Upgrading telescope or buying a new one?

[Interstellar_Explorer]

Hey There! Instead of buying a new telescope i'm thinking that it's better to just upgrade the one i already have! The upgrades which i already have in cart are: 32mm Plossl eyepiece, 5X barlow lens and a datyson 32mm moon filter! Is there anything else i should add or change? Thank You!

 

(Btw sorry for not mentioning it earlier, i have a national geographic 50/600 telescope)

[PeterCPC]

It might help if you were to say what the telescope is?

Peter

[mark81]

Hi, welcome to the forum

I guess the first questions most will ask are...  What Scope do you have? and what objects are you most interested in looking at?

 

[Interstellar_Explorer]

1 minute ago, PeterCPC said:

It might help if you were to say what the telescope is?

Peter

lol sorry! i edited it now!

[Interstellar_Explorer]

2 minutes ago, mark81 said:

Hi, welcome to the forum

I guess the first questions most will ask are...  What Scope do you have? and what objects are you most interested in looking at?

 

I have a national geographic 50/600 scope and i would like to see jupiter, mars, saturn and venus! I would also like to see some stars!

[PeterCPC]

I'm sure someone with that scope will advise. I cannot.

Peter

[Interstellar_Explorer]

1 minute ago, PeterCPC said:

I'm sure someone with that scope will advise. I cannot.

Peter

It's ok, thank you for looking into my topic though!

[pregulla]

Eyepieces that you buy for this telescope can still be used when you replace it. I don't think you will need a moon filter with with this scope. With only 50mm of aperture I doubt it will be too bright. It is not too bright for me with 8" dob. 5x barlow is too much, higher magnification factor makes it harder to make a good lens, 2x will be a better bet. 50mm is pretty limiting aperture imo, so likely you'll want to upgrade sooner rather than later.

I would recommend browsing around and reading about some basics before doing any purchases or upgrades.

[Interstellar_Explorer]

Just now, pregulla said:

Eyepieces that you buy for this telescope can still be used when you replace it. I don't think you will need a moon filter with with this scope. With only 50mm of aperture I doubt it will be too bright. It is not too bright for me with 8" dob. 5x barlow is too much, higher magnification factor makes it harder to make a good lens, 2x will be a better bet. 50mm is pretty limiting aperture imo, so likely you'll want to upgrade sooner rather than later.

I would recommend browsing around and reading about some basics before doing any purchases or upgrades.

ok thank you!

[mark81]

I would hate to go ahead and give poor advice or suggest you give up on your scope for a new one, but you might find looking at these objects (and many others ) quite a challenge with a 50mm scope. The money you will spend on a couple of eyepieces and a Barlow will put you well on the way to picking up a real nice starter scope like the Heritage 130 from Sky watcher ....

[Interstellar_Explorer]

1 minute ago, mark81 said:

I would hate to go ahead and give poor advice or suggest you give up on your scope for a new one, but you might find looking at these objects (and many others ) quite a challenge with a 50mm scope. The money you will spend on a couple of eyepieces and a Barlow will put you well on the way to picking up a real nice starter scope like the Heritage 130 from Sky watcher ....

oh, ok thank you!

[AstroFin]

Hi!

I'd advise you not to buy the 5x Barlow. It will increase the magnification of your telescope too much. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but the main purpose of a telescope is to gather as much light as possible, not to deliver the highest possible magnification. The 32mm Plossl is a good low power eyepiece, so that is recommended. The Moon filter is probably not necessary, as @pregulla mentioned.

To be honest, the telescope you have is not of very high quality. Despite this, there are many objects visible with it. Have you looked at the Moon? The rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter are visible with your telescope, just don't hold your expectations too high. Some nice double stars, such as Albireo, can also be seen. How well do you know the night sky? If you feel lost, try a free software called Stellarium. ?

If I were you, I'd save the money, learn the night sky and buy a better telescope. My recommendation is Sky-Watcher Skyliner 150P, Skymax 102 or the Heritage 130 mentioned by @mark81.  A good pair of binoculars will also help you a a lot along the way.

Tomi

[FaDG]

47 minutes ago, Interstellar_Explorer said:

Is there anything else i should add or change? 

Yes, the scope! ?

As others have already stated: 50 mm is too small an aperture for the targets you have chosen, and a 5x barlow is too high mag to be good, more so with a very small scope.

A newt (with 2x barlow) or a mak are much better for planets. 

And you could keep the 50mm scope for daylight use, ie birdwatching

Fabio

[Interstellar_Explorer]

1 minute ago, AstroFin said:

Hi!

I'd advise you not to buy the 5x Barlow. It will increase the magnification of your telescope too much. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but the main purpose of a telescope is to gather as much light as possible, not to deliver the highest possible magnification. The 32mm Plossl is a good low power eyepiece, so that is recommended. The Moon filter is probably not necessary, as @pregulla mentioned.

