Celestron Scope for VERY young observers?

[FireForEffect]

Hi everyone,

I'd really appreciate any advice offered on what the best scope would be for a young would be observer - He's my nephew who is 7 and his little sister (5) is an avid Moon fan so it looks like she'll be a potential viewer too.

I've narrowed it down to Celestron GoTo scopes as I'm really impressed with my CPC 800 and it's ease of use with AutoAlign and I have also found Celestron build quality to be excellent. got a £250 to £300 budget - Just not sure which beginner scope would be the 'best' one out of these:

Nexstar 102 SLT

Nexstar 114 SLT

or the Nexstar 4 SE.

Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[John]

Personally I would look hard at a 6 inch dobsonian scope - with children you need as much "wow" factor as possible which needs some aperture and even modest fiddling eg: with GOTO mounts can leave them quickly loosing interest.

Just my thoughts - others will vary no doubt !.

John

[FireForEffect]

Thanks for the reply John, I'm going to take the kids and their Mother to the Widescreen Centre here in London for a look at different scopes - definitely put the dob in the mix to retain that interest - thanks again.

[kniclander]

I bought my neices and nephews (ages 1 to 10) a funny little celstron 3 inch (?) reflector that is shaped like a gourd and sort of sits/ moves around in a little bowl - it is very basic - no finderscope even but you get amazing views of the moon and brighter clusters etc or just scanning the sky. I got mine for £9.99 (!!) form David Hinds when they were having a clearout. i would think that a 6 inch dob would be much to heavy for a 7 year old (and the eyepiece too high up). if I can remember the name I will post again.

ps it's really cute too

[kniclander]

http://www.celestron.com/c2/product.php?CatID=4&ProdID=10

see link

[EA2007]

I agree with 'Jahmanson' on the dobsonian point......

Kids want fun and simplicity (having been one myself), I would keep it easy for now and let your nephew grow into it if he wants to. The good thing about a dob. is the aperture, manouverability and range of observations it can handle. The Nexstar 4 is a mak. cassegrain and for DSO's like faint nebulae and galaxies it doesn't portray them as brightly or as clearly as a newtonian reflector. That said, the mak. does give good contrast for planetary observations although I guess that when you show a child (or indeed anyone) Saturn or Jupiter they want to see the rings and cloud bands, the NexStar4 isn't too good on that point as the cloud bands on Jupiter are not visible and it appears as a large orange blob.

The refelector however can distinguish the bands and rings quite well thus giving a better 'wow' factor, I would try for a cheap 5/6inch reflector and maybe get a barlow lens aswell......thas my input.

[Ajohn]

I bought my son a skywatcher 120mms f8.3 refractor. It's a very usable scope and will give decent views of most things. It would be very wise to get the ra drive to go with it though. There were some wows and a comment asking why there was a blue ring round things. More curiosity than anything else. If you do go in that direction avoid the short startravel version.

I believe celestron also make a very similar scope.

I wouldn't agree at all on a dob. Tracking a planet for instance at a higher magnification is something of a nightmare. They are really intended for low power star gazing. That's a bit limiting for a young child.

If you stick with the go to requirement I would still advise a refractor. It's a better bet than a small reflector of any type.

On viewing there are a number of completely free planetarium software suites available. That will show what can be seen and where it is and at what time. It can be fun to find objects. Much more fun than a poorly aligned go too. Also bear in mind that the best nights for viewing are gone. Astronomy is usually at it's best on cold winter nights maybe starting in September and finishing a month or so ago. Good nights seem to get rarer and rarer as the summer comes on.

John

[FireForEffect]

Thanks again for all the input everyone - much appreciated. Kniclander - my sister-in-law is definitely buying the mini reflector for my niece - thanks for the heads up on that one. Main scope is still to be decided but all the input has been invaluable in getting closer to a purchase - thanks for all your time.