Hello from Kent - can you solve my analysis paralysis?

[SandsofEss]

Hello SGL forum,

You seem like a very friendly bunch, so I’m hoping you’ll be patient when facing the same question you seemingly face every single day.

I am, of course, a beginner trying to settle on a first telescope.

Specifically, a beginner who has spent several nights trying to decide on a first telescope, constantly changing my mind and ending up no nearer to knowing what I want.

I’m going to continue to read and fret, but after having seen a tonne of good advice on other threads here, I thought I’d throw my specs on to your collective wisdom. Here goes:

Who we are

The telescope will be ‘shared’ between my 5 year old daughter and me. She’s quite patient and capable of being very gentle, but anything ultra complex or fiddly will probably be unsuitable.

What we’d like to see

For my daughter, it’s planets, planets, planets. While she accepts that Pluto – her true love - won’t be visible; clear, colourful and detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn will be a must. Whichever scope we get, I know this means I’ll have to upskill fast!

For me, I’d like to be able to track detail on the planets (rings, moons and spots ideally), but also have the option of shifting to deeper space as my skills develop. I think that showing my daughter a majestic spiral galaxy for the first time will also get her hooked on DSOs.

Night sky conditions

We live in a Kentish village, so fairly good dark skies from the garden.

How we’d use it

Quick 30 minute sessions in the garden after dinner on school nights. Longer, later viewings for me once the kids are in bed. And the occasional midnight star picnic in a nearby field.

I don’t think I’ll be looking to do any astrophotography.

Where we’d store it

I have a suitable space easily accessed and next to the back door. I’d build a lockable cabinet in the space to keep out grubby fingers.

What we’ve been thinking

Two nights ago I thought I’d settled on a refractor, given the ease of use, suitability for planetgazing, and the ultra-low maintenance. But then I started seeing comments from people persuaded to ditch refractors for Skywatcher Dobsonians, and now I’m back to square one.

Budget

The all-important one. I think I’d be willing to go up to £300 for the right telescope, but then coming in a lot lower than that will give me more room to negotiate with the wife to spend hour after hour outside.
 

**

I think that's all of the pertinent info. Anybody able to grasp my dilemma by the horns and make my decision for me?

I'll be grateful for any and all advice, though fair warning, I'll probably umm and ahh for a while yet before casting my lot.

[BeanerSA]

Have you considered attending a star party with a local astronomy group?

[kalasinman]

I was right there with you until the last bit. Unless I've missed something, getting detail on planets requires long focal length and high grade optics.

I was going to recommend a nice SCT for ease of use and portability. But not at a 300 quid budget.

Seems some sort of refractor with a high powered Barlow is as close as I can think of.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi 'SoundofEss' & daughter and welcome to SGL.

Decisions, decisions, desicions. Tough call. As per 'BeanerSA' suggested, attend a star-party (or few) and join a local society and see what others are using. Though for you budget then maybe the SkyWatcher 200 Dob. Though not suitable for astro-photography of DSO's they are good for lunar and planets. Just place on a level surface an that is it. Good luck and congratulations (in advance) on your 'scope.

[Physopto]

A good mak would do you. No colimation to worry about nice views and easy to use. Look at second hand maybe.

And welcome to the forum to you both.

Derek

[PeterCPC]

Hi and welcome. Hope you choose well.

Peter

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire  I would post this question in here http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/124-discussions-scopes-whole-setups/ to be honest you will get more response and then i would "umm and ahh" for a good while before deciding.

[swag72]

Hi and welcome to SGL - This 'what shall I buy' dilemma is a common one for us all I hope that armed with the right information you can make the best choice. I can't help I'm afraid as I don't 'do' visual. Getting along to an astro club would be a great idea, you'd be able to see scopes in the flesh, hopefully look through some and get an idea of what sort of views you'd be happy with. Good luck

[ronin]

For planets and "general" viewing then a refractor is good, they do all thing reasonably, their "catch" is for aperture and magnification each of the other varieties do individual aspects better and people tend to look for "The Biggest" or "The Longest", anything ending in "est" it seems.

When you ask about a scope there is no mention of a mount. Cannot have a scope without a mount - well pretty useless if you did.

2 "varieties" of mounts: Alt/Az (Up/Down/Left/Right) oe Equitorial (sort of round and round).

I guess Alt/Az, easier to get the idea of.

At the budget either would need to be manual, or look at the used market (??) >> ABSUK.

A tracking mount is useful, otherwise both of you need to be able to manually locate items.

Actually there is a Bresser 102 f/6 refractor for sale on ABSUK now at £140.

If you get an equitorial mount then at least the EQ3-2 and better the EQ5.

Suggest you ignore the EQ2 - just too lightweight.

Back to scopes. A dobsonian would do the job, that basically means 6" or 8". Before you run off to get the 8" what is the budget for additional items?

You will need/want 2 more eyepieces (about a week after getting the scope) and at some time you will need a collimator.

The 6" dobsonian is smaller but easier to transport, being a "slower" scope it is easier on eyepieces and retains collimation better.

In the refractor line I would say go look at the Evostar Achromatic range, 90mm or 102mm.

For a first scope I think the criteria should be along the lines of something easy that will get picked up and taken out and used.

To me a decent 80mm will have you looking through it more.

