Equipment

[Bigjim69]

Hello all I’m a new member and looking for some advice, I live in Spain and would like some advice to what type of scope to bye as a starter kit, but still wanting to have good views,  any advice would be much appreciated thx

[Waddensky]

Hi and welcome! For starters, it would be very useful for us to know what kind of objects you'd like to see (planets, deep-sky objects, double stars, etc), what your budget is and if you're able to observe from your own place or you need to drive somewhere.

[Bigjim69]

Hi thx for the reply, I’m looking to see planets and stars and my budget is up to £200 but would like to spend half that but not sure what I could get for £100 and I no that you can pay lots of money for certain types but just as a starter £100 to £200 would be ok thx again

[JoshHopk]

Something like this is very highly regarded among beginners (and experienced stargazers even) as as they are great value for money, portable and give great views of pretty much everything our night sky has to offer. 
 

Add a barlow and you’ll be set 

Edited May 18, 2020 by JoshHopk

[miguel87]

I agree. I dont think you could get anything better under £150.

I think if you needed to spend only £100 you would be best with some good binoculars.

✌

[Nyctimene]

Another vote for the Skywatcher Heritage 130 P Flextube. Very easy to handle, compact, excellent optics, decent mount.

Have a look here https://www.cloudynights.com/3109-onesky-newtonian-astronomers-without-borders/page-173#entry10198084

(the One Sky Newtonian is the same scope)

Stephan

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

If you look on the website of forum sponsor FLO you will see that £100 does not go far when buying astronomical equipment.  As suggested above, on a limited budget you could get the Heritage 130p or invest in a decent pair of 10x50 bimoculars.

You can buy new telescopes for around £100 but they will be of poor quality and generally disappointing.

How much did you spend on your smartphone?😀

[Dr Strange]

I know you said £100-£200 but if you can see your way to increasing that budget by £160 you can get a setup that will really do well for you. It is fully GOTO, you can disengage the clutches and star hop then reengage them and go back to GOTO, has enough aperture to see objects, and is controlled by your smart phone. It really makes a big difference for beginners. It is the Skywatcher AZ-GTi package with the 130mm Newtonian. A link to it is:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-explorer-130ps-az-gti.html

It is £359

I know it is above your budget but it will really give you everything you want and more. 

[Waddensky]

23 hours ago, Bigjim69 said:

Hi thx for the reply, I’m looking to see planets and stars and my budget is up to £200 but would like to spend half that but not sure what I could get for £100 and I no that you can pay lots of money for certain types but just as a starter £100 to £200 would be ok thx again

Thanks. As others have said there are scopes available for £100 or less, but these are usually a waste of money. I second (third?) the advice to go for a Heritage-130P from Sky-Watcher. It comes with two eyepieces that will give you two magnifications to use and the scope has a nice red dot finder that will help you to find objects. It's basic, but that's a good thing because you'll learn how to find your way around the sky and what to expect from a scope without breaking the bank.

Another option would be a pair of binoculars. Anything above 10x magnification will be hard to hold steady, anything below 42 mm aperture is not really suitable for astronomy use. So 8x42, 7x50 or 10x50 for example would be great, you'll be surprised what can be seen with them. I'm pretty sure there is a decent pair to find in your budget. Keep in mind that with these kinds of magnifications, planets will only look like tiny dots but you can easily see the moons of Jupiter with them.