Advice on buying a first telescope, please help...

[newbie1]

Hi. I posted this on a different forum- 

Hi

I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice? 

I was considering buying my Dad a telescope for Christmas (complete beginner), ideal budget £150(ish). I have been trying to read about different types & reviews. There are just so many! I did try searching for this topic first and saw someone had posted this -Skyhawk 1145PM Motorised Newtonian telescope starter kit £149 from pulsar-optical. Looks impressive to me, but then I dont really understand most of the description!I think my question is that a lot of reviews ets talk about being able to see the moon clearly and Saturn, its moons and rings, but then say you can only really see constellation groups of stars other than that? Would you be able to see other stars in detail as well? Basically my Dad is a total beginner but I would like to get the best possible for my budget & is there anything worth getting for my £150 budget?

thank you for any advice you might be able to give! 

 

Someone kindly replied and suggested this one - http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-sky- ... e/p1524184 - sky watcher heritage - 130P flextube dobsonian telescope...

As my knowledge is limited I just wanted a second opinion before I spend the money. The reviews I have been reading are quite good and just wanted to see if someone can confirm them?

I know the reviews for seeing the moon etc are good but can you see stars/constellations with this one?

 

Thank you for any help

[Cornelius Varley]

Hello & welcome to SGL. The Skywatcher Heritage 130P is a better telescope than the 114. It is easier to set up and should give slightly better views than the smaller 114. You will be be able to see planets, the moon and the brighter deep sky objects with the 130. Stars always appear as point sources (dots of light) due the vast distances involved, constellations cover large areas of the sky, so you only need your eyes to see them.

[ronin]

The 1145PM is a fast scope and the problem then is you need to keep it collimated well and you could need good quality eyepieces, it is doubtful that the standard plossl's would give good results.

So you could be handing over a scope that needs regular maintenance, eyepieces will likely fall into the £50 a piece area but likely more. I am thinking BST Skyguiders but they work OK at f/5, just the 1145PM is f/4.4 so they may not make it, then you re looking at eyepieces around the £100 mark I would suspect.

The Flextube, well at the risk of upsetting lots I am never sure of them, again the flex tube idea is nice, they compress down but that means they will not necesarily return to the ideal position each time so could again need regular collimation.

The 150P dobsonian is a good size, just £50 too much. The Evostar 90 refractor falls into budget but is a smaller diameter.

What mount is the 1145PM on, all I can see is an EQ1.

Concering the comment about what it can see:- well the palnets are obvious except none you gave will see Mars except as a small red disk. You will not see the martians waving back. Saturn will need 100x magnification and that is likly above the sensible amount for the 1145PM, that f number being the problem. A good eyepiece to get 100x or 120x could be fairly costly.

Another problem about buying someone else a scope is the mount. You basically have Dobsonian or Equitorial. I prefer equitorials with a motor drive, simply not really have got the idea of nudging a scope, but an equitorial needs setting up. Others have no problem nudging a scope and hate the idea of setting up an equitorial.

Which camp does your father fall into?

It is relevant. If someone gave me a dobsonian I wouldn't really have a clue, but an equitorial can scare people.

Where in London are you, there are retailers in and around the area that may be better then Pulsar and which you can call into and talk thing through.

[Laurie61]

I agree with Peter, the 130 p is the more capable of the two. For a bit more you can get this (link) which has a conventional solid tube and better focuser with the same optics as the 130 p, which might be another option. 

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

[Alfian]

A couple of years ago, I was in the position of your dad! Although I have been interested in Astronomy since I was a kid - I'd never been a participant so to speak - and then right out of the blue my son bought me a Celestron 130EQ! I was thrilled with it  - the Equatorial mount took a bit of getting to but the whole thing launched me into a quite a steep learning curve - and I've never looked back. I've come to realise that the 130EQ is not perfect and I've played with it to improve it - the important thing is that its given me a hobby that I absolutely love and consumes much of my thoughts. I've since moved on a bit - decided the things I like more than others and bought more equipment to persue those interests. I do not use the 130EQ that much now but I will always be grateful for it.

The moral of this little tale is that probably no matter what you buy - it will hopefully become a starting point.

To that end, I'd be inclined to keep it simple so would support the Heritage 130P idea. The Evostar 90mm refractor, mentioned, might be smaller aperture wise, but is a very competent fuss free scope that punches above its weight and will give good views of many of the brighter objects. Either of these would serve  any budding astronomer well.  One thing - is that if your dad catches the astronomy bug you will never be stuck for Xmas or birthday present ideas again! (Books, eyepeces etc) Hope it all works out for you and your dad and a Happy Xmas.

[Charic]

newbie1..........Hi, ........I`m with ronin's views on this one, however many people do like their Heritage 130P.

The Heritage is a Salutation to astronomers of the past, and wouldn't look out of place stored in a living room as a focal point and conversation piece ( you don't mention Mother, Mothers don't like additions to their living space unless its theirs? ( check this image  http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/201589-heritage-130p-it-followed-me-home/ )

Of the two scopes you mention, and as a total beginner (Dad) I'm sure he'd be delighted with the  Heritage 130P There's a video here.  (  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEs_MMcJ7JA#t=98   [forget the Christmas offer, that was 2009!] )

In adition to the lenses supplied, maybe get a  BST Starguider 8mm or 12mm from skies_unlimited on ebay. If you buy both, you can return the one you dont like, or keep them both?

