Portable Telescope for under £100

[Oli]

Hi,

I'm currently thinking about dipping my feet wet and getting a telescope. It would have to be portable (small and light enough to carry), easy/quick to set up and under £100. I know I won't find anything in high quality at this price range, but I'm mainly buying this to see if I would enjoy using a scope and if 3 years later I'm still using it then I would certainly consider spending more. I also own a Hama Star 61 Tripod but have no idea whether this is suitable for a telescope.

Current considerations: 

Celestron Travelscope 70

Orion Short Tube 80

Celestron Tabletop Firstscope

SKY-WATCHER STARTRAVEL-80 

Edit: Forgot to add, please let me know if you generally think I am wasting my money and time buying a telescope for under £100. I would certainly be looking into the second hand market.

 

[Bizibilder]

I would suggest a small Dobsonian like the Skywatcher Heritage 100P - compact but gives the best all round performance for under £100.

[Knighty2112]

I got back into astronomy again after a long pause with a Celestron Travelscope 70. It is surprising what you can see through this scope. The only let down with it was the stand which isn't very stable for higher power views. However, I would recommend this scope http://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-mercury-705.html as it  has a good stable stand with slow motion controls to keep the object in view easier, and you can still get some great views through it. And it comes in at under a £1 on your budget too! I use it as a quick grab and go scope, and get great views though it always, from planets, the moon  & DSO's!  

[Stu]

44 minutes ago, Bizibilder said:

I would suggest a small Dobsonian like the Skywatcher Heritage 100P - compact but gives the best all round performance for under £100.

I agree with this. These get good reviews from people that have them, and are surprisingly capable for something so cheap (relatively). Nice for  grab and go portable use under a dark sky.

[Oli]

1 hour ago, Bizibilder said:

I would suggest a small Dobsonian like the Skywatcher Heritage 100P - compact but gives the best all round performance for under £100.

43 minutes ago, Stu said:

I agree with this. These get good reviews from people that have them, and are surprisingly capable for something so cheap (relatively). Nice for  grab and go portable use under a dark sky.

Wow, just read a few reviews on them and they seem like the perfect companion to my Canon 15x50 binoculars. It looks like they could easily fit into a backpack which is just what I'm after.

 

43 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

I got back into astronomy again after a long pause with a Celestron Travelscope 70. It is surprising what you can see through this scope. The only let down with it was the stand which isn't very stable for higher power views. However, I would recommend this scope http://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-mercury-705.html as it  has a good stable stand with slow motion controls to keep the object in view easier, and you can still get some great views through it. And it comes in at under a £1 on your budget too! I use it as a quick grab and go scope, and get great views though it always, from planets, the moon  & DSO's!  

Thanks for the recommendation on the skywatcher mercury but I think the 100mm aperature on the Heritage might steal it for me. 

[Pig]

I would suggest a pair of binoculars .... not overly different and you will get a much better set for £100 than you would a scope. Of course this will leave you longing for much closer views  but it sure is a good start to the hobby.

[Oli]

12 minutes ago, Pig said:

I would suggest a pair of binoculars .... not overly different and you will get a much better set for £100 than you would a scope. Of course this will leave you longing for much closer views  but it sure is a good start to the hobby.

I already own a Vortex Viper 8x42 and a Canon IS 15x50 and love using these for stargazing but like you've already said, I would like something that can give me closer views but is also portable.

[brantuk]

All good suggestions above. The only extra I would add is if you can stretch another £30 (and also get a slightly larger bag) this one would give you a much better idea of what a "closer look" is like. Just my opinion but below 130mm apertures you're really in "better than bins" territory, whereas at and above 130mm, puts you more in "proper small telescope" territory.

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

For the sake of thirty quid I think you'd get a bigger difference from what you're used to, and it's still just as small and portable, certainly worth considering. Hth

(And you'll certainly get a used 130P for under £100)

[Putaendo Patrick]

I do believe we are now very spoilt for good telescopes - and that's certainly not a bad thing and I don't want to put the clock back.

But when I look at the sketches made by the lesser known Thomas Harriot or the famous Galileo using the very first telescopes for astronomy, circa 1610, I am always surprised by their detail. And the scopes they were using were probably optically worse than the cheapest department store telescope of today!

The current larger aperture amateur telescopes (8 inch reflectors, for example) really only began to become accessible for "ordinary" people in the 1980s. Until then they were prohibitively expensive. Many people, Sir Patrick Moore included, started off with very humble instruments.

Inexpensive telescopes are even cheaper second-hand (there's limited demand). If you look around, you should be able to pick up a very reasonable one for less than 50 pounds. While these are not ideal, especially when compared to today's offer, they can be an excellent starting point provided you understand their limitations.

 

[happy-kat]

With my ST80 (same telescope from skywatcher or Orion basically) I can make out the two main bands on Jupiter, stars are lovely pin points of light, it is super portable and I use it on an Az3 mount which can be had for £98 I saw in January as a bundle . Can also be used during the day. Taken the telescope in flight hand luggage, tripod in suitcase.

With my heritage 130p I could make out 5 bands on Jupiter and I saw Calisto's moon shadow on the surface. Stars are good but not like what I see in my ST80. The heritage is pretty portable and takes little space up at home. Telescope not really hand luggage sized and the base does not flat pack naturally.

For both uses I used my 6mm eyepiece I have which is better quality then the supplied 10mm but wanted to share the differences I have found. The bigger apperature has the potential to show more but the ST80 is still for me a great little telescope.

Both are under £100 second hand so I would be tempted to see what you can get and get an extra eyepiece with any savings made.

Edit: i have not used then side by side as I keep the ST80 at my Mum's so I can't 100% say I wouldn't have seen the moon transit on Jupiter with it as well.

