Help needed for first telescope...please?

[Louis D]

On 23/09/2023 at 16:15, drdre2030 said:

I didn't know what bortle was, but just looked it up and I'm in bortle 5, just on the outskirts of bortle 4 by 500m, so easy enough to potentially go where a little less light pollution too.

Generally, the skies in the direction of lower light pollution will be noticeably darker.  That would be the direction to hunt for DSOs.  It tends be opposite from where there has been a lot of development.

[drdre2030]

42 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Generally, the skies in the direction of lower light pollution will be noticeably darker.  That would be the direction to hunt for DSOs.  It tends be opposite from where there has been a lot of development.

Thanks, yeah lots of dark sky sites near me too as surrounded by the South Downs too.

[Astronomist]

One point that I don't think has been raised yet: the skywatcher skyhawk 114-1000 is a barlowed newtonian (bird-jones) design, which means it has a spherical primary. This design has aquired a reputation for blurry views, read about the celestron powerseekeer 127 for some horror stories regarding the bird-jones design. This is not to be confused with the skywatcher skyhawk 114 f5 or 1145p models, which have conventional parabolic optics and are good scopes.  

My recommendation for you would also be a Heritage 100p or Zhummel z100, my first real telescope was a 100p and I really liked it, super portable and pretty good optically.

Best of luck with your choice!

Edited October 8, 2023 by Astronomist

[drdre2030]

On 26/09/2023 at 07:51, Astronomist said:

One point that I don't think has been raised yet: the skywatcher skyhawk 114-1000 is a barlowed newtonian (bird-jones) design, which means it has a spherical primary. This design has aquired a reputation for blurry views, read about the celestron powerseekeer 127 for some horror stories regarding the bird-jones design. This is not to be confused with the skywatcher skyhawk 114 f5 or 1145p models, which have conventional parabolic optics and are good scopes.  

My reccomendation for you would also be a Heritage 100p or Zhummel z100, my first real telescope was a 100p and I really liked it, super portable and pretty good optically.

Best of luck with your choice!

Thanks, love how similar some names are but yet how different they can be! Not useful when looking at second hand, at least on FB Marketplace when listings are often very limited too.

Thanks for your recommendation, Zhummel z100 is boxed and waiting for the daughters birthday in a couple of weeks. Looks quite decent for the price paid too and as you say portable as well.

[drdre2030]

Just wanted to say a thank you for the recommendations and I managed to pick up a Zhummel z100 for £68 off amazon (open box), my daughter and I used it for the first time last night and she was so giddy! She loved the fact we managed to see Jupiter, albeit just looked like a brighter star still! She was utilising the Stellarium App and I think generally knew what she was looking at too.

Think it still needs setting up a bit more precisely, and certainly a bit of getting use to everything but she went to bed very happy last night!