New telescope for 6year old

[spooks007]

Hi all I asked the question to my boy "what would you like from father christmas" and out of the blue came the word "telescope". I have no idea where how or what. Over the past few days I have been trawling through the site and on line retailers to get an idea of what to get for him.  I would like to get him something to look at the planets Moon, saturn etc, I want to get him somehing decent but OTT.  I have a budget of around £140.

The ones I have been looking at are

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Skywatcher_Mercury_70mm_Telescope-1.html

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Bresser_Mars_Explorer_70mm_Refractor-1.html

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Skywatcher_EVOSTAR-90__EQ2__90mm_f_900_Refractor_Telescope-1.html

Which of them is best suited to his needs if at all. I am also open to suggestions.

Thanks

[jnb]

My experience is that the Bresser tend to be slightly better than the Skywatcher equivalents, though for most purposes Skywatchers are perfectly adequate. The last one on your list is on an equatorial mount which is an extra complication which you might not want a six year old to face. With telescopes aperture is the main thing which is a virtue of the last one.

Normally I would avoid altaz mounts but for a 6 year old that might be the way to go. Also consider how big and heavy these things can be, a 90mm f10 refractor could be 1.2m long, add an equatorial and that could weight 10kg or more, equatorial mounts can be quite heavy. Also reflectors offer more for your money but a refractor will look like a child's image of a telescope. Some of the following links might also be suitable suggestions.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/skywatcher-evostar-90-az3.html - Looks like a telescope, reasonable aperture, sacrifices the equatorial mount but easier to use

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-az3.html - Slightly smaller and a lot shorter so it's easier to handle

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html - general suggestions

http://planewave.com/products-page/cdk700/ - possibly a little over budget

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html - small and light which is good for a 6 yr old, lots of aperture for the money but doesn't look like a telescope and needs to be set up on a table top.

and lastly don't dismiss the idea of binoculars. They have the advantage that if it's a passing interest they are still usable

[buzzlightyear]

Good luck in your choice.

[D4N]

I'd go for a spotting scope for a kid that young.

Advantages are:

Lightweight

Rubberised - rugged and designed to bounce around in a backpack

Often have a zoom lens - no EP dropping accidents

Erect image is much easier to understand

Can be fitted to lightweight camera tripods

Celestron do a nice range of mak's and frac's for this.

Personally I have a C50 that I expect will be my sons first scope but he's only 4 so just got his first bino's.

Obviously a dob will give them the best views but you will have to do all the work then and there's far more chance of bits breaking.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

[moriniboy]

We use a 130P Heritage at our Scout group, which includes young Beaver Scouts, they have no problem dealing with this type of scope as its so logical to use.

As a bonus it comes with a red dot finder which is very easy to use as well i.e. put red dot on bit you want to see, look through the eyepiece and its there.

Check out this link, there are a couple on here.

http://www.astroboot.co.uk/bargain-zone.html

[ollypenrice]

Refractors are robust and can be used for daytime objects as well. I would avoid reflectors with young children, personally.

I would keep the focal length short so as to give a wider field of view so this http://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-az3.html would be my recommendation. With an inexpensive 45 degree prism it can be used on terrestrial targets as well and, if he remains interested, it has other astronomical uses for later on.

Olly

[Digger1895]

"Possibly a little over budget"

Lol

[Jim Steele]

Hi Spooks,

I'd second a refractor, much less maintainance and robust. I would avoid the EQ2 since it is rather flimsy. How about the Evostar 90 on the AZ3?

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/skywatcher-evostar-90-az3.html

Ben

[spooks007]

Hi Spooks,

I'd second a refractor, much less maintainance and robust. I would avoid the EQ2 since it is rather flimsy. How about the Evostar 90 on the AZ3?

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/skywatcher-evostar-90-az3.html

Ben

As I am total novice to all this I hink I have my heart set on the Evostar, but what the difference between the two mounts? and which would be the easier for my boy (well me) to use

[jnb]

Altaz mounts (altitude and azimuth) just go up, down, left and right. Equatorial mounts can be lined up with the Earths rotation. That requires two extra axes to get it to line up and usually a counterweight to balance everything. The advantage is that the telescope can follow the movement of the Earth so that as the Earth rotates the telescope will stay still and what you are looking at will stay in the eyepiece as the Earth moves. This is mainly an advantage for photography but adds to the complexity and weight. Because of the weight alone I would, for a six year old, suggest an altaz mount. Lighter equatorials are available but they make compromises on stability etc.
 
Personally I prefer equatorials because once I've found something I want to be able to leave a motor on so that I can wander off, have a coffee and a chat and then come back to the scope but for the reasons above I would in this case suggest an altaz. Also for what it's worth I started with a Bresser 90mm refractor, which is optically the same as the Evostar 90 albeit with a different mount. Size may still be a consideration, a quick google finds this ...
 

which should give some idea of the size. I would recommend them but my concern would be the physical size for a six year to handle.

[baggywrinkle]

For a six year old keep it simple, Look at the Skywatcher Star Travel scopes on an AZ mount. Or as has been suggested a good spotting scope.

[happy-kat]

I use the startravel 80 on a altaz3 mount as in ollypenrice post above as my grab and go and I am really happy with it.

The mount is easy to use and the height can be adjusted as I sit down to observe. Lovely views with it even the moon looked good with better eyepiece used (add at a later date) the views can be further improved. I can make out the 2 main bands on Jupiter and the main 4 moons. There is CA on bright objects like planets but I find it fine. I can't remember if I used my own eyepiece there though.

[happy-kat]

Meant to add I have the mercury 705 and I found I prefer the ST80 views but the price of the mercury 705 on the altaz3 tripod but your link to the mercury has a poor tripod looking at the image this is a better mount here for the telescope

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/search/for/mercury+705/

[Earl]

Personally I like the table top mounted ST80 as this could be far easier to setup for a child to use.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-tabletop-telescope.html

If you want a bette mount you could consider that further down the line.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Personally I like the table top mounted ST80 as this could be far easier to setup for a child to use.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-tabletop-telescope.html

If you want a bette mount you could consider that further down the line.

Good idea about the tabletop mount. Kids are used to sitting in school all day and not used to standing up for any period of time. Also i think his concentration will be better if he is seated and resting.

[ronin]

Go for the Evostar 90, looks like a proper telescope to a 6 year old. :grin:

The EQ2 mount is a bit too lightweight and if you ot that mount it means that you would need to spend 10 minutes setting it up with him Means to two of you out there which may be preferred.

The Alt/Az mount is simpler.

The next EQ mount up is the EQ3-2, that is more solid and you can fit motors, they at least allow tracking of whatever target. I would however expect vibration od EQ2 and EQ3-2 to some extent.

One option is get the Alt/Az mount initially for ease and if the interest remains then get an EQ3-2 later and fit motors, also search the used sites.

The Evostar 90 is a nice first scope.

Where in South Wales?

They may be a club to go along to within reasonable distance.

[happy-kat]

Just want to add that the altaz3 with legs not fully raised I use while sitting on a plastic garden chair easy with the ST80.

A table to mount if an equatorial mount could be too much for a 6 year old and not be sturdy/stable enough.