Beginner telescope as a gift

[silvestre]

Hello all,

I am new here and have really a little knowledge about telescopes. I want to buy a telescope for a friend as a gift and need your help.

My friend has a huge interest in astronomy but as far as I know she has never used a telescope before.
We live in an extreme light polluted city and I don't know if this is important while selecting the type of a telescope. Maybe you may want to recommend for the more portable ones which are availabe for travelling rather than the heavier ones.
I also think my friend would prefer exploring the skies by herself rather than using a goto telescope but I don't know maybe goto's are more available for travelling. I really have no idea.

I know the budget is important but I haven't decided on it yet. I would greatly appreciate for any kind of beginner telescope recommendations.

Thanks, 

Silvestre

[brantuk]

Welcome to SGL silvestre

Have an initial look here for a range of beginner scopes of various types, sizes, and budgets. If you like the look of one then feel free to come back and ask more questions about it. Soon as you have a budget in mind you'll get some better suggestions - but for now a general recommendation is that you get more "bang for your buck" with a reflector.

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

Hope that helps

[Cornelius Varley]

Hello and welcome to SGL. It might be easier if you let us know your maximum budget and what brands names are available to you in your country. Will you be purchasing through a local dealer or an on-line retailer ?

[ronin]

Really need to know where you are. The UK is reasonable for most as we know the options, but should you be Australia, South America, Eastern Europe then it makes a huge diffeence on suggestiong anything.

It is amusing how much difference there is between the US and the UK, yet so much is the same in other ways.

 

[silvestre]

Thank you for the replies.

I am in Eastern Europe and be able to buy Celestron, Skywatcher and Meade through a local dealer. I am not sure but my budget may be up to £250-300 for UK conditions. 200p dobsonians and 150p reflectors may be around my budget but please don't hesitate for recommending for more or less. By considering its portability maybe a 130p heritage is more availabe for me. 

[laudropb]

As above we really need a little more information to make recommendations 

[MarkVIIIMarc]

If I may be so bold, as another new person, I think the question is what is the best portable telescope he can get for £250-300? Bonus if it excels at piercing light pollution.

I might say, Galaxies and other deep space objects seem to be best viewed from a dark sky but I swear I can get a 138x view on bright Jupiter through light clouds and still tell what I am looking at so maybe a scope with a good planetary lense is a plus. I wouldn't bail on a wide angle entirely though.

Silvestre, if you didn't already say, is she pretty electronic gadget orientated where a computerized "orientate it and it will find and track the object for you" scope is worth it? They cost more. Or is a point and look like I have more appropriate?

[happy-kat]

When you say portable is that by walking or putting in a car and driving somewhere and observing with little to no walking ? 

If observing at home will where the telescope is kept be close to observing location or will there be stairs involved ?

[silvestre]

30 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

When you say portable is that by walking or putting in a car and driving somewhere and observing with little to no walking ? 

If observing at home will where the telescope is kept be close to observing location or will there be stairs involved ?

Putting it in a car, bus or train. Maybe it may fit in a backpack but you all know better. I really have no idea how the light pollution affects the observation. If it is possible to make quite enough observation under extreme light pollution maybe portability can be less considered.

There are no stairs at home and the telescope will be close to the balcony.

I also wonder about collimating and using eq mounts. Are they hard things and can they make a newbie lose his or her enthusiasm at the beginning?

 

41 minutes ago, MarkVIIIMarc said:

Silvestre, if you didn't already say, is she pretty electronic gadget orientated where a computerized "orientate it and it will find and track the object for you" scope is worth it? They cost more. Or is a point and look like I have more appropriate?

I guess she would prefer exploring the skies by herself and I am not totally sure but she would be more interested in DSO's.
I also don't know if she prefers astrophotography.

Thank you all for your help.

[happy-kat]

If you can not see any stars from home then a computerised mount won't be good as you need to find stars generally two in order for the mount to know where it is.

The telescope that is the easiest to take with you even if just a short walk away is the one that will get used and not gather dust.

Eq mount I would say is unnecessary heavy and akward for portability as is more trips from house to car before even getting out there. I think a alaz tripod is portable carry that over shoulder with telescope is a bag. My personal preference would be a refractor in this situation.

Before going further have you tried binoculars from your light polluted location to see if with those you do they see stars?

[happy-kat]

What about sharing with your friend and making an informed decision together.

[Ricochet]

12 hours ago, silvestre said:

There are no stairs at home and the telescope will be close to the balcony.

A balcony isn't really an ideal observing location but if it is likely to be used as one then I would think a short refractor (for widefield) or Maksutov (for planetary, assuming it is not North facing) would be the best option so that the scope is closer to the edge than the user while still remaining portable. I think manual alt-az mount would also be preferable both in terms of ease of use from a balcony and weight if the scope is transported to another location.

[Linda]

I have a 5"/127mm Maksutov on an EQ mount. I can confirm that the Maksutov is nicely transportable. The EQ3 mount is not. Even in a full car (on a weekend trip to a dark site), it is quite bulky. Although at home, it is quite easy to carry outside, while being put together.

An 8" Dobson is not an option for a balcony, unless it is a really big balcony. How about a table top Mak? I think the 90mm is available as table top model. That can be used on a balcony table. And can be taken in a backpack to a picknick table in a park.  There are also small reflectors with table top models.

A short refractor is also an option. That is for widefield, but is not so suited for focussing on planets. And planets are just nice things to see from a balcony in a LP area.