Newb

[Andylorian]

Hi guys n gals I want to buy a telescope for the first time can you give me advice on the best one to buy I really want to get involved in astronomy and I hope you can help. It's took a long time to finally make the move but time and age is about right. Thx hope you can help

[Timebandit]

 

 

Hello. The best bang for buck telescope in my opinion is a 200mm reflector on a dob mount. Great for the beginner and will last you for years. Great on DSO, Luna , planets. A real proper first scope.

Hope this helps

 

[johninderby]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Need to know a few things first before anyone can give advice. First of all tje budget. Are there things you want to look at in particular or is it a bit of everything?

Where would you be observing from?. Home or are you willing to travel a bit to a dark site. And what is the light polution like where you live?

[John]

Hi and welcome to the forum !

We need to know a little more to make some suggestions eg:

- Approx budget that you have

- Would the moon and planets be of more interest than deep sky objects or are you interested in all that is "up there" ?

- Are you interested in just observing or imaging or both ?

- Are you prepared to find your own targets in the sky or would you like the scope to do that for you (ie: a "GOTO" scope) ?

- Do you need to carry the scope far, eg: up and down stairs, out to the car (when we can do that again) etc, etc.

- How much room do you have to store the scope in when it is not being used.

Scopes come in all shapes, sizes, costs etc so the above helps to narrow things down.

Thanks

[JoshHopk]

Welcome to SGL! 

Your question is bound to awake the dob mob , so I’ll leave them and the more experienced members to discuss options with you.

Good luck finding a scope!

Edited May 2, 2020 by JoshHopk

[Timebandit]

Just now, JoshHopk said:

Welcome to SGL! 

I can see your question has already awoken the dob mob , so I’ll leave them and the more experienced members to discuss options with you.

Good luck finding a scope!

 

I have a foot in both camps. Reflector and Refractor And Dob mount and tripod mount. So no real bias on my part. Just trying to give a newbie an idea of what scope I would want recommended to me , for best bang for buck with great performance to get into the hobby. In my opinion a good 200mm reflector does really take some beating for a great all round scope  👍

 

 

[John]

10 minutes ago, JoshHopk said:

Welcome to SGL! 

Your question is bound to awake the dob mob , so I’ll leave them and the more experienced members to discuss options with you.

Good luck finding a scope!

I'm trying to find about a bit more about the requirements here

 

 

[JoshHopk]

8 minutes ago, Timebandit said:

 

I have a foot in both camps. Reflector and Refractor And Dob mount and tripod mount. So no real bias on my part. Just trying to give a newbie an idea of what scope I would want recommended to me , for best bang for buck with great performance to get into the hobby. In my opinion a good 200mm reflector does really take some beating for a great all round scope  👍

 

 

I was only teasing! I’ll have to agree with you on the 8inch reflectors, I wish I’d done some more research when looking for my first scope. I would trade my 127 SCT for one in a heartbeat.

[johninderby]

Difficult for someone new to know just what they really want. Unfortunately it takes a bit of experience to work out what you want. You just have to accept that no matter what scope you end up with you may change your mind later on. 

However there are some safe bets in terms of scopes out there. The ever popular dob does indeed give you the best views per pound spent and is one of the easiest for a beginner to use and is something you are likely to,keep as you progress in the hobby.

The small Maksutov on a manual alt az mount is small and portable yet gives great views of the moon and planets. Refractors are what most beginners think,of as a “proper” telescope but cheap ones on wobbly mounts can be rubbish and are the type often found in department stores. Refractors can go from less than a hundred pounds to many thousands of pounds. Cheap short focal length ones suffer from false colour at higher magificarptions and are usually best at widefield observing, not planets. You will see a lot of very long cheap refractors as false colour is better controlled with a long focal length.

The  whole subject of ED and APO refracrors is another thing. 😁 Then there are the GOTO mounts. And on the subject of mounts it’s worth getting something sturdy enough so that vibration isn’t a big problem.

But just keep asking questions until you start to get some idea of what you want.

Edited May 2, 2020 by johninderby

[jonathan]

Quick and cheap and very easy to use: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-21035-Travel-Scope-Telescope/dp/B001TI9Y2M  (upgrade the tripod to a decent photographic one though, supplied tripod is too light and flimsy)

Nice easy introduction to dobsonian mounted reflectors: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

A very capable scope for the money, but could be quite hefty and bulky as one unit (scope lifts off easily enough), could be difficult to find things with for the beginner (9x50 finder scope gives quite a magnified view, can be tricky to find your bearings through it) : https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html

Another very capable scope, this time on an Equatorial mount that has the option to have Goto, although personally I would not recommend Goto for a novice: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-150p-eq3-2.html

 

I prefer the 6x30 finder scope as supplied with the 150P for casual observing, it gives a wider field of view than a 9x50.  The latter finder scope is for more advanced stuff, finding those fainter or smaller points of light, you really need to get in the general area before you can use it.  I find that I sometimes need a red dot finder as well as a 9x50. 

Edited May 3, 2020 by jonathan