Portability <= Quality ?

[hagiebavlos]

Hello, I am new to Astrology (as in I only became interested when my 4 old daughter asked me whether that 'twinkle' in the sky was a star or a planet a few weeks ago), and I have been totally mesmerized, trying to learn about the star charts and the planets to teach my little girl.

I live in Bournemouth but drive out to the New Forest to do a bit of star gazing where it is a lot darker, I am looking to buy a telescope but obviously I need a scope that is portable and easy to set up. I have been looking on the internet and could only find scopes that range from £30-£60 that looked portable enough.

I have been looking at the following 'North Star Optical Mercury 60 X 700 Classic 60mm Refractor Kit'

http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/mercury/60mm/starter-scope.html

Now my questions are :

Is this scope any good?

Will I be able to see the Rings of Saturn/Moons of Jupiter/Orion Nebula?

Is there a better alternative?

Can/how do I connect a digital camera to this scope?

The problem I am facing is that I'm not sure of what to expect with a telescope, I would love to see and capture images I see on some of the Astrophotography websites but will this scope be a disappointment?

Unfortunately I have to place portability over quality, since Bournemouth is so darn bright at night and because I would like to capture the images on my camera binoculars are out of the question.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[Whippy]

Firstly welcome to SGL .

I'll be honest and say the scope you have linked to doesn't inspire me with confidence that you'll be happy with it. I take it you're on a bit of budget and you have mentioned astrophotography, two words not normally said in the same sentence! If you're willing to spend a little bit more and you really don;t want binoculars, I'd recommend one of these: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=mercury705 . I've had one of these and it's not bad at all for the money. The good thing is that the mount will be able to take a better scope as your needs grow. The downside is astrophotography will need more advanced kit, I managed to do a couple of Moon shots with it and that was it. But you'll certainly get great views of the Moon, and Jupiter and Saturn will certainly be within it's range plus some of the brighter objects like the Orion Nebula should be visible.

HTH

Tony..

[hagiebavlos]

Thanks for the speedy answer, but I think I did not fully explain my question, I am looking for the best portable telescope around, the Sky Watcher you linked to looks like assembling it in the dark might pose a few problems, budget wise I've put aside £200-£250 for a telescope but portability is a must!!

I think I am being a little to naive with my expectations of a portable telescope, but will keep looking!!

Thanks again!!

[Whippy]

If you've got £200-£250 then that opens out some more options for you. TBH portability is relative, I'd call my 8" reflector fairly portable while other people don't. Remember the bigger the width of the scope (aperture), the more you will see.

Here's a couple of options:

A 6" reflector. Bigger, but it'll easily go in your car and will show you loads of objects: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=150eq32

A 4" refractor. Same as the reflector in terms of portability TBH: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=ev102eq32

Either one of these scopes will show you plenty and if you decide to take the first steps into astrophotography, then you can fit a motor onto the mount which will track objects across ther sky so you can take longer exposures without the object moving at the scope.

Tony..

[glennbech]

I'm sorry to put it in a blunt way; but the scope you refer to looks like ta toy. Reflectors (mirror based) telescopes are in generel the largest for the price. Something like this would be a very good start: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=150eq32

To get a scope with the same performance, only more compact; you'd have to double the price.

A Scope like this fits your burdget and can be upgraded with motors to do basic astro photography later. Images like you see posted in this forum(deep sky) mostly come from equipment from £1000 and up to a lot (I mean a lot) more

Don't spend £40 on something that will totally put you off with this great hobby (called Astronomy by the way; not Astrology! But never mind the details). If you have £200 to spend; do that, you won't regret it.

[glennbech]

Me and Whippy posted the same scope; http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=150eq32 ... Without look at eachother's posts.

You should see that as a sign :-)

[blackgerby]

Hiya,

I'm just a beginner too, and am learning lots each time I use my scope about basic bits and pieces.

I suspect that the telescopes look quite complex to you (they certainly did to me!), but they're not quite so complex to move as they may look. If you're not travelling enormous distances and you've got a spare seat in the car, I would think that the telescope Whippy mentioned - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=mercury705 could be split into just two bits, the tube and the mount and would be fairly simple to put back together at the other end.

Otherwise how about something like this - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=ST80auto

Simpler mount, but you will need batteries.

I can recommend talking to Steve at First Light Optics to see what he recommends, and to ask any questions. I've bought quite a bit of stuff over the last couple of months from them, and they're very good. (I'm broke now though )

Other folks (more knowledgeable than me!) will be able to make other suggestions, but I suspect they're outside communing with their telescopes at the moment

[philsail1]

Hello and welcome to Stargazers Lounge Astronomy Forum "blackerby!"

If you are looking for ease of set up, portability, quality, and the ability to do some basic "Astrophotograhpy," then one of these might suit your needs:-

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=SW127SupaTrakAUTO

I think you are wise to look at your "social" circumstances when starting out in astronomy.

You have got to consider aspects such as:-

Do have the time to spend literally hours sitting out studying the stars?

Do you have the storage facilities - preferably to leave your scope in a "set up" state?

Do you have a reasonably dark site from which to use your scope - or are there such things as street lights, or lots of houses around you?

There may be other aspects to consider which I have not thought about.

All telescopes have their good points (there at very few that cannot be recommended - but I do think that your first choice was not so good!). No, one scope can really fulfill 100% all aspects of astronomy - some scopes exel in allowing fantastic views of the Moon and planets, others are great at providing good views of deep sky objects. (However, if you think your interest will be in viewing deep sky objects (galaxies, nebulae and star clusters) then you will really need a telescope with lots of light gathering ability - and light gathering ability equates to a BIG scope!

The scopes mentioned by others are all good scopes - relatively easy to set up and use - and will last as your interest in Astronomy developes.

The final choice has to be yours of course, but at least we can give you some helpful advice to enable hopefully make a wise choice.

Best wishes with your choice,

philsail1