Telescope for 6 years old 🤷‍♀️

[vlaiv]

These two would be my choices:

Budget:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/sky-watcher-mercury-707-az-telescope.html

A bit more money and a bit more serious instrument:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/sky-watcher-evostar-90-660-az-pronto.html

Both should be fairly easy / straight forward to use and look like telescope is "suppose to look like"

They will also work for day time observation (although left and right side will be swapped if you use stock diagonal, but there are accessories like this one:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/skywatcher-45-erecting-prism.html

that will put eyepiece in more comfortable position for daytime viewing and also provide correctly oriented image (but for night time observation stock diagonal will be better choice as it will give you better image and viewing position will be more suited for objects high in the sky).

[Mandy D]

1 hour ago, Mal22 said:

Aperture is the circumference of the telescope I.e how much light can get into it. The more light that can get in, the more detail becomes visible. Of the two telescopes you’ve shared, the Celestron has a 60mm aperture, and the Nat Geo one has 114mm - so the Nat Geo one captures nearly double the amount of light and therefore more detail. 

Sorry to nitpick here, but aperture is quoted by diameter. Double the aperture and you will capture, not double, but four times the amount of light as light capture is proportional to area. Resolution ("detail") is normally quoted as linear resolution, so that will double.

[Mal22]

1 hour ago, Mandy D said:

Sorry to nitpick here, but aperture is quoted by diameter. Double the aperture and you will capture, not double, but four times the amount of light as light capture is proportional to area. Resolution ("detail") is normally quoted as linear resolution, so that will double.

Ah, thanks I stand corrected! Useful to know!  

[jjohnson3803]

Thinking of my grandchildren, I'd be inclined to go with a right angle correct image finder of 50mm or 60mm with a helical focuser like a StellarVue so you can use different EPs without crosshairs.

These are small. inexpensive, lightweight, and require mimimal futzing.  They can be mounted on a lightweight phototripod.  And since they're correct image, they'll match moon and sky maps to minimize confusion with flipping, inverting, etc.  Also, they can be sold easily if interest wanes or be used on a larger scope as a finder when and if the day comes.

Aperture is small but they can still show a lot of nice targets.  FWIW.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by jjohnson3803

[Spile]

For such a young age the best route will be one that is guided by a tutor. I believe that is the key if you don’t want to throw money away. This is my getting started guide https://astro.catshill.com/buying-telescope-start-here/

[orly_andico]

My daughter similarly has expressed interest in astronomy and is four. At her age that's viewing the moon, period. Maybe Jupiter sometimes (it is quite high in the sky these nights).

Now four is not six, so different experience - but in my experience my daughter grabs onto the eyepiece, supports herself on it.. which would tend to move the telescope off the object of interest. Hence some sort of ladder for the child to hold on to (so that they're not using the eyepiece as a grab handle!) would significantly improve their experience.