Beginner wanting advice

[Steve Hayter]

Hi Guys, hope you are all good? I am looking for good a quality telescope to start me up in some stargazing. Myself and wife are very keen and have been for years and are looking for a good quality start up kit for beginners but at the same time want the telescope to suit us a little further once we get used to and go beyond the beginners stage. We have a budget of around £300. I do apologise as you guys probably get this all the time but we have been serious for quite a few years but never stepped up to buy a telescope. Also we maybe getting ahead of ourselves but we are keen to have the telescope to be able to fit our camera so we can take photos. Can this be done? Anyones assistnace in giving us guidance would be appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Stevo

[Langy]

Hi Stevo and welcome to SGL.

I'm fairly new myself so will leave the scope to others.

However when you say attach your camera, can you let us know what camera you have and what would you be wanting to take pictures of?

Lunar and Planetary imaging is usually done with a webcam as video is recorded and the images are stacked in free software like Registax. It is still more than possible for these with a DSLR (video preferred) or if you have a compact camera then it is possible to take AFocal images through the EP but becomes more difficult and there may be further quality issues. If you are looking at anything else like DSO then that is a different matter. Imaging through the scope for DSO often takes deep pockets and your budget would probably not even go far enough for the mount alone.

Another option that I do is wide field imaging where I sit my DSLR on top of the scope using its own lens, which driven by a motor tracks the earths movement. As I have a cheap scope / mount I'm still limited on exposure times but they have massively increased compared to sitting the camera on a tripod.

Hope that helps a little.

[knobby]

Could you maybe find a local club that holds open evenings? That way you'll get to see the actual size of the scopes and what you can see through them.

all the best

[Steve Hayter]

Hi Guys,

Thank you so much for the swift response. We have a Nikon D3200 SLR camera. And yes we will find a local club that hold evenings. Thats a good idea!!!

Thank you so much.

Kind Regards,

Stevo

[ronin]

Looking at Fedastro there are 7 clubs in Kent - Fedastro

Visual astronomy will be fairly easy - depending on what you actually want, a 150p dobsonian  is a fair possibility, but if you want a goto then things start getting a bit more costly, the Skymax 102 comes in at £299, the 127 is £359.

The problem is: "to be able to fit our camera so we can take photos" bit.

Imaging is more specialist and you have to choose the equipment to suit.

Planets will bo OK on the 102 or 127 goto, you put a webcam in where the eyepiece goes, take a video and process.

Drawback, not that many planets. Maybe a few other steps like focus it etc.

If you want things like the Orion Nebula, Andromeda and other fuzzies you need an equitorial mount with motors at least. Also for "fuzzies" the bias alters. For visual you want a nice big scope, for AP you want a good solid mount and, generally, a smaller scope.

Look up a club or two and pay them a visit and see what the people use and find out why. Also seeing a scope can often mean you are drawn to one design or another.

If attaching a camera was paramount then the "starter" is really something like the 130PDS on an equitorial (EQ5) with dual motors. An EQ3-2 may works but they are not that solid a mount.

[Pyrodave]

Agree with all the above posts, get yourself to a local club and see firsthand the different types of equipment available 

I think you'll find it difficult to actually stick to a budget as there's always something out there that you just can't do without   for example, upgrading eyepieces,finderscopes ,goto,camera adaptors etc

Good luck with whatever gear you decide on 

[Owmuchonomy]

I'd agree that you should hunt out your local club first.  In similar fashion to the quote in the film Jaws, 'You're going to need a bigger budget'.

[happy-kat]

But you could get a scope for visual and add a webcam to image planets. Then separately build a barn door tracker for your camera and take wide field shoots of longer exposure.

There is much to consider, do you have storage space, can you lift heavy stuff, do you have far too carry stuff to observe, do you want to find things by hand or do you want a mount to do that for you.

[Stevehu]

This is a great playlist on youtube that will give you more than enough info to decide on a scope. I went with a 130 ST Orion. It fit exactly what I was looking for without breaking the bank.

Here is a great beginners playlist on yoututbe.

[Stevehu]

This is a great playlist on youtube that will give you more than enough info to decide on a scope. I went with a 130 ST Orion. It fit exactly what I was looking for without breaking the bank.

Here is a great beginners playlist on yoututbe.

Here is the correct link since i can not go back and edit my original post.

[Charic]

Hi Guys, hope you are all good? I am looking for good a quality telescope to start me up in some stargazing. Myself and wife are very keen and have been for years and are looking for a good quality start up kit for beginners but at the same time want the telescope to suit us a little further once we get used to and go beyond the beginners stage. We have a budget of around £300. I do apologise as you guys probably get this all the time but we have been serious for quite a few years but never stepped up to buy a telescope. Also we maybe getting ahead of ourselves but we are keen to have the telescope to be able to fit our camera so we can take photos. Can this be done? Anyones assistnace in giving us guidance would be appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Stevo

Stevehu.......Hi,  Until that last sentence, I would have suggested the Skywatcher 'Skyliner' 8" (200P) Dobsonian telescope.

Astrophotography is quite critical in the  choice in equipment and, a must have, very solid mount, that supports tracking, often costing as much, if not more than the telescope itself ?

I'm still studying  astrophotography , and as you may see from my gallery, initial results are ok, just the image scale is too small for me (those images are not edited or cropped), But the Dobsonian (Dobsonian is the name of the inventor of the base unit ~ the telescope is still a Newtonian telescope) was never purchased for photographic use. The Skyliner is very good for visual use, oh so  easy when setting up, and works very well with the  great value BST Starguider eyepieces.

If you do get the feeling that having the one telescope that screams " I can do it all"  but at  more than 3 or 4 times your original  outlay, give the Skyliner some thought for just observational use.

[Stevp]

I started with a 150p on an eq3-2 with dual motors. Good enough for beginner visual and some starter photography attaching dslr. 2 years later and I'm now wanting to do some more in the way of photography so I'm now buying a better mount. 2 years has given me quite a time to save though

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[TrixieLoyalist]

If you want to take photos I read an equatorial mount is best but you have a small budget so maybe this could work it probably be too much weight on the mount though but you could upgrade later to a bigger mount but this scope looks heavy so an EQ5 might not be enough.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-150pl-eq3-2.html

You'd need to add this though so the mount could track stuff while you do photos/video

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/dual-axis-dc-motor-drive-for-eq3-2.html

Alternately you could up your budget and get this

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-150p-ds-eq3-2-eq3-pro-goto.html

[Steve91]

When I first started out around 2 months ago I originally decided on a £300 budget too. But with a lot of research and questions asked I was advised to look at the celestron nexstar 127 and the skywatcher sky max 127, both pretty much identical scopes besides the handset. They are a little bit more at £360 but in my opinion a perfect scope for a beginner, the goto system is dead easy, the scope is very compact and easy to set up and with a webcam and my DSLR I've managed to get some images I'm fairly happy with don't get me wrong it's not the perfect imaging set up by any means but for me it's perfect for now

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