My first telescope was a:

[Aldebaran5]

A Tasco 50mm scope which I bought from Dixons in the early 70's, and yes, a wobbly mount as well. It was okay for the moon just.

Keith

[Talitha]

ETX 90RA Mak, purchased in June of 1998 and still in use.

When i bought it, i liked the idea that it could do triple-duty. On the fork mount, there's DSO's at night and the Sun during the day. The OTA can be removed from the fork mount and placed on a photo tripod too, so i also use it to check up on the local Eagle, Hawk and Osprey nests. Waterfowl on the rivers and lakes, too.

[nicnac]

the TAL 150p in my sig, first one i bought from first light optics and the only one i would not get rid of for love nor money, even if a 250K landed on my doorstep by a mysterious benefactor, i would keep it (along with the 250K )

[Darren B]

Tasco 60mm in 1997. Only 3 objects were worth viewing through that scope at the time. They were Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon. It made me more determind to get a better scope.

[Mel]

First proper astro scope was a Meade ETX90 in 2000 I think. Great little starter scope, saw loads though it - the epiphany was M57 at a dark location - stunning! First (non-astro) scope was a lovely brass and leather collapsing (sea captain style!) job which my mum got for me when I was about 9 or 10. I think it was an offer from a cereal box and probably cost about 8 or 9 quid. It was a lovely piece of kit though and offered good zoom and a nice image.

Many an afternoon was spent spying from my bedroom window!

Ahoy!

[starlady]

Tasco 3 inch reflector - really awkward to line up on anything but I did get good views of the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter and the Galileon moons. Hooked me on astronomy forever.

[pbyrne]

A 60mm Vixen refractor with 0.96 eyepieces on an alt-az mount, purchased it in the mid eighties, I still have it.

[Si W]

Trashco 4.5" reflector ... wobbled like crazy when I breathed!!!

I had one of them as well back in the mid 80s.

[runoffshed]

Tasco 60 mm for xmas circa 1970 ... the most exciting xmas present I have every had. Can still remember the huge thrill of looking at the Moon and Saturn through this - to me at the time - monster scope.

[sgazer]

Skywatcher 250p Dob

[StarMan1701]

A surprisingly good 60mm f/15 refractor, purchased in 1987. It was branded 'Bresser Optik', but was almost certainly manufactured by Towa in Japan.

Lee.

[bombassa]

A GEO50600 - don't go there. Why do they sell those things?

[Altair]

For me, my first scope was a 4 inch reflector diy kit made by Charles Frank, my dad bought the kit for me as a birthday present when i was about 12 or 13 - I remember it had a cardboard round tube which dad painted black and stood on a squarewooden base which i stood on a table. It came with 2 eyepieces 33x and 78x... the flat was an oblong piece of mirror glass stuck on a piee of dowelling which you could rotate from the outside of the tube to align,, all for the cost of £10.6s 9d ! I remember seeing the moon and Jupiter and its 4 moons and Venus.. it really was a great scope and 10 yrs later when i was married I still had the scope and i sent the mirror away to be aluminised ! thus keeping my interest alive ..I cant remember now what happened to that scope!

[msinclairinork]

Tasco 60mm Refractor with the good old 0.95" or what ever EP's.....was shocking!

Michael

[AndyH]

I had one of them as well back in the mid 80s.

Hehehehehe.......superb.

Counterweight looks like overkill for that scope. Any balancing issues?

Andy.

[astroman001]

My first scopes came from Dixons in the 1970s, a Prinz 60mm refractor followed by a 4 inch reflector. The latter was a great scope, cost £50 new.

[greenkat]

Mine was a little Greenkat telescope bought for me by my dad when I was about 9 yrs old in 1974 , it had a little tabletop tripod and I used it to look at the moon, and I remember getting excited when I thought I'de found a planet, only to be dissapointed that it was an out of focus star Then "upgraded" to a Tasco 50mm thing , Then in 1991 bought myself an Orion optics 6" reflector and the collection has grown ever since

[sbooder]

A little Kowa spotting scope, I was into birding long before Astronomy, so I started with what I had. My first Astro scope was a little Tasco 3" newt, it was a good job I had looked through my uncle's scopes otherwise I would have been put off by that piece of tat.

[stampy10000]

My first scope was a Tal 120. Not the biggest, but I needed something sturdy that I could take abroad often. It's built like a tank and I've seen loads from our very dark French garden.

I then bought some 15x70 skymasters mounted on an ancient, but very high quality (got from work and restored it myself) high speed video tripod.

I now also have an Orion Optics 12" dob that lives in France, and I shall be using that all next week and can't wait!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Mine was a blue coloured refractor of about 70mm apeture on a lovely sturdy wooden tripod with an Alt az mount.

Funnily enough i dont remember ever looking through it at anything except trees but i remember taking it apart to clean the inside of the lens and never being able to get it to focus ever again.

[michigander]

When I was 8 my older brother gave me his 3X Galilean scope (offical Boy Scout issue). The concave eye lens had a crack in it, but I could still see M42 and the Pleiades and such. I loved it!

Dana

[Wobbly Bob]

Apart from a scope I made in 1968 from a 3" objective (which I still have ) some cardboard tube and an eyepiece from some binoclars ( it was a hopeless project really, being hung across the balcony with a broomstick and some string ). The first REAL scope was an ETX90 bought in 1996 ish, a great little scope but sold to fund bigger and better scopes.

Bob

[Llamanaut]

tasco 56t for me...

http://www.tasco.com/products/manuals/Tasco56TN-57TN-301051N-301004N-301005N.pdf

go on... feel the quality!

[Llamanaut]

Lukeskywatcher...."Mine was a blue coloured refractor of about 70mm apeture on a lovely sturdy wooden tripod with an Alt az mount"

That was sooooo a prinz astral!!!!!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Lukeskywatcher...."Mine was a blue coloured refractor of about 70mm apeture on a lovely sturdy wooden tripod with an Alt az mount"

That was sooooo a prinz astral!!!!!

You could be right. Sure looks similar to what i had. Thankfully not the EQ version. Not even a finderscope on it.