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Aldi v Lidl scopes

kendonagasaki

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kendonagasaki

kendonagasaki

Posted
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Hi,

I bought a £40 Dobson telescope from Aldi the other day but suspect it might not be very good at all! I notice that Lidl has a Bresser one for sale tomorrow  that seems higher quality for £70.

This is just for my 7 year old for Christmas who is very interested in space and the stars, so I don't want to spend a fortune for a complete beginner... but should I take the Dobson back and get the Bresser from Lidl? The Bresser has a tripod at least...

You can probably tell I know very little about telescopes!

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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The truth is that workable telescopes cost more than this. I would stay clear of high street stores and start here; http://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-heritage-100p-tabletop-dobsonian.html

It is also vital to have some way of knowing where to point the telescope or you will just see blackness and a few stars, though the moon won't disappoint. There is the free planetarium Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/en/ which an adult might peruse before Christmas so as to be able to help a child find things to look at in the new scope. WIthout an idea of what to look at and how to find it an astronomical telescope is remarkably useless. The universe is a big place...

Olly

Edit, Starfox beat me to the link but we agree.

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Chris

Chris

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I took the Aldi one back - will probably order the Skywatcher Heritage 76 Mini Dobsonian as suggested by Bingevader.

Digger1895 - What is a Special Ramsden ocular 4mm? Is this something useful or are making a joke?

Would it be worth putting a shout out on this forum to see if anyone has owned and used the Heritage 76 Mini Dob? You know, just to make sure its a proper good quality working optical instrument that's not going to upset your childs interest in astronomy.

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stevend

stevend

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My sister recently asked me about getting scope for her daughter/my niece. I also asked her to contact FLO and they (like me) recommended the Skywatcher Heritage 100P - which she will get on christmas day. I also suggested another relative get her a planisphere. ;)

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Chris

Chris

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If 4mm is the diameter then that does seem very small - not sure I'd find it!

4mm is the focal length of the eyepiece. Divide the focal length of the telescope by the focal length of the eyepiece and you get the magnification. So in the case of the Heritage 76 and the 4mm SR eyepiece: 300mm/4mm = 75x magnification.

The Ramsden is a very old design of eyepiece which shows a lot of chromatic aberration (purple blurring on bright objects), it was ok say 200 years ago maybe but not upto the job now days. This is why they make good dust caps :)

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bill_reed

bill_reed

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I bought the Bresser skylux 70/700mm almost 7 years ago at lidl but back then it came with a EQ2 mount. over all it's a good starter scope and the three eyepieces bvack then were not bad for a scope of this price. back then you got a 4mm 12mm and a 20mm, the 12 and 20 were useful but the 4 as hardly ever used, the barlow is cheep. the scope itself is not bad! I'm still using it but as a spotter scope on my 6" refractor. the Bresser scope was that good I kept it for a spotting scope. also with the Bresser being a refractor! takes a bit more bumping around and has no mirror's needing to be adjusted  and can be put in the car and not worry about it being knocked out of collimation when you go over a bump in the road. you also get a 5 year guarantee!

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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If looking for a small budget Dob, then this one surely must be the winner:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

It has quite a fan base. 

I should be getting royalties from Skywatcher for the number of times i have mentioned this scope.

It really is a cracker of a scope.

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