Best punt at around £100

[JOC]

I was having a look at a recent thread that mentioned a Nat. Geographic 76/700 and as I so often do I looked it up - £130 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/National-Geographic-700-Reflector-Telescope/dp/B007WRY9SI

Then I looked at another thread - a Skywatcher Startravel 80 that one is £99 - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-ota.html

It made me start thinking that around the £100-£130 seems to be what many folks think is worth sporting 'just to have an occasional quick look at what's up there and wouldn't mind if the hobby fizzled out" 

The SGL favourite Skywatcher 130P comes in close to this (just chuck in two cups of posh coffee) £137 https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

Clearly things are even more competitive in the second-hand market, but lets assume brand-new for the moment.  Given what most parents want for their family, i.e. 'just to have an occasional quick look at what's up there and wouldn't mind if the hobby fizzled out', I wondered what was the best 'bang for the buck' for <£130 in the 'new' market.  Of the three above I think you will say the 130P, but I am sure there are others.  Such as thread might be useful to parents trying to find something interesting to give a teenage child for Crimble this year.

[spillage]

ST80 every time for me.

Its setup in seconds easy to use no collimation required and when the time comes a great guide scope. Will also sell quickly on the second hand market if it ends up gathering dust.

Spill.

[ronin]

For a first option I would generally go for one of the 90/900 refractors, the Bresser version is at £110 at Rother Valley.

Reason is that it is a refractor so maintenance free, simple to use, fair aperture, will allow sufficent magnification for Saturn and its rings, so Jupiter when it reappears is easy. More then capable on double stars, and a good number of DSO's will show up in it.

Part of the catch is that "easy" does not sink in, "So big you need new doors to get it outside" does, and "Magnifications that only a supercomputer can determine" does also. But straightforward, easy and usable any clear night does not. Strange but at the few outreach things I get my sorry self along to it is often the smaller scopes that have the people around them asking questions and getting involved.

[John]

I'd tend to think of the Heritage 130 as being the best you can do for that price in terms of observing potential balanced against cost and portabilty.

Neil English (the author) has had one for a while as a holiday / travel scope and thinks very highly of it.

[Adam J]

St80 but what are you going to mount it on? 

But if I am honest 100 pounds is not a great price point your better off with a SW150p Dobsonian for a first observing scope. 

I sometimes recommend the Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube if money is tight. 

 

 

[Peter Drew]

From our perspective probably the Heritage 130 but from a kids perspective maybe the ST80, it looks like a telescope!. 

[Pondus]

Heritage 130p miles Ahead of the 3 low Budget fracs ive looked through (incl a well branded 90/900).

[Frank the Troll]

+1 for the Bresser 90  Looks more like a proper scope as seen from young eyes. 

[Alfian]

I'd like to say the SW 90mm refractor but it comes with the EQ2 but like many scopes in this bracket it's better with the EQ3 which bumps the price up. Therefore as a package it has to be the Heritage 130p. It's ultra portable, easy to store , and with good optics it just WORKS. I didn't much care for the  helical focuser and felt it shouldn't work as well as it did, but it did. For someone with children the height is easy to tailor to their needs and something I'd not thought of before, because of the open truss design it's easy to explain and show how a reflector works. 

[happy-kat]

I've seen the SW 90mm refractor on the Az3 much better as a first then the eq2 I think.

[popeye85]

got to throw my vote to the heritiage! cracking wee piece of equipment!

p.s sticky thread?  would be usfull as we start getting a bit closer to c******as!

[Littleguy80]

My SkyWatcher 130M on it's EQ2 mount was a Christmas present. I think it was £150 so a little over budget. I'm sure the other scopes on here would have made much better first scopes. However, I'd like to give my scope credit because it's really done me proud to date. I've spent money on a Telrad, eyepieces and filters so it's had help. Even so, those 130mm of aperture have shown me planets, open clusters, globs, all kinds of nebulas, double/triple stars and galaxies. So the SkyWatcher 130M may not top the list but for me it always be a winner! 

(pssst, I'd probably pick the Heritage 130 as it sounds like a dob version of mine  )

[ronin]

12 hours ago, popeye85 said:

got to throw my vote to the heritiage! cracking wee piece of equipment!

p.s sticky thread?  would be usfull as we start getting a bit closer to c******as!

Sticky will be of little use I am afraid, everyone will put up a case for just about every realtively inexpecsive scope out there on the market, and a few of the inexpensive scopes also. So far we have ST80 up to 150 Dobsonian and at least three others. That is five, and basically all a bit different.

What might be useful is for clubs to advertise and have a night or two or three before Christmas where they can go along and have a look at a few of the lower cost items in use. Maybe in anyone here is a member of a club they couls suggest it to the club.

It is after all advertising for the club and gets people along to the club as potential future members.

[Littleguy80]

16 minutes ago, ronin said:

So far we have ST80 up to 150 Dobsonian and at least three others. That is five, and basically all a bit different.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder  The Heritage 130 is by far the most commonly recommended first scope that I see on these threads. Normally with a recommendation for the SkyWatcher 200p as something that has potential for a lifetimes viewing. 

The goal with any starter scope is really easy of use and versatility with budget deciding the aperture. 

[Stub Mandrel]

I picked up a brand new C90 Mak for £135, OK that was a great deal, but it's incredibly easy to use and gives great views while one of the bigger(ish) guns is imaging :-)

It was a 70/700 Bresser from Aldi that got me started and I know use it as a dedicated white light solar scope with a baader filter in the lens hood. The only reason I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner is that the eyepieces aren't up to the standard of those supplied with even the cheapest Skywatcher scopes.

