Birthday present for husband - advice on beginner telescopes to buy!

[johninderby]

10 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

 

I would say maybe leave the finder scope until the OP's husband has a play with the red dot finder and see if he gets on with it.

Hmmmm......maybe a Telrad for now and a RACI later on. 🤔

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/telrad-finder-astronomy.html

[FLO]

17 hours ago, Raph-in-the-sky said:

I also use a 250p. I find the Az action pretty smooth as it is however the alt action is a bit stiff. I tried to play with the handles but I don't manage to get to the point where its just how I would like it to be. Do you ahve any advice?

I don't. I don't think I ever needed to mod the Alt movement. A little grease on the black disks (fitted to the side of the OTA) perhaps? 

I was thinking during my drive into work today about a Skyliner 200p with mods vs the more expensive Bresser Messier 8", which is arguably already pre-modded. For around 12% more there is the larger Skyliner 250px... 🙂 

The choice is not mine but if it were and the budget were flexible then I would favour the larger 10" aperture, without mods, over a smaller model with mods. 

HTH, 

Steve 

[Raph-in-the-sky]

9 minutes ago, FLO said:

I don't. I don't think I ever needed to mod the Alt movement. A little grease on the black disks (fitted to the side of the OTA) perhaps? 

I was thinking during my drive into work today about a Skyliner 200p with mods vs the more expensive Bresser Messier 8", which is arguably already pre-modded. For around 12% more there is the larger Skyliner 250px... 🙂 

The choice is not mine but if it were and the budget were flexible then I would favour the larger 10" aperture, without mods, over a smaller model with mods. 

HTH, 

Steve 

Agreed! 10'' is really the sweet spot between aperture, portability and price.

[FLO]

9 minutes ago, Raph-in-the-sky said:

Agreed! 10'' is really the sweet spot between aperture, portability and price.

It was the largest I could comfortably move around the garden single-handed as targets moved across the sky 🙂 

[johninderby]

10” Bresser perhaps? 

OK that would blow the budget a bit. 😁

[Louis D]

I like spending other people's money on SGL. 😁

[AliP80]

Hi everyone! Firstly, thank you SO much for all your helpful replies, it's a mind field out there, and getting this stuff first hand from people who really know they're stuff and care about it is invaluable! Secondly, apologies for the radio silence the last few weeks, it's all a bit crazy out there isn't it. Saying that it's also the perfect time to get into astronomy! Anyway I thought you might like to know I caved and bought the Bresser 8'' with a Plossl 1'24 25mm eyepiece. My husband finally got it set up the other night.

So... we have spent quite a lot of time trying to get a decent image... and we have some questions.  First of all - its only possible to get an image which appears focused with your eye about 4" from the eyepiece (the focusing mechanism on the Bresser seems ok - is moving in and out ok!).  Secondly when you get to a sharp image - it is only about 20% of the size of the eyepiece - so TINY.  We have read about exit pupil size, but it seems a bit weird and we're not getting any notable magnification.  I've told my husband he's a moron, but that's not helping!

Photo of the image we are getting attached!  Any help appreciated!

 

[johninderby]

Have you fitted the extension piece to the focuser? Won’t focus properly with an eyepiece without it. 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by johninderby

[Louis D]

Hold the eyepiece up to a brightly lit window.  Now bring your up to it until the flipped up eye cup touches your eye socket.  You should be able to see a bright circle surrounded by blackness.  You may need to move the eyepiece in or out relative to your eye to avoid blackouts and maximize the view.  That is the proper distance to use that particular eyepiece.  Now point the scope at a distant object and rack the focuser all the way out and lift the eyepiece up out of the holder while looking through it.  The distant object should start to come into focus.  The distance at which it comes to focus gives you some idea of how long an extension tube you'll need to reach focus.  Hopefully, the scope came with one as @johninderby suggests.  If not, you'll need to buy one of the appropriate length.

I'm guessing they did this so you can attach a DSLR to the scope, but it means they had to use an oversized secondary mirror which leads to reduced contrast.

[johninderby]

The drawtube extention piece comes with the scope. Unscrew the top part of the drawtube and screw on the extenstion tube and then screw the top part onto the extension tube.

Find contrast on the Bresser is excellent as the Bresser has proper anti-reflection coating inside instead of just paint.

Edited April 9, 2020 by johninderby

[Ricochet]

15 hours ago, AliP80 said:

 First of all - its only possible to get an image which appears focused with your eye about 4" from the eyepiece (the focusing mechanism on the Bresser seems ok - is moving in and out ok!).  Secondly when you get to a sharp image - it is only about 20% of the size of the eyepiece - so TINY.

Put your eye right up to the eyepiece. The supplied eyepiece is a 25mm Plossl, so the distance between the glass on the eyepiece and your eye will be in the region of 18mm. Once your eye is in the right position the small circle of light will appear to "expand". 

Follow John's advice about fitting the extension piece. Mine was packed in the foam with the rocker box, rather than the telescope box. You will also need to undo the small grub screw on the side of the 2" focuser clamp before it will unscrew it (unless they have removed this from the most updated design).

The moon is a full at the moment and will make a great target for you to find the focus point on. It will be obvious when it is or isn't in focus as you will see the details on the surface of the moon. Looking at planets/stars always turn the focuser to make the star circles smaller (stars will be points/crosses in a Newtonian).

Edited April 10, 2020 by Ricochet