Help 🤣

[Paddy1990]

Hi, I’m looking for some help. 
im a total beginner an finding buying a telescope very daunting!

i have a tight budget of around £200 max. And don’t want to waste my money

not expecting anything to amazing just love looking at the stars and moon. Would love to see Saturn if that’s not to much to ask on my budget. 
there is just so many telescopes out there. Any help would be appreciated 

[iPeace]

Help is on the way...you should get plenty of responses. Meanwhile, check this out:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

[IB20]

Hello, I’d say the best bang for your buck would be the heritage 130p (link in the above post) or the larger and newer 150p flextube! 
 

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-heritage-150p-flex-tube-dobsonian-telescope.html

[Waddensky]

The heritage models suggested here are great. They will show you lovely details on the Moon and the rings of Saturn with ease. Another good suggestion, slightly over budget,  is the Sky-Watcher Skyliner 150P dobson. Here are some other great scopes for every budget.

Remember that all scopes in this price range need to be pointed to the right location manually, and need to be 'nudged' from time to time to keep the object centered. Nothing overly complicated, but something you'll need to get the hang of.

A more 'grab and go' approach would be a nice pair of binoculars, for example a 7x50, 8x42 or 10x50. No rings of Saturn with these (although at 10x the planet looks slightly elongated), but many, many other nice things to see.

[dd999]

The 130p and 150p suggestions are great choices for a beginner. 

I started with the 150p on an EQ5 mount (although brand new this cost me nearer £400) - but the 130p on an EQ2 mount can be bought brand new for less than £200 on most telescope retailers websites. 

I had a 130p (only sold to upgrade to the 130pds recently so I can start imaging) and really rate these. It's a great versatile scope. 

There's also no need to buy brand new. There are some good scopes that come up on the second hand market - although the good starter scopes are a little harder to come by and come up less often. If you do go second hand you may be able to get a little more for your money (like the bigger 150p). 

A £200 budget should be enough for a good scope to see good a good level of detail of the moon, bands of Jupiter, rings of Saturn - plus star clusters, galaxies and more!

Edited August 21, 2020 by dd999

[jonathan]

You do have to factor in eyepieces - the one or two that you get with a scope are generally mediocre, a good set of eyepieces would be outside of your initial budget but it's something that's well worth saving up for and expanding on to give you a good range of magnifications for different targets and seeing conditions.

Consider the BST range, or step up a notch to the Celestron X-Cel or Explore Scientific 82 degrees ranges.  One good quality eyepiece could literally transform your viewing.  From those ranges I mentioned, if you only buy one eyepiece then I would recommend something in the middle such as 15mm, if you later wish to expand then go for 8mm or 12mm, then maybe 18mm.  You'll most likely receive a 10mm and 20 or 25mm with a telescope, the 25mm is good for finding your targets and observing large or bright objects such as the moon (also look at getting a lunar or ND filter to reduce the glare, the cheapest one shown here should be fine).

I recommend spending your main budget on the scope first because eyepiece choice depends hugely on what you prefer to look at, just keep in mind that with a new scope in your budget planets will generally still look like small discs or points of light, you're unlikely to be able to split the rings of Saturn or see features on Mars, though bands on Jupiter should be visible under good conditions; I'd instead recommend focusing on wide field observing such as star clusters, double stars, lunar, and for those a 10mm or 15mm eyepiece would be ideal.

Edited August 21, 2020 by jonathan