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Hi, my husband is interested in a telescope so I'm searching for recommendations to buy one and give it to him as a birthday gift, he is a newbie, he's been watching the sky with some binocular he bought for Christmas, he watch and read much info, he an has locate andromeda, Jupiter and his moons but obviously the binocular does not have the reach of a telescope, has search for telescopes but I don't want to ask him I really want to surprise him, any help will be appreciated.  

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Hello, welcome to the forum.

It's not always easy buying a specialist item like a telescope as a surprise for someone else!

How well do you know what your husband would like to do with a telescope? (and do you think he knows himself yet?)

For example, would he be particularly interested in planets, or the moon, or "deep sky" objects (galaxies, nebulas, etc.) or all of them?

Does he use the binoculars from your house? In other words, are there a lot of lights nearby that mean he would need to travel somewhere else to view the sky? If so, the telescope needs to be something he can transport.

Do you know if he has already decided on a particular telescope design (you may be aware of refractors, reflectors, Maksutovs, etc.)?

And how much money are you prepared to spend?

 

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1 hour ago, Dolybell said:

Hi, my husband is interested in a telescope so I'm searching for recommendations to buy one and give it to him as a birthday gift, he is a newbie, he's been watching the sky with some binocular he bought for Christmas, he watch and read much info, he an has locate andromeda, Jupiter and his moons but obviously the binocular does not have the reach of a telescope, has search for telescopes but I don't want to ask him I really want to surprise him, any help will be appreciated.  

Are you in the UK ? If so one of these  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/first-light-optics-gift-vouchers/first-light-optics-gift-voucher.html will avoid you buying the wrong thing, he may have a specific telescope type he wants, there is no way we can guess what it might be.

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30 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Hello, welcome to the forum.

It's not always easy buying a specialist item like a telescope as a surprise for someone else!

How well do you know what your husband would like to do with a telescope? (and do you think he knows himself yet?)

For example, would he be particularly interested in planets, or the moon, or "deep sky" objects (galaxies, nebulas, etc.) or all of them?

Does he use the binoculars from your house? In other words, are there a lot of lights nearby that mean he would need to travel somewhere else to view the sky? If so, the telescope needs to be something he can transport.

Do you know if he has already decided on a particular telescope design (you may be aware of refractors, reflectors, Maksutovs, etc.)?

And how much money are you prepared to spend?

 


Thank for the welcome and your reply, he is interested in everything (planets, the moon, "deep sky"), he wants to take some pictures too, yes he uses the binocular from home, we live in Puerto Rico, in the center of the island to be more specific, in our area there is no much light pollution but if the telescope can be move will be a plus, he has made some searches but hasn't decide for one yet, I personally don't know anything about specifications (sorry for the ignorance) I just watch what he shows me that are a lot of thing, he gets so excited when he talks about this things, well talking about budget I think maybe like a $1,000 but if it could be less it would be fantastic. Thanks again.

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A few questions:

Where will he be observing, for instance in the back yard?  

Are you in a city or in the country?

Where would the scope be kept?

Are there any stairs to go up and down?

What's your rough budget?

Telescopes are always a compromise, so answers to these will help us a lot to help you.

Edit note: I see you've just answered a couple of the above.  

By the way, he's a lucky man!

Edited by Second Time Around
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31 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Are you in the UK ? If so one of these  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/first-light-optics-gift-vouchers/first-light-optics-gift-voucher.html will avoid you buying the wrong thing, he may have a specific telescope type he wants, there is no way we can guess what it might be.

Hi, no i'm in Puerto Rico. He wants to be able to watch more clearly like for example with the binoculars he locate andromeda but its just a blurry thing, he wants to be able to maybe take a picture. Thanks for your reply.

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1 minute ago, Second Time Around said:

A few questions:

Where will he be observing?  

Are you in a city or in the country?

Where would the scope be kept?

Are there any stairs to go up and down?

What's your rough budget?

Telescopes are always a compromise, so answers to these will help us a lot to help you.

Hi, he will be observing from our home, we are in Puerto Rico (in the center of the island) no to much light pollution, it will be kept in the house but if it can be move it will be a plus, well the house has stair maybe he wants to put it in the second floor, maybe $1,000.  Thank you very much.

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13 hours ago, Dolybell said:

Thank for the welcome and your reply, he is interested in everything (planets, the moon, "deep sky"), he wants to take some pictures too, yes he uses the binocular from home, we live in Puerto Rico, in the center of the island to be more specific, in our area there is no much light pollution but if the telescope can be move will be a plus, he has made some searches but hasn't decide for one yet, I personally don't know anything about specifications (sorry for the ignorance) I just watch what he shows me that are a lot of thing, he gets so excited when he talks about this things, well talking about budget I think maybe like a $1,000 but if it could be less it would be fantastic. Thanks again.

