Any tips or advice for choosing my first telescope?

[andynpage]

Hi. I have a lifelong interest in visual astronomy and now that I have retired I want to get more involved. I have never owned a telescope and now that I have spare time and money I want to buy my first one. My viewing will be mainly of the moon and planets and will be recreational ( i.e.an hour or so viewing) I really cannot decide whether to buy a refractor, a dob, or a Newtonian/SCT. Also I'm not sure whether I should get a smaller telescope such as a 6 inch diameter or a larger 8 inch or 10 inch. Can you give me some help guys?

[PeterCPC]

It would help if you could give some idea of budget.

In general I would say go to a local club and see what others use - it should narrow it down some.

Peter

[CodnorPaul]

A minefield - a lot depends on budget, whether you want go to or manual, and personal preference.

A 6 or 8 inch SCT on an alt-az mount (SE series or CPC) is simple to use and set up (no polar alignment required) and provides enough aperture to enjoy both planets and DSOs, plus having go to - but has a slightly higher cost and will require about one hour cool down time before using.

A refractor on an alt-az mount with go to will cost again and will probably be manual (without go to) but will require no cool down and no collimation - but will not have the aperture to really enjoy any DSOs.

A reflector on an alt-az dob base is a cheap way to get big aperture (depending on own lifting capabilities) but will have no go to (unless you pay more for a go to version).

Then there is the question of focal length and optic quality.

[acey]

If you're mainly going to be looking at moon and planets then I would suggest the best 4" refractor you can afford. Large aperture is advantageous for deep-sky viewing, but only if you're willing to transport the telescope to a sufficiently dark site. If you're able to get the 4" to a dark site it will in any case show more deep-sky objects than a 16" dob in a light polluted garden. For planets the key thing is resolution, not light grasp, and resolution is generally limited by the atmosphere, not the scope.

[ronin]

It is really almost impossible to say.

When someone "starts" this they want a scope that will do everything. Trouble is they want one that does everything well, and there is the problem.

Are you going to jump in and spend a lot, or try it and see how it goes so spend a little.

The Evostar 90 is a reasonable first refractor, similar is a Tal at 100mm dia. An Evostar 90 on an EQ3-2 is £230. Now the next question how good a scope?

The Evostar 90 is an achromat and will have some CA, at 90mm there is a used WO Meg 90 on ABSUK at £450. So same diameter, but just the scope and preowned but close to double the cost.

On the reflector side you will get pushed to the biggest possible, in the last 4 months here I can recall 3 people that have purchased bigger and bigger reflectors and two have sold up and abandoned it all and one is back to looking at smaller scopes.

Level of technology, you have none at all, some as in a driven mount and full as in a goto system. Each one has their advantages and their disadvantages. So again no one does everything well.

Two bits of advice is get along to a club, difficult at present, and have a look at the assorted scopes, what people use is not always what you are told to get, don't believe everything you are told. Check out the Guildford club for possible meetings. If you want a fair drive at Leamington Spa in about 2 weeks is the IAS (Astro Show) and there will be loads of scopes to look at there.

Other thing is buy a scope that you are going to actually pick up and use.

This one aspect is probably the most overlooked, but if you are not looking through a scope you are not doing any form of astronomy.

As will have been asked: Budget, Where is it to be used, Who will use it, Your realistic expectations, Does budget included extras - as in: You have £500 to spend on a scope but will also need 3 or 4 eyepieces from that budget as well - means about £300-350 on the scope.

[Jim Steele]

Best advice I could give you is to visit your local astronomy club since they will have lots of advice and a scope or two to look through.

8 or 10 inches are big so you need somewhere to keep them but also allow extra time to cool down. I think for a beginner 6 inch reflecing or a 4 inch refractor is a good starting point.

Small enough to carry without giving yourself a hernia yet big enough to see planets the moon and some dso's.

Again I would advise seeing them in person to gauge size.

Hope that helps

[swamp thing]

For the moon and planets, ease of use, set up time, price. This is probably all you'll ever need.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-150p-dobsonian.html

BTW there is a Surrey group on here in the social groups. By all means come along and have a look through some scopes and have a chat.

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Andy and a very warm welcome to the SGL mate - probably the best advice would be, as Dob the Builder (love it!!) says - see if you can get along to the Astronomy Society/group get togethers - they will make you feel very welcome (as all the ones I've met have been fantastic) - with your lifelong interest - you probably know a great deal - so the next step is to dive in and have a look through as many scopes as you can to give you an idea of whats up there visually - people can talk all night about resolution, seeing conditions, optical supremacy - through my experience, as mentioned already are your local conditions (light pollution) will weigh a lot more on getting the best out of the equipment you decide on, the Planets/Moon are a great start - east to find, most of the GOTO mounts will let you align on just the bright stars/Planets - you would be set up in minutes.

