£1000 to spend. Scope advice please!

[Timebandit]

 

 

A £1000 pounds is a good budget to go buy.

I think you have two options and in your situation this is what I would do. Either get along to your local astronomy club and have a look at ? and through a few scopes to see the different types of view's and many scales you can get on a variety of scopes. This may help you decide 

OR

 

At £1000 you could buy a reflector and a refractor, and have the best of both worlds, if you go second hand. 

 

A decent refractor like a 100ed or even better(but bigger if size/weight is an issue) one of the gold tube 120ed would be in the region on say £500 or less for a  100ed. These ed scopes are very popular on SGL and produce great view's on planetary and lunar and some of the more visable DSO . And as a bonus are very pretty to look at also . Also capable of some AP is on a correct mount.  A Traditional looking telescope ( so pretty to look at ?   ) but great to look through also. Sitting on a second hand AZ 4 would be a great visual set up.  

A decent Dobson reflector such as the 12" sold tube revelation or the older SW 12," , Solid tube would be in the region of around £400 or less. The Dobson 12" would be so much better with DSO. Aperture really does win and is king when it comes to DSO, obviously helped considerably under dark sky's. This in my opinion would need to be situated outside as they are big and reasonable heavy(also keeps the mirror and near ambient temperature,so little waiting around for the mirror to cool) ,so does need a semi permanent base. A shed to which it can be slid out of would be ideal. 

 

 

I have a refractor and Dobson reflector . And find views through the refractor are great for planetary and lunar as sharp and crystal clear,  and the aperture of the Dobson reflector is just King for resolving those faint fuzzys. So for a £1000 budget you could have both 

So that's my opinion based on what I have done myself.

But do make sure astronomy is for you first, as £1000 is a lot to put down on a hobby 

I hope that helps☺

 

  

 

[andrew63]

I wasn't going to give any advice, as you can get overload - but this is mine !  There are huge differences between telescopes and they are aways much larger than you would expect.  I'd be inclined to visit a dealer and see them in the flesh - perhaps Rother Valley Optics is not too far from Hull to travel. It could be well worth the effort.

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk

 Whatever you decide, hope you both enjoy your new telescope over the Christmas holiday.

 

andrew

[happy-kat]

Just realised I had gone over budget so I will stick with the star discovery for visual and add a skywatcher star adventure for imaging using what ever camera gear you may already own to start with.

[JOC]

I'd get what I've got again if I had that budget - a 200P flextube with Goto Donsonian mount and then spend the rest of the budget on two or three decent EP's to go with it.  With this you will get a decent view of most things of interest, something that is easy to store, holds it collimation well, can be used for solar with a few home-made screens, has a bit of computerised finding and tracking help and suggested targets in the database, is a doddle to split and move around, can easily take a camera if you want to take the odd 'snap' and can be pushed and used without goto if you want it.

[Jessun]

I'd be inclined to agree with Alan on this one. Get something easy to use that has the goto and tour function. I wouldn't mind one myself :-)

/Jesper

My daughter at 2.5 years old was happy with just a simple bird watcher scope.

 

[ronin]

My question is the mount, oddly the scope is a bit secondary most of the time. Do you want goto?

If so the then EQ5 is fine as the goto option comes in at £540, the HEQ5 is nice but it is also big. I bought one, left it in the car for 8 weeks and then went and bought an EQ5 also. The EQ5 is a nicer size. Still have both however.

So If goto then the EQ5 is fine(ish). It it ius a refractor then how about the Bresser 102/600, about £220. Agreed an achro and a bit on the fast side. Not sure if they do a 125mm offering but it would have to be f/7 to f/8 at least (CA). Come to think of it Meade do a decent achro refractor, not sure of the specification nor a retailer for it. Will search around.

The Bresser 127 in short is likely to be too fast and in long just to long on the EQ5.

So how about EQ5 goto and Bresser 102/600, comes to arounf £780, sort of within budget but you will find within day that you want a couple of eyepieces. A 12mm and 5mm BST would give medium and high, the high being 120 which should be OK for Jupiter and Saturn. Not sure how good the views will be but would expect OK.

Ask if people use a 127mm refractor on the EQ5, I have a Tal at 100mm and f/10 and that is OK on the EQ5 so really the 127 "long" bresser should be OK. But the 102/1200 will closely match the Tal, just a bit longer then the 102/600.

Possible minor change of mind:: EQ5 and Bresser 102/1200. Same cost anyway. 8mm BST would give 150x, probably the max sensible magnification.

If later the imaging bug bites, then get a 72mm ED refractor, T-ring, add a DSLR and use the EQ5. That combination works will. Needs good polar alignment and exposures may be limited to say 60 seconds. I would say 40 sec exposure and 20 sec wait time so head off for 60 cycles at 60 seconds each cycle.

May be useful: http://www.astronomyclubs.co.uk/Clubs/Counties.aspx

Go look at equipment. I am slightly against the idea of a Mak as the focallength is long and so the field of view norroers and it is best to have something that is easy/simply to use. My 105 Mak rarely gets used, the Bresser 102 gets dragged out fairly often. Suggestion: Go list to bad aspects of a scope. They are all scopes as such but some aspects you may not be able to live with.

[scarp15]

Been through something similar with my daughter, who is 16, recently. We both enjoy cycling and she was really getting to be in need of a new cycle. So an intense period of visits and repeat visits to cycle stores ensured until finally a particular cycle  became a favourite contender. From the outset it was not quite what I had envisaged she should, ought get, but it works out in terms of for her. Therefore what you might have in mind and perhaps that your daughter will have in mind, will inevitably be different. My daughter is not that interested in astronomy (although she does like observing occasionally double stars and had once enjoyed going to star camps such as at Kielder). She is as would probably be expected, 100% tech savvy and I expect that yours is the same. My suggestion to consider, would be for a Celestron Nexstar 8SE, good aperture and 'robotic' enough to be purposeful. Also quite portable, so perhaps you and your daughter could consider to attend a hopefully dry and clear Kielder Star camp (or similar) in the Spring, within an environment where it will perform really well and you can share and mix with others. Buying the scope is however just the start (eyepieces etc) and this option at retail is a little over budget, although may become an instrument that of this calibre, will make for a versatile and futureproof investment hopefully for both of you.  

Footnote

There is a used Nexstar 8SE listed on ENS Optics, just under £900. The alternative to this, either manual or go-to and mentioned by other posters would be for a Skywatcher Flextube 200 or 250. 

[Louis D]

13 hours ago, andrew63 said:

There are huge differences between telescopes and they are always much larger than you would expect.

Not so with my AT72ED.  It surprised me with how compact it is.  I was also surprised by how light my 127mm Mak is.  It's about the same as the AT72ED (around 6 pounds each).