[Knighty2112]

2 hours ago, Oli said:

Wow, just read a few reviews on them and they seem like the perfect companion to my Canon 15x50 binoculars. It looks like they could easily fit into a backpack which is just what I'm after.

 

Thanks for the recommendation on the skywatcher mercury but I think the 100mm aperature on the Heritage might steal it for me. 

With the centre obstruction on the 100mm Newtonian cutting out some of the light I don't think you would see much difference in image quality or brightness if you had them side by side. I have a 130mm reflector too, and I get just as good a view from my 70mm fracs then I do from the reflector.  

[happy-kat]

As you already have a tripod you 'may' be able to use the ST80 on it. The link below shows how with a ball head.

Link here

[Knighty2112]

8 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

As you already have a tripod you 'may' be able to use the ST80 on it. The link below shows how with a ball head.

Link here

Didn't realise you had a tripod. The Skywatcher Startravel 80 is a good scope too as happy-kat says. I have its big brother the ST120 and get great views through it. One advantage of a 'frac over a reflector when staring off is that it is more intuitive to use and look through. A reflector is a little harder to use when trying to look through it, but then perhaps that is just me! Hehe!   

[Bobby1970]

Another vote for the ST80 here. Very compact yet still gives reasonable views, with a camera tripod you would havea very portable set up indeed, with no maintenance whatsoever.

[happy-kat]

I have also owned the mercury 705 which I bought to get the tripod, out of the two I prefer my Orion 80mm.

Things to know. The ST80 terrestrial version comes with the ability to mount on a camera tripod and an 45° erect image diagonal.

The astro version comes with tube rings and a 90° star diagonal.

I bought the terrestrial version to mount on my tripod and the dove bar also mounts on my othere skywatcher tripods and have bought a star diagonal for astro use as being 90° it is more comfortable.

Your existing tripod will be more steady for astro use of you don't extend the legs fully. 

Have fun choosing.

[Oli]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I've always been under the impression that aperture was king but it appears this is quite a controversial subject when looking at previous topics (specifically reflector vs refractors). If I had my own garden then I would go for 130P but I will carrying this in my backpack for most of the day and so I think the 130P is just too heavy and bulky for that purpose.

I'm currently looking at a few comparisons between the 100P and ST80 (such as one below) 

 

[ollypenrice]

if you're going to backpack with your scope then you need to bear in mind that a small Dob, unlike a big one, can't just stand on the ground. They are intended to be 'table top' so you'd need a suitable stand at the site at which you ended up. I don't instantly see how this would work.

And this is where a tripod/refractor comes in. Also, if I were going to be humping a scope around in a backpack it would be - no doubt in my mind about this - a refractor. An ST80 on your present tripod might be the way to go.

Olly

[Stu]

21 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

if you're going to backpack with your scope then you need to bear in mind that a small Dob, unlike a big one, can't just stand on the ground. They are intended to be 'table top' so you'd need a suitable stand at the site at which you ended up. I don't instantly see how this would work.

And this is where a tripod/refractor comes in. Also, if I were going to be humping a scope around in a backpack it would be - no doubt in my mind about this - a refractor. An ST80 on your present tripod might be the way to go.

Olly

Olly, the 100P has a 3/8th thread on the base so you can put it on a tripod too

[dick_dangerous]

I have an ST80 which fits on a video tripod and goes in my backpack if I fly anywhere and want to take a scope. From a dark site it shows loads. I'm contemplating getting a Heritage 130P (Mini Dob) for holidays in the car because of issues around fitting my 150P Dob in with all our worldly possessions when we go on holiday (Mostly my wife's shoes). At £129 it's slightly over the £100 limit, but the smaller 100P already mentioned is under £100.

Paul

[ollypenrice]

31 minutes ago, Stu said:

Olly, the 100P has a 3/8th thread on the base so you can put it on a tripod too

Aha. How stiff is that in use?

Olly

[happy-kat]

Not practical. It has a thread on the base of the dob mount. So tripod, dob mount and 100p that is not back pack friendly nor will the 100p good for day time viewing. The ST80 (with terrestrial dove bar with camera threads) will go on a good photo tripod and the telescope has good resale value as it can be used as a guide scope for astrophotography. The only slight downside if on really bright objects it does show chromatic aberration such as on Jupiter but my own better eyepiece made it less of a problem. The refractor will not lose collimation being bounced in a rucksack and the tube is pretty solid so I don't think it would buckle/dent easily. Great to use with your binoculars.

There is always a compromise when choosing a telescope, but the one that you actually take out and is is the best one.

Your tripod has a 3 kilo max weight, it might be a try it and see as to whether it stays steady enough to use.

[BritAngler]

I recently got the Celestron 70 Travelscope and am impressed with the views you can get through it. Yes, it does come with a less than useful tripod, but your camera tripod will be more than adequate. The whole kit comes in a backpack, but I doubt if your tripod will fit inside, but that leaves more room for a flask and sarnies  

[RichM63]

I'm just not a fan of mini Dobs, big ones yes, but still I prefer EQ heads.

The ST80 is a great little scope that can also be adapted to be used as a long manual DSLR camera lens.

Flask and sarnies are a major consideration.

Rich 

[laudropb]

I am a great fan of Dobs, but in your case I would go for the ST80. Easier to carry and better suited to a tripod.

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Another ST80 fan here.

Mine fits onto my Ravelli Tripod for a very portable set-up.

The well designed travel case that came with it will take the diagonal,finder, several eyepieces,barlow,S&T Pocket Atlas and an 8x30 monocular(!)

CA, whilst apparent on bright objects doesn't particularly bother me,and for a 'Wide  Field' scope,the views of the Moon are very pleasing,and I've even split doubles such as Castor.

Of course,it excels at wide field views,and has given me perhaps my best view of the 'Beehive' (M44) to date.