 I've been observing for the best part of 25 years, my advice would be to get the largest aperture you can afford and then one you can handle easily for set up (main reason here) - large dobs are quite heavy and cumbersome to move longer distances, especially through doorways up/down steps - as with large SCT's, much smaller tubes, but if Alt Az mounted you have the combined weight of the tube and forks - with EQ mounts you have the problem of actually attaching large tubes one handed at best (with the other hand securing the tube to the mount) and having to rotate the tubes whilst on the mount when moving to different quadrants of the sky.

See if you can get to a few observing sessions and ask as many questions as you can - the Guys/Gals there won't mind in the slightest and will be happy to answer any of your questions - most people say that an 8"SCT is probably a really good balance between aperture and resolution ( resolution will be one of the major factors for you combined with the atmospheric seeing and height of the object above the horizon) but the planets/Moon work very well under light polluted skies - I owned an 8" SCT for about 5 years - I must say when all the variables of atmospherics, seeing and objects at their highest points were favourable - the views were really nice.

Hope that helps a little Andy but just go to a few observing sessions and really work on the people with the scopes - they won't mind - they will give you invaluable advice in helping you choose your scope for you.

Regards.   Paul.

[andynpage]

Thanks to everyone! Some great advice there. I like the sound of the SCTs, as portability is important (I have 3 great nieces and viewing will be easier for them than through a Newtonian.) I am fortunate in that money is not a major prob. Swamp Thing, thanks for Surrey group info. I am in Morden so may see you there!!

[GavStar]

Andy, I was in a similar position to you about 18 months ago, ie wanting to do moon and planetary observation, for shortish 1-2 hour sessions and I live in SW London. I 'm pretty inexperienced but have some observations/thoughts that may be useful.

After some initial research including browsing this forum, my first purchase was 6 inch SCT (celestron 6se). Whilst it is a nice scope and did give decent views it wasn't the right choice for me because:

1) in my opinion it wasn't that portable - the ota and mount head were fairly bulky and heavy.

2) the goto aspect meant that it took a bit of time to set up although I did get quicker and also needed a battery/electricity supply

3) cool down took a while

4) dewed up easily - definitely need a dew shield and possibly a dew heater

5) collimating it wasn't straightforward and I was never sure how well collimated it was.

Perhaps the best advice I've read was that the best telescope is the one you use the most and I wasn't using the 6se as much as I wanted to since the set up and pack away was a bit of a pain.

So I'm now a refractor convert, specifically doublet apo refractors. I've got a 60mm ( for overseas travel and daytime use), 85mm, 100mm and 120mm, all doublet ed or fluorite glass. If I was starting again I clearly wouldn't buy all these different sizes but don't want to sell any at the moment. My favourite currently is the 100mm which is nice and light (3.5kgs) so can be mounted easily on a vixen porta 2 alt az mount (I like the slo mo controls for viewing planets). It's a manual rather than goto setup and I can be outside observing in 5 minutes and the scope fully cooled nice and quickly as well. It means that if I see an opportunity to observe it's easy to me to take advantage of it. Given the light pollution I'm less focused on dsos but it does give good views of the brighter ones. For eyepieces I like ones with 20mm eye relief and I think these are the easiest for family and friends to use as well.

I also like the Baader moon and skyglow filter for use with planets.

Gavin

[brantuk]

One of the most popular scopes is an 8" Newtonian. You can get them on a dobsonian mount (alt/az), or on an equatorial mount - you will need a good quality, sturdy mount. You need to decide if you are going for "manual" or "goto" or simply "motorised". Also consider whether you'll do any imaging in the future - these will all affect your choice.

I'd suggest you set a budget and stick within it at first. Also - get along to your local astro soc and have a look at what types of scopes they use, what they use them for, and how big they are. A lot of beginners are surprised at how large their first scope is when it first arrives. Hth

[lonebod]

How old/tall are your great nieces?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[ollypenrice]

The SCT tends to attract beginners rather disprortionately in my view. I'm not against them, I have one, but they are not a panacea and they can't do everything.

What they can do is give a decent (though not unbeatable) view of the moon and planets. In alt-azimuth form they are handy to use with computerized drive and GoTo. They are compact.

On the down side you have to pick up and carry everything at once, mount and scope. They are dew magnets and need heated tapes to be sure of a clear view much of the time. Passive dew sheilds do not guarantee freedom from dew. They have very long focal lengths so give a more restricted field of view than something with a shorter FL. You may find yourself wanting to enjoy other targets like attractive clusters and extended nebulae in which case a wider field is nice. In a nutshell the SCT may seem like a jack of all trades but I don't see it that way. I see them as fairly specialized, good on the planets and excellent for planetary imaging, where they rule the roost. I'm a bit luke warm about them, I guess, but the point of a forum is to meet various points of view and I'm aware that they have their devotees.

Because they are very hard work for deep sky imaging they come up at low prices on the used market and are excellent value as a result. If you buy new and change your mind you'll take a hit on resale, though.

For all that, I think they should be on your list.

Olly