Advice Telescope for 7 year old

[PeterStudz]

I think that’s a very good choice. It also looks like it comes with a white light solar filter? I started out observing with my then 9 yr old daughter and to my total surprise she really enjoyed looking at the sun and sunspots.

Of course you’ve got to be VERY careful when looking at the sun especially with children, so follow precautions. But it does have the advantage that it can be done during the day, when it’s warm and no need to get eyes use to the dark. 

[Giles_B]

Nice scope - 130mm will get you great views of the moon and planets, and open star clusters. For the planets you will have to wait until late summer before you will get good views of Saturn and Jupiter as they are currently getting very low in the sky - and then only very late at night / early in the morning. Mars is still well positioned but probably is less of an exciting sight for young eyes - and it will be very bright without a filter.

It will be worth getting a decent book on some of the features of the moon - I'd recommend John reed's '50 things to see on the Moon' - review here: https://astronomytechnologytoday.com/2019/03/26/50-things-to-see-on-the-moon/ - it's aimed at young people (probably a bit older than 7) but I find it a great guide for myself too. It's in English and I'm afraid I don't have a recommendation for a book in Portuguese.

Solar observation is also a great suggestion.

I would wait and see before getting any more eyepieces - you can always get more, bigger and better, but the ones you have should be adequate to get you started.

[Nyctimene]

Congrats to your choice; I'm sure, you both will have a lot of fun with that capable scope!

To answer your question about the 32 mmf Plössl:

The supplied 25 mmf Kellner will give you a true field of view (TFoV) of about 1.9°. That's slightly less than four full moon's diameter (compared to the five moon's diameter with the Plössl). Even with 1.9° and a magnification of 26x, it's easy to find the brighter celestial objects. I'm with Giles_B's opinion - make your first steps with the supplied eyepieces. Of course, the optical quality of the Plössl will be better; but you can wait and have a look at the second-hand market to get one.

Here is a link to the huge thread on the optical almost identical (130/650) AWB One Sky Newtonian; you can take hints from there:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/463109-onesky-newtonian-astronomers-without-borders/

Btw., where (roughly) in Portugal will you be observing? A rural area, or under city lights? Here's another link, helping to locate dark sky areas close to you:

Light pollution map

Enjoy the journey!

Stephan

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Nyctimene

[fcoucelo]

1 hour ago, Nyctimene said:

 

Btw., where (roughly) in Portugal will you be observing? A rural area, or under city lights? Here's another link, helping to locate dark sky areas close to you:

Light pollution map

Enjoy the journey!

Stephan

 

Thank you Stephan!

I will research on the optics and use the maps you sent to avoid pollution. 

We are in the city here in Lisbon but close to the river and we have a garden so maybe we will manage to get some nice views. 

[allworlds]

A great choice I think and definitely a real bargain found.

I would stick to 25 mm as your lowest magnification eyepiece. You might find the secondary shadow becomes noticeable with lower mag.

[allworlds]

A great choice I think and definitely a real bargain found.

I would stick to 25 mm as your lowest magnification eyepiece. You might find the secondary shadow becomes noticeable with lower mag.

If you use the solar filter, tape it securely to the scope. A few weeks ago I read somebody had the filter on a Bresser scope blow off in a gust of wind.

[fcoucelo]

Dear Stargazers,

I received the Bresser Dobson 5 but it doesn’t work. Look through the optics and it shows black. 

Sent email to Bresser but no reply.

Is there anyone here that could help? It might be I’m just doing something wrong and a quick facetime chat with a experienced member could have us stargazing this evening.

Thank you for your help!

[cajen2]

Perhaps a photo of how it's set up would help?

[Knighty2112]

Where you trying to observe the sun during the day with the solar filter fitted on the opening of the scope, or the moon/stars at night time? If the later make sure the solar filter is not fitted as that will block everything else out apart from the suns light.

[fcoucelo]

Tried looking at the stars at night and saw nothing.

If I put light into the scope it does show light when I look into the optics but nothing more. 
 

Even took the parabolic mirror out to see if I could remove the black cap but it doesn’t come off without cutting it out. 

[Mandy D]

In the bottom photo, it looks like the focuser is wound right in, as I think I can see a silver tube extending into the main telescope tube in front of the mirror. If so, then your eyepiece is sticking out a long way which makes me suspect you have a Barlow innstalled between the eyepiece and focuser. If so, remove the Barlow and insert your eyepiece directly iinto the focuser. Then point the telescope at something brightly lit like one of those outside lights and see if you can focus on that.

If the above works, you are all set for trying it on the sky, but will need to refocus. If not, I suspect the telescope needs collimating. That is what the six screws on the closed end of it are for. You will need advice on doing this properly, but it really is not terribly hard.