[Naemeth]

I'd get the Heritage 130P, one thing to bear in mind is that it does sit close to the ground, so it's always handy to have a chair with you to sit it on .

[Charic]

I would also suggest not viewing from behind a  closed window ie in your bedroom, as the extra, and often dirty window panes/ double glazing  will affect the view. Also make sure the scope is not just balanced on a window sill / ledge, for obvious reasons.

[newbie1]

Hi, thank you so much for your replies, Its so nice to have some suggestions when I really don't know what I'm looking for.

I will have a look and maybe this could be the beginning of a nice little hobby for my Dad...

Thank you 

[Alfian]

Hope it all goes well - and as for a "little hobby" - its a BIG universe out there!

[newbie1]

I agree with Peter, the 130 p is the more capable of the two. For a bit more you can get this (link) which has a conventional solid tube and better focuser with the same optics as the 130 p, which might be another option. 

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

Hi again

Sorry I'm still thinking about this - I was looking at this one you recommended looking at and the reviews which seem pretty good! I can see that you can get it with a motor, how important/relevant do you think this is? I have also been reading about the explorer 130P (instead of the 130M) which people seem to say is slightly better...

Basically, the 130M which is £165, comes with motor drive & includes a barlow x2 lense (which costs about £30), whilst the 130P is the same price, without the motor or barlow, but reviews suggest it is a better telescope? 

Which one do you think I would be better off considering?

Would appreciate any more advice.. Thank you 

[AndyWB]

Well, I've a Heritage 130p, and I really like it. I've found that the trusses are pretty accurate, and don't induce collimation errors. There have been reports a few times recently about some of them not closing correctly when they're cold - something to do with differential cooling on the truss - but that hasn't affected mine.

One possible advantage of the Heritage 130p is that it is an Alt-Az mount - that is, you move it up and down, left and right to look at things. It doesn't track things across the sky, though, so you have to 'nudge' it along from time to time. I don't find that a problem.

The Explorer 130M and 130p come with Equatorial mounts. These you align with the pole star, so you only need to swing from left to right to track something in the sky, and the motor will, with a bit of luck, do that for you. They do seem to be a bit more complicated to use. They're also necessary if you want to do photography, though most astrophotographers would recommend a much sturdier mount, I think.

Either way, the optics should be similar. Since February, I've apparently logged 78 Messier objects and 14 Caldwell ones (two of the more famous catalogs of "bright things to see", so there are much more than the planets to look at.

[Schorhr]

+1 for the Heritage.

I had smaller telescopes and then the 130/650 on a little more studry astro3 eq mount, and my oppinion is that the eq2 or eq1 mount may be fine for small telescopes but everything else is just frustrating and the manufacturer try to sell a nice bundle at a low price, saving on the mount.

Astrophotography isn't point+shoot as terrestrial is, and especially not with a eq1 or eq2... A GOOD camera with 30 second exposure, or better a DSLR, a decent 50 to 300mm lens and a diy Barndoor mount will be much easier and rewarding to get into imaging deepsky without spending a lot of money.

Even if the heritage's dobsonian mount is low, you can get a box, beer case or a small table to put it on. THE advantage oh the heritage is that it will fit into a (bigger) backpack while still providing a relatively large aperture compared to the small 70mm refractors or maks often sold at amazon and such.

Later the heritage can still be mounted on a neq3 or celestron slt goto. But with the right maps or book finding things is easy as cake after a while. Check stellarium where the planets will stand, they are among the brightest objects (if currently up) and easy to aim at.

The Heritage lacks an eyepiece around 3mm (40£ for a hr planetary or bst explorer, forget cheap plössl as their eye relief under 6-10mm is horrible).

[bingevader]

Hi again

Sorry I'm still thinking about this - I was looking at this one you recommended looking at and the reviews which seem pretty good! I can see that you can get it with a motor, how important/relevant do you think this is? I have also been reading about the explorer 130P (instead of the 130M) which people seem to say is slightly better...

Basically, the 130M which is £165, comes with motor drive & includes a barlow x2 lense (which costs about £30), whilst the 130P is the same price, without the motor or barlow, but reviews suggest it is a better telescope? 

Which one do you think I would be better off considering?

Would appreciate any more advice.. Thank you 

The P is a better 'scope.

The P is for parabolic, because that's what type of mirror you get with it. It's better at focusing the light onto the secondary mirror than a flat mirror (which you will get with the 130M) and so doesn't lose as much light.

But at the end of the day it is up to you!

[cussine]

+1 for the Heritage 130P, I have one and think it's a great scope, you could always move to a bigger scope with an eq as your hobby progresses. I read that the Heritage holds it's resale value really well although not many come up for sale, must be a good reason for this.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Alfian]

Hi, just to echo Schorhr's comments, I have the Celestron 130EQ which is on an EQ2 equivalent mount. I have modified it to make it more stable (different tripod) - an EQ3 would make it a much better package - but of course this costs a lot more.