Best Telescope for £130 or under?

[Tiny]

The 650 is more user friendly as, being quite small it is easy to move round and is ideal as a starter scope. The 900 was its predecessor (I believe) and gives a bit more magnification for planets. But if you want specialise later then you will get a bigger better scope than the 130 as to do planets better you need scope X while to do Deep Sky objects better you need scope Y and so on.

So the 130pm f5 650 is an ideal starter scope as it gives a fair idea of what a scope can do. So open the wrapper, assemble it (which can be fun for a first timer) Adjust the finder (in daylight) to point at the same thing as the scope does. Then go out on a clear night and look at what is on offer. The first view of the moon could amaze you and as for Saturn later in the year...

[Jeff RV]

A word of Warning just in case you should come across an 1.1/4" filter displaying the word "SUN" etc, Throw it in the rubbish bin as these can cause irreversible damage to the eye's.

Jeff.

[RobH]

Stick with the F5. Higher F-ratio gives potentially higher magnification, but less light. As said before, magnification isn't the holy grail!

Great choice of scope.

Cheers

Rob