Newbie equipment advice

[The Warthog]

Nevertheless, some unbranded scopes, and some of unknown brand, on eBay have received some very bad reviews. I have seen users buy these scopes and end up very, very unhappy. Caveat emptor, indeed! There's an emptor born every minute, according to Barnum.

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

Caveat Emptor? "Mugs away!" as we say in Scotland.

Heed these warnings well, for I started out many moons ago with a 5" reflector purchased for me for the princely sum of £275 from Argos. I think it was a Bushnell, but I'm reluctant to point the finger of accusation directly as it was years ago and my memory is dodgy. It came on an equatorial mount that had legs like Ghandi's and all the stability of a newborn foal. The optics were horrendous, I swear the eyepiece lenses were made of plastic, and I got chromatic aberration worthy of the cheapest refractor. As badly made things go it was impressively bad, bad on a cosmic scale. After some frustrating times trying to see more than a couple of pinpricks of light and a blurry, tri-colour moon I let it age for a few years in my kitchen before giving it away to someone I didn't particularly like.

[FLO]

had legs like Ghandi's and all the stability of a newborn foal.

Nicely put Kenny

[MartinB]

The problem with that scope on ebay is that, looking at it, it must have a very short focal length. This reduces the tolerances of optical accuracy. The image will probably be ok towards the centre but out towards the periphery everything will be horribly distorted.

[Lord of the flange]

Thanks for the advice. I did ask a guy who'd previously bought one what it was like, his reply was:-

"i would highly recomend you buy this telescope, the quality is very good for the price, i thought it was quite a bargin. the only down side i would mention is that i did not recive an instruction manual, however it is pretty easy to set up. since buying this telescope i have perchased a number of different eyepieces and a barlow lens to give better magnification and to get the best out of it, are you a experienced astronomer? if not then i would recomend you do the same"

However I'm still not sure. Am thinking of going for this:- http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/detail.php?id=108

[FLO]

The Explorer 150/EQ-3 is a good choice - quality optics and a solid mount. The tripod legs and finder-scope can be upgraded later.

[Astroman]

Is it REALLY F/750?! Yikes, that wouldn't fit in the Yerkes dome!

[GordonCopestake]

hmmmm 6" f/750? that makes.... 112.5m focal length.

I'm not sure theres a dome in the world thats big enough for a 300ft scope

[The Warthog]

My primary scope is a 6" f/5, and it is a very good scope, and is rock solid on the EQ3-2 mount. I would say this is a good choice.