Seems there are quite a few clubs in Kent: http://www.astronomyclubs.co.uk/Clubs/Default.aspx?CountyId=2

Problem at present with a club is they pack up for the summer, the nights are too short and remain too light to do any real observing.

Check if any are doing an event for June 21st.

Summer Solstice, and a Sunday, so there is International SUNday.

An excuse to have a meeting, stand round and look at the sun. However there will be people and likely scopes, other then solar scopes.

Hopefully the weather will allow it, and if clear and warm a pleasant gathering.

[Stu]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I'm a self confessed refractor nut, but actually I don't recommend you get a refractor. In order to get decent planetary views I think you would need to spend more than your budget.

A warning in terms of expectations.... Planetary views won't be big or colourful still! Jupiter will show some subtle pinks, oranges and browns, but is actually past its best for the year. Saturn shows subtle shading on the surface but again, not dramatic colour. Think more 'pea sized at arms length' than football sized!

I recommend you look at something like a Skywatcher 150P. This is a f8 scope (nice long focal length) which should give excellent planetary views whilst being relatively easy to collimate and also less tough on eyepieces, by which I mean you don't need to buy really expensive eyepieces to get good views.

The aperture is small enough to not be overly affected by poor seeing but also big enough to have the light grasp and resolution to show the features you are interested in, in good detail.

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

At £198, it still leaves you room for a couple of eyepieces to get the best planetary views. I would suggest magnifications of between x150 and x200 which in this scope means 8, 7 or 6mm eyepieces.

Good luck with your choice.

Stu

[slim80]

Hi welcome to SGL.IF you are wanting something that you can set up quick for short session's and ease of transport a GOTO might be more sutable for you and your family.You csn pick up a celestron Nexstar 4se for around £300-£350.Good luck in your search

[hippie]

Welcome to SGL  .

[Dave Lloyd]

Hello and welcome.

[JonC]

Look for a club, most have a range of kit and the willingness to demonstrate it. I joined up with the Orpington club last week, they do a range of activities including outreach to schools.

[happy-kat]

after reading a long thread again on the TAL100 that refractor second hand on a easy to use AltAz tripod would be my suggestion.

Why

Refractor ready to use for your 30 minute sessions, easy to setup, lovely wide field views and can take a good magnification on good seeing evenings and looks like a telescope should from a child perspective. Just enough aperture to start finding grey DSO fuzzys.

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, SandsOfEss!

Dana

[avtaram]

+1 for Bigsumorian's suggestion.

I have the 150PL which is not on a Dob base but otherwise the same scope, very easy to collimate and keeps it's collimation well.

I use it mainly for double stars but it is also great on the moon and planets.

Avtar

[xtreemchaos]

hi mate and welcome to the wonderfull world of SGL from south wales,i think everthing been covered so i think a dob would be good for you, you dont need a mount thay are easy to use and if you got a secondhand one you could have money left to buy extra astro goodys.good luck in your choice,all the best charl.

[SteveA]

Hello...welcome to SGL!

I dare say you will get plenty of different recomendations, but in you situation I might week go for one of these;

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/skywatcher-skymax-127-synscan-az-goto.html

Just about ticks all your boxes, though just slightly over budget...so you could go for the slightly smaller Skymax 102.

[damnut]

Hi There,

Warm welcome to SGL. All the advice is available above. But, before parting with cash what I would do is to go to a local astro meet and see what others have and then what may suit you best. The easy scopes are a 127mak, 150p dob  and the 8" dob, and would be ideal for your use.

Download a planetarium program, plenty out there but try stellarium its great and free. To be found here :-- http://www.stellarium.org/.. Also a couple of books 'turn left at orion' will help guide you round the sky and 'sky&telescope pocket star atlas' to show you where objects are!.

[Stridor]

Hi and welcome; a lot of decisions to make, on balance I think as has already been mentioned, perhaps a 150mm Dobsonian may be the way to go. I'm a member of Ashford Astronomical Society based in Woodchurch, on clear nights there are a number of different scopes out scanning the sky which one can look through and get a feel of; I believe they can loan equipment as well if this is anywhere near you?

[knobby]

Hi, first I'll say that sharing your scope with your daughter will be a beautiful thing to cherish and remember ( been doing it with mine from about 6 to 13 years ) definitely pop along to a club meet as suggested and maybe F1 telescopes to check out some scopes in real life to get a feel for the size

[glowjet]

Hi SandsofEss and welcome to SGL, much advice already, if you repost in the "Getting Started Sections", I am sure you will avail yourself of a lot more useful information, till you probably find yourself back to where you started, a little overwhelmed.

To my mind you have two important issues, your 5 year old Daughter and your budget. The best bang for your buck and ease of use, is going to lie with the Dobsonian range and probably the 150mm will meet your requirements for the present time. If you want to search for a quality instrument on the s/h market, such as Astro/buysell then you can extend this to the 200P, this is, I should think, the most popular scope bought by newcomers to Astronomy, will stand a reasonable amount of magnification for views of the Planets and also useful for DSO, can subsequently be adapted to fit an equatorial mount with tracking capabilities and future photography if you so wish.

I hope you reach a satisfactory decision and subsequently gain pleasure from viewing the night skies with your daughter, enjoy the forum 

PS. break this gently to your Daughter, but Pluto has been down graded and is no longer classed as a Planet

[ToxoLight]

Hi SoundofEss' & daughter and welcome to the lounge.

[Mark-V]

Hi and welcome from the Kent coast