Help choosing telescope

[sha39]

Help!! I cant decide and keep changing my mind and its starting to stress me out as I dont want to make the wrong choice.

I am wanting to buy a telescope for my husband for his 40th birthday, he owned one many many years ago about 20!! and has always had a real interest in Astronomy, the telescope would also be for our 8 year old daughter to use with my husband.

I have done lots of research and cant make my mind up between 2 scopes. The skywatcher explorer 130p supatrak auto or the skywatcher explorer 150p, any advice/ comments would be greatly appreciated thanks.

[yeti monster]

Although it is a birthday pressie, perhaps it would be better to discuss with hubby, that way he won't have to smile weakly and say, actually I'd rather have a motorcycle! (or whatever).

Is your 8 year old a capable sort of girl? Meaning, would see be able to "drive" a Dobsonian, I met a youngster recently (possibly 11 or so) who took to it straight away, where as his elder brothers were just hopeless.

Generally, I'd suggest go for aperture over gizmos, goto may do the finding, but light catching is what you ultimately need, plus finding things myself is a HUGE part of my astronomy and I have really learnt to find my way around the sky over the past 12 months or so.

[nicnac]

the 150P is the best all rounder in my view and at f5 it can do pretty much owt a slower one can which cant be said about a slower scope.

[brantuk]

The aperture size is the key light gathering component in telescopes - bigger the better. A lot of people will recommend a Dobsonian mount as they are reasonably intuitive to use, and a little cheaper, but I allways suggest an Equatorial mount because it reflects the movement of the Earth and gives a better understanding of objects in the sky - and it isn't difficult to use at all once you understand the principle of operation.

My vote is for the 150P on an EQ mount. The "P" indicates a parabolic mirror which is a better focuser of light. Here's a link:

Reflectors

(second one down the page)

Goto and tracking motors are a luxury on a first scope - if money's no object then get either by all means - but manual is good and the scope is upgradeable later. Remember the more you spend on electronics the less you'r spending on optical quality. If budget is an issue then go for the 130P.

Hope that helps

[Capricorn]

Just read the post and the replies, The post say Supatrack Auto, the replies say Goto. Don't think that a Supatrack Auto is Goto. Think that you have to use the handset and motors to locate the object then the scope tracks at the "normal" rate so keeping the object in the field of view. If I am wrong I apologise now and someone will correct me soon enough.

Would second the idea of asking, simply because there are sevral options around and he may prefer one over another, even one type over another reflector:refractor.

The other big choice is Dobsonian mounted scope or a Goto, or something that isn't either as in EQ mount with or without motors.

[star girl]

I was in the same situation, wanting to buy a telescope for my husband's birthday and couldn't decide which to buy. In the end, I discussed it with him before buying and am really glad I did. He was surprised and pleased at the thought but also enjoyed researching (on this forum) and choosing for himself.

[crazyjedi]

I would always go for the bigger scope every time. My wife got my last scope for me and made a good choice in a 150. Even with the best of goto mounts a small aperture will seriously restrict what he will actually be able to see. a 150 scope has good light gathering and hence can see relatively good detail compared to smaller scopes. My ten year old son loves joining me out in the garden at night for a viewing session and is always impressed by what we can see (though he does need a chair to stand on to reach the eye piece). As has been said above i'd have a bit of a chat with your fella to find out his preferences. My wife went for a bigger scope on an EQ mount rather than a smaller scope with goto because she found out that i'm happy hunting the skies without goto.

And now i'm well happy

[sha39]

Thanks for all the help, the 150 sounds like its coming out top. I could ask my hubby but he will just tell me not to spend that kind of money on him and def wont research any himself and he wont do forums either, he just likes the doing side of things not the researching, he will be thrilled to bits with a telescope for his 40th and will trust me to have made a good choice as he knows I love researching things!

Just out of interest how big is the 150 in feet, length, and diameter its hard to tell from pics and if I did decide to go down the refractor route which would prob be easier for my 8 year old to view through by the sound of it ( note the earlier comment about 10 year old standing on chair) what is a good one?

Really appreciate all the advice, thanks again.

