself four quid and get it from the FLO (SGL sponsor) here:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-130p.html

It is a great starter scope so long as you factor in UK "seeing" conditions and ignore the quoted highest power of 260x. In average UK seeing it's capable of 150x for sure and you may stretch it to 180x plus a little more if lucky. Plenty of power to see quite a bit of planetary detail on Jupiter/Saturn and colour of Venus/Mars.

Deep sky will be nice too but that mostly requires less magnification anyway. You'd also have to forget the idea of imaging with it - you'd need at least an RA motor for even elementary photography with it. But it's a good "visual" scope for a beginner (I had one a couple of years ago) and it will send you well on your way into the hobby whilst not being overly expensive for good dabble. Hth

[DGU]

thanks I've just watched a video on the ra motor so I could get that at a later date.

[bambuko]

You can also save yourself a lot of disappointment by reading this:

What Can I Expect to See?

[ronl]

ronl the one I had in mind was this one http://www.tringastro.co.uk/sky-watcher-explorer-130p-eq-2-1773-p.asp

The same scope from FLO (our Sponsor) is cheaper and you

get a Barlow lens thrown in as well.

[DGU]

I knew it! been speaking to the gf over tea and she has reserved a scope for my xmas present although not actually paid for it yet. Its the Celestron astromaster 114EQ, is their much difference between that and the one I was looking at?

[Schorhr]

I have a Heritage 130p and an Astro3 mount.

Focus on the full tube 130/650 can usualy not be reached, only by 130/650 made fotr photogtaphy, but those OTA are more expensive (AFAIK).

Other then the full-tube 130/650, on the heritage, you CAN change the length to reach focus. But the focuser is mediocre, so you have to solely focus with the flex-tube-Mechanism.

The dobsonian mount is O.K. for snapshots of the moon and possibly planets. Either through the eyepiece or with a barlow, else the planets are tiny. The 130/650 mirrors are mediocre and photography in general is not as easy as point-and-shoot, but you'd need a webcam or at least DSLR with video mode (older ones don't have one) and later stack images on the computer.

The eq2 may sound like a good idea, but I tried the 130/650 Heritage (is lighter then some of the 130/650 full tubes) on the Astro3-EQ-Mount (more rigid then the EQ2) and it shakes a lot.

This is even not really great for visible, for astro-photography it gets even more annoying IMHO, for long exposures it would result in a lot of unusable images.

A stable, small EQ mount such as a "real" NEQ-3 (not the fake eq3 some stores sell, that turn out to be a eq-2 or Astro3) costs as much as the telescope itself for a reason.

Together with a DSLR and good lens it would be a better choice then a bouncy EQ2 with a 130/650...

You could place the heritage on a (self-build) EQ-Plattform, how-to instructions can be found online. Or a kitchen-timer barndoor, to mount a camera+lens directly.

Many deep-sky objects do not require high mangification/focal lenghts and will look stunning with 50-200mm.

You could also start visualy and later get a suitable mount.

If you don't care for deepsky, planets and moon can be imaged on a AltAz mount (such as the NexStar SLT goTo ) as well.

I have one of the Nexstar mounts now to put my Heritage 130p on, and use a PD camera for video astronomy...

One of those kit barlows cost 10-15gbp, don't make your choice dependant on any gizmos. Also filters and so on. The optical tube remains the most important part at the end, followed by the mount.

Getting a bad one will only result in frustration and it's better to spend a little more right away or consider other options :-)

I don't mean to say that the EQ2 is completely useless, but the 130/650 is just a tad much to be really a good combination. And if you ad the weight of a DSLR or other camera things just will go down-hill regarding stability.

[rowan46]

I knew it! been speaking to the gf over tea and she has reserved a scope for my xmas present although not actually paid for it yet. Its the Celestron astromaster 114EQ, is their much difference between that and the one I was looking at?

the astromaster is a tad smaller and a little more plastic but its still a proper scope. it will be great on the moon, you should see the 4 main moons of jupiter and some banding on the planet itself. the rings of saturn and it will give nice views of some open clusters and dso's. Hopefully it will encourage you and keep you  going till you decide to upgrade. Looks like you have 150 quid towards the 200p dob or towards the start of an imaging outfit

[Schorhr]

Oh, I missed the post while typing mine :-/

The 114mm telescope is a Catadioptre, please don't buy.

It has 1000mm focal length while beeing so short due to a barlow-element in the focuser tube.

This makes collimation/adjusting more difficult, and higher magnification may be a problem.

The EQ mount looks even less sturdy.

A Heritage 130p may not be suitable for astro photography other then the moon, but it is

STABLE

and has more aperture, showing first details on galaxies and nebulae.

While the heritage is not a "planet expert" it performs well and better then most smaller 3 or 4" telescopes. 150 should be possible on most 130p mirrors, 200x+ on good ones.

On 114mm telescopes ~220x is the "usable limit"; On a catadioptre usualy less.

Aperture is key

http://clarkvision.com/visastro/m51-apert/

http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.binoviewer.at%2Fbeobachtungspraxis%2Fteleskopvergleich_deepsky.htm

and as posted before

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/196278-what-can-i-expect-to-see/

:-)

You can still ad a more sturdy EQ mount later on, or a goto tracking mount.

[rowan46]

Actually missed the bird jones bit I just assumed it was a celestron version of the skywatcher skyhawk my apologies. What you will see with the scope  still holds but I would agree that the optics are not a patch on the explorer and that it is more difficult for newbies to collimate. Still its a nice gift and a nice thought, if she can't change it don't be disheartened its still a usable scope and you should have some fun with it

[DGU]

thanks for the info guys much appreciated.

[rwilkey]

and thanks for explaining the mounts, the scope I am looking at has a EQ2 mount do you think this will be adequate enough for my needs?

http://www.tringastro.co.uk/sky-watcher-explorer-130p-eq-2-1773-p.asp

I think you might be able to do Lunar and planets with this one using a webcam but nothing more.  The mount is undriven and so longer exposures are out of the question.  Also note that the mount is not as stable as it looks, for AP you need a good strong mount.  It may benefit you to have a read of Steve Richards book, 'Maing Every Photon Count', which is a great introduction about how to start in AP: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

[DGU]

Well it looks like the one I am going to go for is the Skywatcher Heritage 130p  Flextube. I know I wont be able to do pictures but for now but I am happy just to look and see, with this being easy to move and carry its the best option for me at the moment.

I am away in Northumberland and the dark skies here make it great viewing. I saw the milky way for the first time last night 

Thanks for all your replies on the above.