Anyone looking to buy a child a telescope for xmas?

[Mark Daniels]

Aldi doing spotting scope and tripod for £25. No good for serious gazers but as a starter pretty good. 

Edited October 29, 2019 by Mark Daniels
Usual

[johninderby]

Not going to be very good for astronomy but for a really cheap spotting scope? . 🤔

Blue coated lenses??? 

Features

• Blue coloured coated lenses for crisper, brighter images and also clearer contrasts
• Rubber coating
• Reversible eyecups
• 156 cm tripod
• Magnification: 20-60 times
• Lens Diameter: 60 mm
• Exit pupil: 2.8 - 0.95 mm
• View angle: 1.6° - 0.8°
• Field of View: at 1000 m: 28 m (20x) - 14 m (60x)

 

Edited October 29, 2019 by johninderby

[DaveS]

No, pay a bit more at get a real, if basic, 'scope. I think something like that might be more likely to put them off astronomy.

[Mark Daniels]

17 minutes ago, DaveS said:

No, pay a bit more at get a real, if basic, 'scope. I think something like that might be more likely to put them off astronomy.

They can always play pirates 😀👍

[Mark Daniels]

31 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Not going to be very good for astronomy but for a really cheap spotting scope? . 🤔

Blue coated lenses??? 

Features

• Blue coloured coated lenses for crisper, brighter images and also clearer contrasts
• Rubber coating
• Reversible eyecups
• 156 cm tripod
• Magnification: 20-60 times
• Lens Diameter: 60 mm
• Exit pupil: 2.8 - 0.95 mm
• View angle: 1.6° - 0.8°
• Field of View: at 1000 m: 28 m (20x) - 14 m (60x)

 

Yes i wondered about blue. Rose tinted would be better.  I started with a little monocular spent ages looking ar the moon through them.  I think i will get one just for a kick around. Probably ok for bird spotting.  🤓

Edited October 29, 2019 by Mark Daniels

[johninderby]

Found this little review of the Aldi spotting scope.

“I have one that I bought some years ago, not sure if the current ones are similar. Based on mine though, if you have ever looked through a decent scope then you may find it frustrating to use (focusing was tricky) and the view is very dark and 'mushy', which didn't help, but that said for £25 it's actually quite surprising how usable it is in decent light (towards the low side of the zoom range at least!) and if you really only can afford £25 then it might be ok, though I rarely used mine and bought a good compact scope when I could afford it, which was like night and day in comparison!

I took mine to Titchwell and struggled on the lagoon on a dingy day, the birds all blurred together into a mass of grey fuzz and when the RSPB volunteer let me look through his Swarovski (admittedly like comparing a trabant to a ferrari!) I realised how poor my scope was... I didn't use it again. I had been happy to use it in good light on my local reservoir before that though, you just have to realise that these things are only £25 and you can't expect to use them how you would with a more expensive scope - checking out birds at great distance or in low light is going to be very difficult and frustrating.“

Edited October 29, 2019 by johninderby

[Mark Daniels]

Ill get one and let people know how i get on👍

Edited October 29, 2019 by Mark Daniels

[johninderby]

For back garden use on bright sunny days it might be OK. 🤔