 

BTW, I found a link for the shop in Bordeaux that I previously mentioned:

https://www.astronomieespaceoptique.com/

They were really helpful when I visited and the shop is huge.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Mandy D

[Pixies]

Start in the daylight - point it at clouds or clear sky (avoid the sun!!!) Take out the eyepiece and look down the eyepiece holder, you should see something like:

It should hopefully be concentric - but dont worry about that for now. If it's OK, put the eyepiece back in and then try and focus on something very distant. You may need to adjust the eyepiece out quite a way. Again - avoid the sun!

I think things look promising from your photo, because I think you can actually see a reflection of light coming through the eyepiece  from the objective end!

 

 

 

[bosun21]

On 03/01/2023 at 21:52, Ricochet said:

Of the two initially suggested telescopes I would go for the 70mm Starsense refractor. These slow, relatively long focal length refractors will probably give sharper lunar and planetary images than the fast, short focal length newtonians, especially if a spherical mirror is used. On deep sky there probably isn't a lot between a 70mm frac and a 76mm newt, if anything the frac probably edges it here too. If you know that your daughter much prefers stars to the moon and planets then stepping up to at least a 100mm mini dob is probably as good or better than the 70mm frac. However, the starsense system has been getting good reviews and will make finding things a lot easier if you have a suitable phone that can be donated or leant for each observing session. 

I agree with you 100%. I actually bought a 70mm starsense refractor solely to cannibalize the Starsense unit, which I hastily did. On nights I was out with my Maksutov I started bringing the 70mm refractor. I was really impressed with the views of Jupiter and Saturn complete with rings. Definitely a great little starting scope. I eventually passed it on to someone who holds viewing nights with the scouts.

[fcoucelo]

1 hour ago, Mandy D said:

In the bottom photo, it looks like the focuser is wound right in, as I think I can see a silver tube extending into the main telescope tube in front of the mirror. If so, then your eyepiece is sticking out a long way which makes me suspect you have a Barlow innstalled between the eyepiece and focuser. If so, remove the Barlow and insert your eyepiece directly iinto the focuser. Then point the telescope at something brightly lit like one of those outside lights and see if you can focus on that.

If the above works, you are all set for trying it on the sky, but will need to refocus. If not, I suspect the telescope needs collimating. That is what the six screws on the closed end of it are for. You will need advice on doing this properly, but it really is not terribly hard.

 

BTW, I found a link for the shop in Bordeaux that I previously mentioned:

https://www.astronomieespaceoptique.com/

They were really helpful when I visited and the shop is huge.

Unfortunately there’s no barlow instaled its just the lenses and I can rotate a nob that makes the lens to go out or inside. 

[fcoucelo]

48 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Start in the daylight - point it at clouds or clear sky (avoid the sun!!!) Take out the eyepiece and look down the eyepiece holder, you should see something like:

It should hopefully be concentric - but dont worry about that for now. If it's OK, put the eyepiece back in and then try and focus on something very distant. You may need to adjust the eyepiece out quite a way. Again - avoid the sun!

I think things look promising from your photo, because I think you can actually see a reflection of light coming through the eyepiece  from the objective end!

 

 

 

When I look without the lens I don’t see a reflection of my eye but rather a very out of focus image of what the other end of the scope is pointing at. 

[Peter Drew]

Don't be disheartened, I'm sure there is nothing wrong with the telescope, just something not quite right with the setting of the focuser.  As already mentioned, the shiny silver tube should not protude into the main telescope tube, as photographed it is too far in.  Wind it back out and try to see something in the daytime.  If this doesn't work then the eyepiece might be too far out.  If so, then there may be a piece that unscrews between the eyepiece holder and the eyepiece, removing this would shorten the length of the moving tube.    🙂

[Pixies]

1 hour ago, fcoucelo said:

When I look without the lens I don’t see a reflection of my eye but rather a very out of focus image of what the other end of the scope is pointing at. 

If you get a chance, could you take a picture down the focuser (no eyepiece) in daylight and post it here?

[Ricochet]

The key is to first take your telescope out in the daytime and to try to focus it on the furthest thing that you can see. With this type of telescope the image will be inverted both horizontally and vertically, which is how it is supposed to be. The closer that something is, the further out the focuser must be and as your telescope is designed to look at astronomical objects the focuser may not move outwards far enough to focus on terrestrial targets. In this case, once you have reached the most outward end of focuser travel, try slowly pulling the eyepiece up out of the focuser. You now know that in order to focus on astronomical targets you will have to wind your focuser inwards from the terrestrial position.