[nicnac]

its not far off a meter in length and is nice and light.

the legs on the EQ are ajustable too, i dont think the young en will have much a bother viewing with the 150P

[sha39]

Thanks again, a friend has now suggested the skywatcher evostar 102 and I have now been looking at that and got myself confused all over again!!! Any comments on that scope which would be the best choice, that or the explorer 150p, I need to make my mind up this weekend as I have to order next week!

Thanks again for the advice, after reading all the info on here and seeing pics quite fancy taking the hobby up myself now too, just need to choose a scope!

[russ]

Evostar 102 is a nice scope and very capable. It's also maintenance free, no collimation to worry about. But the 150 is the more capable scope over all, good for the planets and also the faint deepsky stuff. The 102 will struggle by comparison on the deepsky objects. As always its a trade off.

[GuillermoBarrancos]

EDIT: Sorry let myself getting carried away. Don't want to turn it into a reflector vs. refractor discussion.

It's for a present. I think either 150P reflector or the 102 refractor will do just fine. Just like Russ said, that the refractor is a bit more hasle free, without having to collimate.

[kniclander]

EDIT: Sorry let myself getting carried away. Don't want to turn it into a reflector vs. refractor discussion.

It's for a present. I think either 150P reflector or the 102 refractor will do just fine. Just like Russ said, that the refractor is a bit more hasle free, without having to collimate.

I would tend to disagree (IMHO of course ) - I would think the views even of moon and planets would be noticeably better in the bigger scope especially at higher powers and the bigger scope would potentially open up quite a few galaxies under even moderately dark skies. Plus no chromatic aberration.

[GuillermoBarrancos]

I would tend to disagree (IMHO of course ) - I would think the views even of moon and planets would be noticeably better in the bigger scope especially at higher powers and the bigger scope would potentially open up quite a few galaxies under even moderately dark skies. Plus no chromatic aberration.

The 102 Evostar is an f/10 refractor. So, eventho chromatic aberation will still occur, it won't be that bad as with a short focal refractor. And can easily be dealed with some very good, not too expensive filters these days.

A reflector has it's downsides too. Antistigmatism for example to counter your Chromatic Aberation argument. And the fact that you need to collimate the mirrors on regular basis.

A 150mm reflector really won't give you that many wow moments on DSO's. As they will be nothing more then very small, very faint fuzzies.

As let's be honest here. You really have to go to at least 200mm apperture to start getting that wow factor with DSO's.

For people new to astronomy. They get their first memorable wow moments on the moon, the planets and some bright(er) DSO's like M42 Orion, Andromeda and some globular clusters and double stars.

And I do not see why the 102 Evostar would be such a bad choice for that too, next to the 150P. Especially that is more maintenance free.

Wich is a plus into my eyes for someone just starting out in Astronomy.

Bahh... seems we turned it into a Refractor vs. Reflector debate again after all.

-----------------

To give you an example. When I showed my girlfriend the Beehive cluster or some very faint fuzzy (wich is how the average DSO looks like). She looked at it and said it was funny... and she walked away again. Not really impressed. (seeing conditions weren't that great, wich is how it is most of the time)

When I showed her the moon at high magnification and Saturn for the first time. I couldn't get her away from the telescope. She was glued to it.

Just saying.

[kniclander]

Bahh... seems we turned it into a Refractor vs. Reflector debate again after all.

far from it - I was specifically not having a reflector/ refractor debate - just saying that I thought the views through a 6" reflector would be noticeably better than a 4 inch achro.

As for the "wow" factor, the "wow" in faint fuzzies is that you can see something that may be 30 million light years away at all. In themselves, in a 6 or 8 or even a 10 inch scope, there is not much "wow" to them - they are all pretty faint and, well, fuzzy.

[andyr]

A reflector has it's downsides too. Antistigmatism for example to counter your Chromatic Aberation argument. And the fact that you need to collimate the mirrors on regular basis.

A 150mm reflector really won't give you that many wow moments on DSO's. As they will be nothing more then very small, very faint fuzzies.

As let's be honest here. You really have to go to at least 200mm apperture to start getting that wow factor with DSO's.

