Recommendations for telescopes in the £400-600 budget

[Geoff Lister]

On 05/09/2021 at 07:58, Mentos said:

Now I'll just have to look at the accessories!

The usual advice, is to use the 'scope with its 25mm and 10mm eyepieces, and then decide. The 10mm is probably the weak link.

I can only advise, based on my experience, but this would be my order of purchase.

1  A 32mm Plossl eyepiece - the Mak gives a narrow field of view, but this will give you the widest view with a 1.25" eyepiece.

2  A x2 Barlow - this will give you the equivalent of 16mm and 12.5mm eyepieces, using the 32mm Plossl and the supplied 25mm.

3  An 8-24mm zoom eyepiece - the Skywatcher and Celestron offerings at about £80 work for me, without breaking the bank.

4  A suitable power supply - the Az-GTi mount is not thirsty, but 8-off alkaline AA cells will probably not last very long. This is what I use:-

The 6V packs were "borrowed" from my radio-controlled model sailing yachts, and the plug-top supply came from an obsolete ethernet switch (the white, heavy-duty, bell flex shows up well in the dark), but there are plenty of 1.5 or 2A equivalents, often sold for powering the 12V LED flexible, stick-on, lighting strips.

Geoff

[johninderby]

Should note that the AZ-GTi mount only requires 8v unless you use it with a hand control which requires 11v. 

I found a set of Duracell AA precharge 2700 mah batteries would power the mount for a couple of evenings. 

Edited September 7, 2021 by johninderby

[Mentos]

On 07/09/2021 at 07:10, Geoff Lister said:

The usual advice, is to use the 'scope with its 25mm and 10mm eyepieces, and then decide. The 10mm is probably the weak link.

I can only advise, based on my experience, but this would be my order of purchase.

1  A 32mm Plossl eyepiece - the Mak gives a narrow field of view, but this will give you the widest view with a 1.25" eyepiece.

2  A x2 Barlow - this will give you the equivalent of 16mm and 12.5mm eyepieces, using the 32mm Plossl and the supplied 25mm.

3  An 8-24mm zoom eyepiece - the Skywatcher and Celestron offerings at about £80 work for me, without breaking the bank.

4  A suitable power supply - the Az-GTi mount is not thirsty, but 8-off alkaline AA cells will probably not last very long. This is what I use:-

The 6V packs were "borrowed" from my radio-controlled model sailing yachts, and the plug-top supply came from an obsolete ethernet switch (the white, heavy-duty, bell flex shows up well in the dark), but there are plenty of 1.5 or 2A equivalents, often sold for powering the 12V LED flexible, stick-on, lighting strips.

Geoff

Thank you for the advice!

Have started using it already, and was very excited with the views of Jupiter to start with! I'll definitely be replacing the 10mm, so will look at the zoom ones suggested. Started looking at a 32mm plossi too after looking at others advice.  Then I might see how it goes before getting a barlow.

Already got a power supply too in my sight. Trying to keep to the lithium phospate packs, due to being safer.