Scope for 6yr old

[TheMightyKong]

Hi All,

I need some advice, a work colleague has asked for advice to buy a scope for his 6 yr old son to stargaze. I didn't have time to ask about budget but one that came to mind was that skywatcher heritage scope - a 76mm reflector on a tabletop alt az mount. What do you guys think?

SKY-WATCHER TELESCOPE

[tinvek]

a sfar as i know the heritage is a good little dobs (nb it's not a tabletop scope)

i got my lad one of these as lads inevitably want to look at things out of the window durring the day (as opposed to looking in through windows when they get older but thats a different story )

Startravel - Skywatcher Mercury 705

it's not a bad scope and mount for the price, infact the mount on its own is almost the same price. i did a review on here somewhere

EDIT: found it

http://stargazerslounge.com/equipment-reviews/74865-first-light-skywatcher-az3-mount-skywatcher-mercury-705-a.html

[oceanheadted]

I'd be tempted to go for the short tube refractor. It needs to be child sized and a 6 year old needs to to understand how to point it. It's not so intuitive with the reflector.

The refractor might just outperform the reflector because it hasn't got the central mirror obstruction. Talking of mirrors a 6 year old might well bash the secondary or put a big finger mark on it (speaking as the parent of a 5 year old!) so I think the refractor might be a bit more robust.

[tinvek]

i actually bought two of the mercury 705s as i was after an az3 mount and realised i may aswell pay an extra £9 (i think it was at time) and have an extra scope, mine lives in the boot of the car on a cheap argos photo tripod when i go to work and it gets knocked all over the place and apart from the red dot finder going out of alignment its been fine, it even survived the puppy doing a whoopsie on it the other week when it was left on the floor in the house

[TheMightyKong]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the advice. I presented both options to my co worker and he went with the heritage. That was also more in the range he was looking to spend as he's not sure if his son'll develope an interest in astronomy - it's a 'test the waters' scope. The mercury must be very rugged if it's puppy-proof!!

Cheers