To be honest, the telescope you have is not of very high quality. Despite this, there are many objects visible with it. Have you looked at the Moon? The rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter are visible with your telescope, just don't hold your expectations too high. Some nice double stars, such as Albireo, can also be seen. How well do you know the night sky? If you feel lost, try a free software called Stellarium. ?

If I were you, I'd save the money, learn the night sky and buy a better telescope. My recommendation is Sky-Watcher Skyliner 150P, Skymax 102 or the Heritage 130 mentioned by @mark81.  A good pair of binoculars will also help you a a lot along the way.

Tomi

Hello! thank you for answering! so should i get a 3x barlow lens or 2x? oh and btw i do have stellarium and have learn't the night sky pretty well!

[Interstellar_Explorer]

Just now, FaDG said:

Yes, the scope! ?

As others have already stated: 50 mm is too small an aperture for the targets you have chosen, and a 5x barlow is too high mag to be good, more so with a very small scope.

A newt (with 2x barlow) or a mak are much better for planets. 

Fabio

lol ?! unfortunately i cannot change the scope since i do not have the money to, but thank you for telling me about the 2x barlow!

[Anthonyexmouth]

whats your budget?

[Interstellar_Explorer]

3 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

whats your budget?

about 80

[AstroFin]

What eyepieces do you currently have? Getting a Barlow will not be any help before you can actually locate objects in the night sky. As I said before, you're better off saving your money! ?

[John]

The barlow and the moon filter will not benefit your scope.

I think my advice would be to save up a little more money to buy something like a 130mm Skywatcher Heritage or similar.

You current scope just will not do justice to new eyepieces etc being realistic.

 

[Anthonyexmouth]

Have to agree with those saying save a little longer and get something like the SkyWatcher 130 heritage or even better the Explorer. The difference will be worth the wait. The Explorer 130 on an EQ mount is £140-150. Double your budget nearly but its a scope that will last years.

[DavidJM]

Agree with all the comments above, I spent years with binoculars while I saved for my first scope, it's worth the wait, enjoy what you can see now and save more

[Mr niall]

If you can save up another 15 and get this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-heritage-100p-tabletop-dobsonian.html

then you’ll have a really good telescope that can see everything you are hoping for and comes with reasonable quality eyepieces already. It even comes with a Barlow ?.

you see - you could upgrade your scope and eyepieces at the same time - and the scope would be one you’d want to keep forever; and you can still upgrade accessories further down the line if you want.

But I wouldn’t bother with 5x Barlow or moon filter either way IMHO.

[DavidJM]

9 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

If you can save up another 15 and get this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-heritage-100p-tabletop-dobsonian.html

then you’ll have a really good telescope that can see everything you are hoping for and comes with reasonable quality eyepieces already. It even comes with a Barlow ?.

you see - you could upgrade your scope and eyepieces at the same time - and the scope would be one you’d want to keep forever; and you can still upgrade accessories further down the line if you want.

But I wouldn’t bother with 5x Barlow or moon filter either way IMHO.

Can't argue with that, love my 100P, really portable, good views, dob base has thread so can go on tripod too, stock lenses supplied are fairly decent 10mm and 25mm plus the 2x barlow, mine had red dot finder too. Its my quick have half an hour between clouds go to scope......now with that in mind, if like me you planned to get a bigger aperture main scope the 100P is great, if you're looking to stick to one scope for a fair bit on a budget, I would have gone for the 130P, hope of some help?

[Ruud]

The 100P is a good idea, but if you can bring up the patience, save a bit longer still for a 130P. It'll show you more of the dimmer stars and more detail on the Moon and planets.

A 5x Barlow could actually work together with a 25 and 32mm eyepieces (turning them into 5 and 6.4mm), but a 2x would be more versatile and have a greatly reduced chance of causing vignetting.

I never needed a Moon filter myself, but some like the Moon a bit dimmer. It's what you prefer.

Good luck.

[Mr niall]

1 hour ago, DavidJM said:

Can't argue with that, love my 100P, really portable, good views, dob base has thread so can go on tripod too, stock lenses supplied are fairly decent 10mm and 25mm plus the 2x barlow, mine had red dot finder too. Its my quick have half an hour between clouds go to scope......now with that in mind, if like me you planned to get a bigger aperture main scope the 100P is great, if you're looking to stick to one scope for a fair bit on a budget, I would have gone for the 130P, hope of some help?

True… but I didn't want to make assumptions about the OP's budget. They said £80 - the 130p is 170% more expensive than that. Might not be an issue, or might be. Could have taken a month to save that £80, or two years, not for us to say. Even I've gone smashing over budget with my suggestion haha!

Having had both I actually prefer the 100p over the 130p anyway! Found it easier to set up, didn't get on with the focusser, but most of all, my poor old back struggled to find a chair/stool/table combo that was comfortable. But yeah, heck of a scope.