Secondly, while focused on a distant terrestrial target you need to align your finderscope as best as possible. Identify exactly what you are looking at through the telescope and without moving the main telescope, adjust the red dot finderscope using the two dials on the side and underside of the finder so that the red dot appears to be pointed at the same object that you can see through the telescope. Due to parallax due to your terrestrial target being too close, you may need to refine this at night once you have resolved your focus issues.

Now that the finder has been roughly aligned, you have a much better chance of being able to find a bright object in the night sky and to focus on that. If the telescope comes with more than one eyepiece use the eyepiece with the highest focal length as it will have the widest field of view. If the moon is visible I suggest that you start with that as it is so large and bright that it is much easier to find if your finder is not pointing in exactly the right direction, and it should be more obvious when it is correctly focused. If instead, you choose a bright star or a planet to test focus on you may see a bright ring of light when out of focus. In order to focus you must always try to make the object appear as small as possible. If it gets larger, turn the focuser the other way.

Finally, to all the people who suggest collimation might be an issue when this sort of query arises, please stop confusing new users by suggesting collimation. Unless the secondary has come loose and is facing in completely the wrong direction collimation is never the problem, it is always focus.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Ricochet

[Artik]

1st of all excellet ch

On 14/01/2023 at 19:36, fcoucelo said:

Dear Stargazers,

I received the Bresser Dobson 5 but it doesn’t work. Look through the optics and it shows black. 

Sent email to Bresser but no reply.

Is there anyone here that could help? It might be I’m just doing something wrong and a quick facetime chat with a experienced member could have us stargazing this evening.

Thank you for your help!

1st of all excellent choice - this scope is way better than typical 130 heritage - I briefly used one. You'll enjoy it.

And as many suggested start with it during daytime (do not point to Sun!) to get used to - find focus, calibrate finder etc. From what it looks like it all seems right but need some basic practice. Don't mess with collimation till you get grips with the scope. One I've seen came from factory was 100% collimated on star-test.

Now I recall you though of StarSense Explorer (SSE) option. FYI there is an open source alternative that helps finding objects AstroHopper it is very similar in concept to SSE but works little bit more manually as you need to align to some known star or planet near the object you are looking for. It is highly popular in my local community. Anyway - you have plenty of stuff to see before you'll need one. Disclaimer: I'm the author of the app

Once you know how to operate it during daytime - start looking from Moon, than Jupiter and its Moons, Mars, Pleiades, Orion Nebula - they are all easy to find targets without any special tools.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Artik

[Padtwo]

23 hours ago, Ricochet said:

The key is to first take your telescope out in the daytime and to try to focus it on the furthest thing that you can see. With this type of telescope the image will be inverted both horizontally and vertically, which is how it is supposed to be. The closer that something is, the further out the focuser must be and as your telescope is designed to look at astronomical objects the focuser may not move outwards far enough to focus on terrestrial targets. In this case, once you have reached the most outward end of focuser travel, try slowly pulling the eyepiece up out of the focuser. You now know that in order to focus on astronomical targets you will have to wind your focuser inwards from the terrestrial position.

Secondly, while focused on a distant terrestrial target you need to align your finderscope as best as possible. Identify exactly what you are looking at through the telescope and without moving the main telescope, adjust the red dot finderscope using the two dials on the side and underside of the finder so that the red dot appears to be pointed at the same object that you can see through the telescope. Due to parallax due to your terrestrial target being too close, you may need to refine this at night once you have resolved your focus issues.

Now that the finder has been roughly aligned, you have a much better chance of being able to find a bright object in the night sky and to focus on that. If the telescope comes with more than one eyepiece use the eyepiece with the highest focal length as it will have the widest field of view. If the moon is visible I suggest that you start with that as it is so large and bright that it is much easier to find if your finder is not pointing in exactly the right direction, and it should be more obvious when it is correctly focused. If instead, you choose a bright star or a planet to test focus on you may see a bright ring of light when out of focus. In order to focus you must always try to make the object appear as small as possible. If it gets larger, turn the focuser the other way.

Finally, to all the people who suggest collimation might be an issue when this sort of query arises, please stop confusing new users by suggesting collimation. Unless the secondary has come loose and is facing in completely the wrong direction collimation is never the problem, it is always focus.

Exactly what I was going to suggest. Try it in the daytime, it's good practice and will teach you about finding objects and focussing, especially as everything will be inverted! Also make sure the secondary mirror isn't completely out. The large mirror is the primary and the smaller mirror suspended in front of the focuser is the secondary. If the secondary is facing the wrong way then you wont get any light into the eyepiece from the primary. If you look down the focusser tube without an eyepiece you should see the secondary mirror just in front of you.

[Padtwo]

Did you have any luck getting it working?