First Telescope Advice

[Butterfingers]

Hi guys,

 

I would really like to purchase a telescope. I don't want to spend a huge amount of money getting something very sophisticated given that I'm a complete novice. I would like to be able to view the moon, planets, stars, maybe more if available on my budget (£100ish). I live in a London suburb.

 

Any help much appreciated.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Butterfingers
Title

[Nerf_Caching]

33 minutes ago, Butterfingers said:

Hi guys,

 

I would really like to purchase a telescope. I don't want to spend a huge amount of money getting something very sophisticated given that I'm a complete novice. I would like to be able to view the moon, planets, stars, maybe more if available on my budget (£100ish). I live in a London suburb.

 

Any help much appreciated.

Heritage 130p by Skywatcher might be a bit over your budget(142 on First Light Optics) but if you can save up and stretch your budget a little bit more I can guarantee that it will serve you lots of enjoyment. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

[Butterfingers]

2 hours ago, Nerf_Caching said:

Heritage 130p by Skywatcher might be a bit over your budget(142 on First Light Optics) but if you can save up and stretch your budget a little bit more I can guarantee that it will serve you lots of enjoyment. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

Thanks very much for your reply. I’ll take a look. Would you be able to recommend binoculars?

[Nyctimene]

Another vote for the Heritage 130 P Flextube. Very easy to handle,  compact, excellent optics. A lifetime scope, that will serve as a grab-and-go and travel scope for many years. Best bang for the buck. Have a look here:

https://neilenglish.net/a-newtonian-travel-scope/

 

 

 

Stephan

Edited April 6, 2020 by Nyctimene

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, Butterfingers said:

Thanks very much for your reply. I’ll take a look. Would you be able to recommend binoculars?

For hand-held use, I recommend around 8x40 or 8x42 porro prism binoculars if your budget is tight.  As long as they're well collimated, though, I've found just about any pair of binoculars to be useful for scanning star fields.

[Butterfingers]

Thank you very much for your advice. I bought some bresser special Saturn 20x60 porros, ill refer back to this when I’m in a position to invest in something more advanced.

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, Butterfingers said:

Thank you very much for your advice. I bought some bresser special Saturn 20x60 porros, ill refer back to this when I’m in a position to invest in something more advanced.

20x is going to be difficult to handhold.  I can just barely make 15x binos work handheld.  To do so, I sit in a reclining lawn chair and hold the binos by the objective ends and plant the eyepieces into my eye sockets to keep them steady.

[malc-c]

On 07/04/2020 at 17:56, Butterfingers said:

Thank you very much for your advice. I bought some bresser special Saturn 20x60 porros, ill refer back to this when I’m in a position to invest in something more advanced.

Those binoculars will be difficult to hold still for astronomy.  But they do come with a tripod adaptor, so invest in photographic tripod as well to get the best results