OK, I'm thinking that you have three possible ways forward:

(1) Give your husband gift vouchers as per @Tiny Clanger (possibly not FLO, then, if you're in Puerto Rico, though they do ship there; possibly our American cousins may have some local knowledge). This may not be your first choice, I appreciate, but it does remove the risk of buying something that isn't right for him. The other thing to bear in mind is that there are global shortages of telescopes and accessories at the moment due to the impact of Covid, so if you were hoping to buy something for a particular date you may find that there is no stock.

(2) You learn up a bit yourself on the possible choices and the reasons behind them. You may then be in a position to narrow down the alternatives and use this forum to decide on a particular model. I would advise you not to dive into the actual product ranges, because there are thousands of telescopes out there and it will just confuse you (it still confuses me). Just focus on the types of telescope, and their advantages and disadvantages, and then try to match that with your own circumstances. Even if you decide not to pick an actual product yourself, some background understanding will help you to appreciate the hobby more when your husband gets going.     @Spile has given you some good links above. There is also:

https://britastro.org/node/25199

(3) We suggest a small number of "first" telecopes that are generally thought of as decent quality, general purpose instruments. I say "general purpose" with a bit of caution, though - there is no telescope that will be the best for all circumstances, no matter how much you spend. In particular, those with long focal ratios (check out those links) are better for planets, those with short focal ratios are better for larger deep sky objects. And also, I notice you mention the possibility of astrophotography as well as visual observing, and this is quite commonly said by new starters. While you have quite a decent budget, I would advise against trying to buy a single telescope outfit that will do both. Visual observing and astrophotography are really best done by different kinds of equipment, and there's a risk you could spend a lot of money on something that doesn't fit well with what your husband wants to do. Unless you know that he has a really strong urge to do photography straight away, I would go for something more aimed at visual. And generally, if you are going to buy him something and not vouchers, I would go for something that is decent quality but doesn't use up all of your budget. That way, you'll be able to give him an actual present but still have the option of buying him an eyepiece or two when you have discussed it some more together.

A couple of the links above do mention actual telescope models. These might also help:

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/top-astronomy-kit/best-telescopes-beginners/

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/369301-which-telescope/

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/365833-vague-idea-but-no-gear-yet-advice-appreciated/

 

 

 

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I agree with everything said by Zermelo and Spile , all good advice .

I do not know what equipment availability or prices are like in the USA, or what retailers are reliable, perhaps one of the US based members will  add something to help you with that.

I still think it is extremely difficult for someone with no knowledge of a complicated topic to buy a secret surprise gift for someone, especially if the person getting the gift has more knowledge: It is likely that the gift recipient will have an idea about what he would like already, and spending a lot of money on something not quite right would be disappointing.

So, I have two suggestions

1) Buy him something small ( perhaps a zoom eyepiece like this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-hyperion-zoom-eyepiece.html or this book  https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundreds-Telescope/dp/1108457568 which is a practical guide ) and buy a gift certificate so he can enjoy researching and buying exactly what he wants.

or

2) ( this is advice from a sneaky female 😀 ) Your husband must have a good friend, work colleague, neighbour or relative he chats to and who you trust ... tell them you have a secret mission for them , they must ask him how his stargazing is going , how his binoculars perform , would he recommend them for someone else interested in the sky ? They could even tell him a friend is thinking of buying a telescope , does he know anything about what would be a good one ?

If that works, make a note of what your spy reports, and come back here for further advice !

Heather

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3 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

I do not know what equipment availability or prices are like in the USA, or what retailers are reliable, perhaps one of the US based members will  add something to help you with that.

I've heard good things about High Point Explore Scientific in the USA:

https://explorescientificusa.com/

https://www.highpointscientific.com/

Edited by gilesco
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I like Heather's (Tiny Clanger's) idea about asking a friend or neighbor. This is because he probably already has an idea of what he would like, and buying something different may disappoint him.

In particular, you need to find out what he wants to photograph.  Photographing deep sky objects like galaxies etc is expensive and also needs different equipment compared with just looking visually.  A visual telescope can however take pretty good pictures of the moon and planets.

It would also be a good idea to find out whether or not he'll be carrying the telescope up and down stairs.  If so, it mustn't be too big or too heavy.  Larger telescopes can normally be taken apart into two or more pieces. However can the first part be safely left outside?