Its easy to forget that any scope has the potential to show you a lot as long a sit isn't one of these sets with plastic lenses eyepieces and hopelessly over-optimistic accessories to give huge magnifications.

The FLO 'beginner's telescopes' page has some good recommendations.

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

I must admit a firstcope is tempting as a literal grab an go for when the dog wants to be let out at 2 am and the sky is clear and my eyes are 100% dark adapted and I don't really want to spend more than 5-10 minutes before heading back to bed!

[cotterless45]

It was a Heritage 130 which kicked off the great adventure. I just couldn't believe it was possible to see such beautiful things.

The first targets were the Auriga clusters , M38,36 and 37. I'd been out with a red torch and a sky map for a few months to get used to the sky and the clear frosty nights.

I mounted the Heritage on a tripod and would thoroughly recommend it to any starter or aged hand. It's quite an incredible bit of kit,

Nick.

[Alfian]

9 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I must admit a firstcope is tempting as a literal grab an go for when the dog wants to be let out at 2 am and the sky is clear and my eyes are 100% dark adapted and I don't really want to spend more than 5-10 minutes before heading back to bed!

I can relate to that. There has been many times when I've grumped when our dog has asked to go out in the middle of the night, but have been rewarded with a beautiful bejeweled sky. Binoculars are my chosen instrument here and for many their first scope is such.

[dick_dangerous]

An ideal telescope for a child is one that:

1. They can carry outside without assistance
2. Will show them a decent enough view that they can get "Bang for Buck"
3. Is intuitive to use
4. Has a wide-field of view

That last one is really important because the thing children find hardest is the restricted field of view seen through binoculars and telescopes. It does depend on the age of the child and how much experience they've had with optics (I picked up binoculars when I was 4). My first telescope was a Tal that was made of solid iron and was so heavy I couldn't move it outside. It was also on a bomb-proof EQ mount and had wonderful optics, but the finderscope system was awful. All the same, I loved that telescope and wish that the stand hadn't been broken - not that I'd be able to lift the wretched thing even now!

The following options would be ideal for a child/teenager:

• Table-top dobsonian reflector - easy to carry around, intuitive to use and wide-field. The Heritage 130P is going to give the best views and at approx. 6kg manageable for a teen
• Widefield refractor on an AZ mount - bit heavy if we're honest, but I love my ST80. Plus, they look like telescopes to young minds! A teenager could lug one around quite easily.

I craved a 6'' Dob as a teen, but realistically Dobs are fairly heavy and awkward to move about, even in two parts, for a child or even a teenager. 16+ and you might be talking, but if it might be a passing fad I think you can't go far wrong with something like the Heritage 130P.

Paul

[LukeSkywatcher]

On 8/21/2017 at 15:46, John said:

I'd tend to think of the Heritage 130 as being the best you can do for that price in terms of observing potential balanced against cost and portabilty.

Neil English (the author) has had one for a while as a holiday / travel scope and thinks very highly of it.

I tend to agree. For a scope costing about 100 quid, The Heritage 130P simply can not be beat. It punches WAY above its size/price. 

I would avoid the Nat Geo scopes at any cost. Respectable institution, by all account rubbish scopes.

The other day i was somewhere and i saw a Nat Geo bundle of:

1/ 80mm refractor telescope

1/ 10-40x microscope

1/ binoculars (cant remember the size)

All for the "amazing" price €76 euros.

Nuff said. It saddens me that Nat Geo have put their name and association to such cheap naff rubbish.

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

The Heritage 130P has the same mirror as the 130P-DS which I think says it all!

[JOC]

Hi Paul

I must admit that was part of the reason for suggesting the thread - there seems to be folks out there willing to throw away reasonable sums of cash on plastic tash, when for the same cash, or even less they could get something with a degree of satisfying performance about it.  I guess the problem with discussing it here, is that most folks spend their cash before finding this web forum and then arrive complaining that they can't see what they were lured into expecting by the pretty pictures - I don't know how you can intercept folks before they spend their hard earned though.  

[Louis D]

If someone has decent photo/video tripods/heads, they can be reused to mount a telescope.  This can help put more money into the optics.  For the eclipse, I mounted by ST80 on my semi-professional Manfrotto fluid head and tripod combo that I use for shooting video.  It held that scope like a rock and yet was easy to use to track the sun.  Others who shoot stills or video can reuse some of their equipment as well.

[barkis]

On ‎21‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 16:03, Peter Drew said:

From our perspective probably the Heritage 130 but from a kids perspective maybe the ST80, it looks like a telescope!. 

Agreed, and not just children that  are more taken with the appearance aspect. I've known a few adults
who were very much influenced by the classical telescope look.

[Stub Mandrel]

4 hours ago, barkis said:

I've known a few adults
who were very much influenced by the classical telescope look.

You not suggesting people choose an ED80 over a 130P-Ds just because it looks prettier...

[barkis]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

You not suggesting people choose an ED80 over a 130P-Ds just because it looks prettier...

Don't know what happened there, I wrote a long spiel on pretty versus practical, but finished up with 
a lower case   ( w.)
I'm not going to re write it, but I will say I have an ED80, and a 130p ds.
I use the Newt. a lot  more than the ED, and wouldn't part with either.
I wasn't suggesting one would choose the frac. because it was prettier, that's your wording not mine.
I was at Lucksall a few years ago, and I had my White liveried 150 Acro. mounted on my EQ6 Mount.
A seasoned member passing by remarked, "How Nice to see a proper telescope"  
Pretty wasn't mentioned. Had the remark included Pretty rather than Proper, I might have been inclined to 
to sell it .    I mean, who want to be associated with a Pretty telescope, especially at a Macho Star Party .