Have to disagree with this one, I had a 150P for 4 months and never once had to collimate it, it was always perfectly collimated straight out of the box.

I got quite a lot of WOW moments with my 150P, loved the scope, I only got rid of it as I managed to upgrade to a 200P, and all it cost me was an extra £25 (for a £370 scope) after selling my 150P.

Agreed things are slightly more WOW in a 200mm, but if I'm honest, not by all that much so I'm with Kniclander on this one. The 150P is a great 1st scope, easy to set-up, light, and very user friendly I found, and it rewards you with great views.

Well that's just my opinion anyway....

[crazyjedi]

The length of a skywatcher 150 is 750mm so it's nice and portable. I'm siding with the bigger is better side of the discussion. Also refractors are only good if you spend a shed load of cash. £ for £ a newt is better value for money.

[crazyjedi]

A SkyWatcher 150 on an EQ mount can be had for around £250 and will give good views. Ps i've had my 150 for around 18 months and have never had to collimate it. newts are actually fairly robust. My scope has been on many family trips and been clonked from time to time and has needed nothing in the way of servicing.

[GuillermoBarrancos]

Also refractors are only good if you spend a shed load of cash.

This is so wrong it ain't even funny. As that only applies when you start talking about getting into imaging. And then it doesn't matter wich type of scope you go for anyway. As it will be an expensive endavour no matter what.

I am pulling out of this topic. As it ain't going anywhere now.

It's a present and it's a first scope.

Like people have said in various topics. Every scope has it pro's and con's. Both Evostar 102 and Explorer 150P are very capable scopes and good value for money.

[andyr]

A SkyWatcher 150 on an EQ mount can be had for around £250 and will give good views. Ps i've had my 150 for around 18 months and have never had to collimate it. newts are actually fairly robust. My scope has been on many family trips and been clonked from time to time and has needed nothing in the way of servicing.

Managed to get mine from FLO for £219, seen them elsewhere at the moment for £219, so bargain of a price for such a capable scope

[crazyjedi]

yeah i've seen recently that the 150 is tumbling in price so shop around. I wouldn't get too worried about collimation i have never had to collimate my reflector and it's been pretty well travelled around the UK.

And yes for a good frac you will pay far more than you would for a good newt. Reflectors are cheaper to manufacture and hence cheaper to buy per inch of aperture. Having said that there are some fab fracs around the £500 mark. It depends how much you want to spend.

I'm not really pro reflector or refractor. if i had the choice i'd have one of each. A big newt at home and a nice apo for travelling.

What ever you decide to get him i hope he loves it.

[sha39]

Thanks everyone, I have today taken the plunge and ordered the 150P after all the excellent advice. I ordered from first light optics and their customer service was fantastic, even agreed to blank out the box so if my husband is in when its delivered it does not spoil the surprise!

Watch this space we will prob be back on when setting up for more advice from everyone, am really quite excited and its not even my pressie!!

Thanks again

Sharon

[brantuk]

Congrats Sharon - you wont be dissapointed (nor will hubby). Did you get a dobson or an equatorial mount? And did you get tracking or goto? or push to?

Come back with questions by all means - this is the place to ask them

[Moonshane]

you will not regret this as he'll be very pleased. I have had a 150 myself as well as my current 12" reflector and a 120mm refractor. I sold the 150 to get the 12".

as others have said they all have their own benefits but one thing's for sure, they will all show hundreds and hundreds of fine targets very well indeed, from double star systems, to planets and moon, open clusters and some brighter nebulae. others will need more aperture to get better results but he'll move on to that if he gets really into the hobby, although the chances are as this will be a special scope, he'll always hang onto it

to get him started, print off the maps on the following link Messier Maps and put them in the box for him.

don't fret about collimation as it's easy with a short tube like on the scope you've ordered and there's lots of online help - including here - just google 'collimating a newtonian'.

all the best

Shane

[sha39]

Got the EQ mount and the basic find it yourself version! hence the closing post we will be back when setting up! but my hubby has a really good basic knowledge of the sky anyway as it has always been an interest of his so hopefully it wont be too difficult to get started!!

Like I said watch this space!

Cheers everyone. x