1st scope for child

[queeniejo]

Hi all,

My neighbours  9 year old son is Fascinated by space and especially the moon. She would like to buy him a telescope, but doesn’t want to spend a lot in case it’s a hobby that fizzles out.
 

I am not nearly experienced enough to give her any advice so thought I’d ask here. He has poor vision in one eye so she thinks a telescope would be better than binoculars.

 

Thanks Jo x

[DaveL59]

I recently picked up a Celestron Starsense Explorer LT70AZ refractor which might be a good starter, uses a smartphone app to help guide you to find targets, costs around £135 if you can find stock anywhere. It is a bit wobbly being a bottom end starter scope but the optics in the tube are pretty reasonable. Ideally tho you'd need to get a proper star diagonal and better eyepieces as the supplied is as usual not fantastic, tho the 20mm should be usable. The phone would need to be pretty recent manufacture, iPhone6 or Android 7.1 or later so worth checking the compatibility list on their web page. The better version would be on the DX mount but that's a big jump in price so maybe not the one to test the water with.

To improve a reasonable star diagonal like the Svbony Sv108 and a 7-21mm Sv135 zoom eyepiece should work well on this scope and can be used on other scopes as they upgrade. I have the diagonal and it is well made and a good price on Ali at the moment as is the zoom.

[toshapetriji]

Take a look here

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html

[Zermelo]

This is a recent thread asking about a first scope for a 14-year-old, some of the responses may also be of interest to you. 

[xvariablestarx]

I would pick a small refractor on an alt azimuth mount, to make the experience as simple and enjoyable as possible for the kid.

[AstroNebulee]

My first scope when I started in April of this year was a celestron cometron 76mm table top dobsonian, after using it for a few weeks i was hooked and soon upgraded. Like your friend I didn't want to spend a lot at first incase I was disappointed or got fed up, but since then I've upgraded twice and got 3 scopes in my armoury, so id say its a good first scope with no collimation issues just plug and play. Argos do it but loads of others do if in stock.  I found the eyepieces to be good quality also for a cheap starter scope.  https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8339876?istCompanyId=a74d8886-5df9-4baa-b776-166b3bf9111c&istFeedId=30f62ea9-9626-4cac-97c8-9ff3921f8558&istItemId=ixilqwqrr&istBid=t&&cmpid=GS001&_$ja=tsid:59157|acid:629-618-1342|cid:9563523552|agid:102230991270|tid:pla-888901599350|crid:423314717165|nw:g|rnd:3279968728775685086|dvc:c|adp:|mt:|loc:9045287&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=9563523552&utm_term=8339876&utm_content=shopping&utm_custom1=102230991270&utm_custom2=629-618-1342&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIudSkyfnc7AIVSLTtCh1iVAgFEAQYAyABEgIOy_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds  Or a well known auction site has this scope on sale also.

Edited October 30, 2020 by LeeHore7

[Nyctimene]

According to many mentions in the thread suggested by Zermelo above, I'd vote for the Skywatcher 100 P or it's larger brother, the 130 P Flextube. Very compact, easy and intuitively to handle. The optics are excellent, the mechanics (Dobsonian mount) sturdy. Holds collimation well and will give very good views of every kind of celestial objects. I bought a 130 P Flextube three years ago, and it's my most used grab-and-go scope. Many pleased owners on here.

Stephan

[DaveL59]

How well does the child know the sky? I'd guess other than the moon and maybe a couple planets and a couple constellations probably not too much?

So something all manual that you need to use a finder to get to try to aim in the right area could become quite frustrating esp for a young novice where patience could be in short supply. Sure you can use a star map but star hopping etc might be a step beyond at this stage. Hence my suggestion of the starsense, tell it what you'd like to see and it'll direct you there and works pretty well as a few here have found. Might be far more fun for him and mum might enjoy using it too and build a shared hobby. Sure the LT70AZ isn't the best with the wobbly mount but as a low cost starter it ain't too bad. There is an 80mm version too LT80AZ for £179 but avoid the reflectors in the LT range as they aren't the best being bird-jones design.

Sure there are better scopes like the 130P among others, question is will that lead quickly to a loss of interest when not finding targets to view, tho just the planets may be enough, hard to know without knowing the child.

Edited October 30, 2020 by DaveL59

[happy-kat]

Thought I'd add that planets will generally be very small, it's the thrill of what looking at then the actual size of what is being viewed, how far away how big how old. A refractor looks like what a 7 year old might expect a telescope to look like.