 

 

 

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Greetings from Texas, @Dolybell.  No one telescope is the best tool for everything astronomy related.  As such, I'd recommend your husband start out with either a 6" or 8" Dob if space allows or a 127mm to 150mm Mak on an alt-az mount for strictly visual use.  There are some 6" Newtonian options on alt-az mounts available in Europe that are not marketed in the US, so I won't go into them at the moment.  A 6" SCT is also an option for your stated budget.  All of these will require manual tracking which actually becomes second nature pretty quickly.  They also require the user to learn the sky enough to locate objects.  Again, with help from phone apps like SkEye and computer planetarium software like Stellarium, along with those binoculars for wide fields of view, this, too, will become second nature pretty quickly.  Given your dark, inland skies, you're very fortunate to have good conditions for "star hopping" to locate objects.  It's very satisfying not to have to setup a computer or polar align just to observe.  This is not say that computerized and equatorial mounts don't have their place, they do.  It's just that for beginners, I've found simpler is better.

Right now, everyone decided to be an astronomer during lock-down, so all astro inventory has been depleted.  Wait times can stretch months or longer.  I don't recommend getting a gift certificate to any particular vendor because you don't know which vendor will get stock in of a particularly desirable scope first.  You're trading cash which is good anywhere for a certificate good at exactly one merchant.  Unless it comes with a 20% or more discount, I can't recommend one.

The main American vendors of repute are Astronomics (Cloudy Nights sponsor, like FLO is for SGL), Agena Astro (like FLO, huge and online only), OPT Telescopes, Woodland Hills (telescopes.net), High Point Scientific, and Orion USA.  There are also B&H Photo and Adorama out of NYC, but neither are astronomy specific since they are mainly photography retailers, so after the sale support is often nonexistent.  Additionally, there are Skies Unlimited, Optics Planet, Telescopes Plus, and Anacortes Telescope; however, I have no direct knowledge of them as a customer.  There numerous smaller, specialty vendors, but these are the main general retailers I'm aware of.

Work with your spouse to figure out what works best for him (and you).  Let him know you're fully supportive of dropping some big bucks on a decent telescope; he'll be so excited to know you're onboard.  I dropped around $2000 in today's dollars back in 1998 for my first scope and accessories with my wife's blessing.  I went to a few star parties first to figure out what I would like to use.  I would never have spent the money without her blessing.

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I'm with Louis. if the birthday is close, you might be out of luck. Just checked the Amazon and they don't have anything decent in stock in the $500-$1000 range. Just some China semi-garbage. I bet speciality shops are the same. So if I would be in your shoes today (my wife gave me a telescope for the birthday too some 20 years ago, it was very romantic :)) I would just look on the websites Louis has mentioned above for a most expensive piece with "Orion", "Celestron", "Meade", "Sky Watcher" in the name and either with Dob/Dobson word in the name or with the tripod visible on the image. These brand names are simply easier to resale later :) and usually not a garbage in that price range. I would feel much better if that will be one of these gifted than some "Theseus". I think that a viable alternative to otherwise learning the astronomy and optics from a scratch yourself :D

Just checked the Agena Astro (love them). This is the only thing they have in stock which I would consder as a jiga-dance gift for a casual beginner: https://agenaastro.com/sky-watcher-skymax-127-mak-cas-telescope-az-gti-mount-s21130.html :D (The last one though, so be aware that someone may snatch it as we speak).

Edited by AlexK
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18 minutes ago, gilesco said:

I often end up recommending the Skymax 127Mak, despite not having ever owned one myself, it comes up so often on beginner threads, I still consider buying one as a get and go scope.

Yup. A MAK is very universal, has a good repurpose and resale value, and that AZ-GTi mount is quite a decent piece on its own and also highly re-*. So it's for any further hobby development in multiple directions with the wow-factor (a conversational piece at any outdoors party) persisting in both :) I'm still keeping my 20 y/o  ETX-125. Perhaps, it's time to re-seat it to AZ-GTi... (Added the "Sky Watcher" to my list above)

Edited by AlexK
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Dolybell, can the telescope be safely left alone after it's been put outside?

The reason I ask is that some telescopes take a long time to cool down or warm up to the temperature of the outside air. Until this happens the views will be poor.

If your husband is outside during this time, perhaps looking at the sky through binoculars, this will be less of a problem.

If the scope can safely be left outside unattended then of course they'll be no problem, although it'll may mean less observing time.

Edited by Second Time Around
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21 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

The reason I ask is that some telescopes take a long time to cool down or warm up to the temperature of the outside air.

I'll bet that they live in a tropical area of PR without A/C based on my travels there.  If they do have A/C, then warm up time will be a bit of an issue.  A 127 Mak only takes about 30 minutes to equilibrate to a 10 degree F change (going from 75 inside to 85 outside, which might be their situation).  My 90mm triplet APO actually takes longer to equilibrate.

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