Advice for a Starter Telescope.

[1616french]

My son has recently shown interest in Astronomy,it started with the odd DVD (Nasas greatest missions & Wonders of the Solar system)

Now hes mentioned he`d like a Telescope,unfortunately we have 4 children so an expensive Telescope is out of the question with Xmas just around the corner.

Would like something around £100 max,it does`nt have to be new.

I have looked on E-Bay but there are so many different types and brands to chose from.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

[pvaz]

1st) Stay off Ebay unless you really know what you're doing. It's flooded with plastic stuff sold as the real deal and it will only give you frustration when you can't get a half decent view.

2nd) Buy a reputable brand, such as SkyWatcher, Meade, Orion or Celestron.

Regarding the scope, I'm afraid the cheapest I can recommend (I would buy for my kids if I had some) are this:

Evostar - Skywatcher Evostar 90 (AZ3) (I gave one of this to my little sister and it's decent. The finder scope will need replacement. It's a nightmare to find something with it, even for me.)

Dobsonians - Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube

[1616french]

Whats your view on the Tasco brand?

[brantuk]

Hi French

Best advice I can give is to avoid e-bay. As a starter to the hobby you'll likely not know what to choose from - and even then you may end up with a dud if you don't know what to look for.

You'll get a lot of info right here at SGL - feel free to fire any questions you like at the Help sections - you're sure of a friendly informative reply. Once you reach 50 posts you'll see the "For Sale" section where you can bag a bargain on all aspects of gear.

The benefit is you'll get a good deal with a fellow astronomer. We tend to look after our kit so whatever you get won't be a dud - usually items are kept immaculate, realistically priced, accompanied by accurate descriptions. There are often great bargains too.

All the best to you!

[pvaz]

Whats your view on the Tasco brand?

As far as I know they used to be a good brand 20 years ago. Now they sell telescopes with plastic lenses. You'll be lucky if you can make the moon look sharp and you can pretty much forget about all else.

If 100£ is the absolute maximum you have 2 options:

1) buy second hand.

2) get a good pair of binoculars. They won't show you nearly as much as a scope but they allow you to start and can be used on other hobbies as well.

[brantuk]

Tasco and Seben - steer well clear of unless you specifically want a toy

[1616french]

As far as I know they used to be a good brand 20 years ago. Now they sell telescopes with plastic lenses. You'll be lucky if you can make the moon look sharp and you can pretty much forget about all else.

If 100£ is the absolute maximum you have 2 options:

1) buy second hand.

2) get a good pair of binoculars. They won't show you nearly as much as a scope but they allow you to start and can be used on other hobbies as well.

Well i have a couple of months left until Xmas to raise a little more but i think £100 will be the max.

Maybe i could find a good one on here once i can see the For Sale threads.

[1616french]

Tasco and Seben - steer well clear of unless you specifically want a toy

Ahhh,seen what looked like a beauty on E-Bay (Tasco 500 Power Reflector Telescope).

Will just leave it then as i`d rather buy a pretty decent telescope to start with,thanks.

[John]

I think it will be a struggle to find a decent scope with a budget of £100 and E.Bay is, as has been said, a minefield unless you know what you are looking for. That said it is possible to find the occasional low cost, decent scope there, for example this is currently available at your budget:

SKY-WATCHER 130M TELESCOPE WITH CLOCK DRIVE on eBay (end time 16-Oct-10 15:41:20 BST)

There is also the UK Astro Buy & Sell website here:

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell

But my advice would be to check here BEFORE buying - if money is tight then it's even more important that you don't waste any of it.

[John]

Here's another decent scope within your budget:

TAL NEWTONIAN TELESCOPE on eBay (end time 09-Oct-10 14:44:43 BST)

[matt c]

There's good stuff on this site allot of the time:

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell

But make sure you research the scope, make sure it's a descent brand, maybe you could come on here and ask the more experienced guys if it's any good

[1616french]

There's good stuff on this site allot of the time:

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell

But make sure you research the scope, make sure it's a descent brand, maybe you could come on here and ask the more experienced guys if it's any good

I think i`ll do just that,as i have said just too many to choose from,so i`ll see whats for sale on here + i might get one close to where i live...you never know.

[1616french]

I think it will be a struggle to find a decent scope with a budget of £100 and E.Bay is, as has been said, a minefield unless you know what you are looking for. That said it is possible to find the occasional low cost, decent scope there, for example this is currently available at your budget:

SKY-WATCHER 130M TELESCOPE WITH CLOCK DRIVE on eBay (end time 16-Oct-10 15:41:20 BST)

There is also the UK Astro Buy & Sell website here:

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell

But my advice would be to check here BEFORE buying - if money is tight then it's even more important that you don't waste any of it.

That model looks like a decent bit of kit and does have good reviews,but it is pick up only and i live a long long way from that seller,thanks though.

[Thunder]

Well one bit of advice here is the looking at binoculars, for instance the 15x70 on offer from the fourm sponsers FLO, but I only to well know the desire for a scope to observe with

The people here will be very helpful, hope you get what your looking for.

[1616french]

These 2 on E-Bay are within 20 miles of my hometown of Blyth.

Could view them 1st i suppose if they are worth a bid.

Celestron

celestron astromaster 130-eq md on eBay (end time 08-Oct-10 21:35:07 BST)

Meade

MEADE 4504 4.5" REFLECTING TELESCOPE WITH STARFINDER on eBay (end time 10-Oct-10 20:42:03 BST)

What are your thoughts on these?

Thanks.

[tinvek]

how old is your son? only reason i ask is that if he's young a reflector telescope may not match his idea of what a telescope is, a refractor may be better recieved, especially if it's not on an eq mount and has an erecting prizm to allow it to be used for terestial use.

if you do decide to go for a refractor the evostar 90 already mentioned on an AZ3 would do nicely,

Evostar - Skywatcher Evostar 90 (AZ3)

if it's a bit too much try this

Startravel - Skywatcher Mercury 705

not quite such a good scope but i got one for my son a couple of years ago when he was nine and it gave reasonable views and also gets a lot of use during the day as he lives in an old windmill overlooking the sea. also it bhas a red dot finder which can be easier to use than the finderscope on the evostar

[1616french]

how old is your son? only reason i ask is that if he's young a reflector telescope may not match his idea of what a telescope is, a refractor may be better recieved, especially if it's not on an eq mount and has an erecting prizm to allow it to be used for terestial use.

if you do decide to go for a refractor the evostar 90 already mentioned on an AZ3 would do nicely,

Evostar - Skywatcher Evostar 90 (AZ3)

if it's a bit too much try this

Startravel - Skywatcher Mercury 705

not quite such a good scope but i got one for my son a couple of years ago when he was nine and it gave reasonable views and also gets a lot of use during the day as he lives in an old windmill overlooking the sea. also it bhas a red dot finder which can be easier to use than the finderscope on the evostar

Hes 14 now,he has`nt had a telescope before,neither have i.

So i`m not sure whether to get reflector or refractor,whatevers best really.

Keeps him off the streets anyway!

[tinvek]

just remebered i posted a review of the mercury and az3 when he got it, may help a bit

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

one thing i would say is that at the is sort of price point, don't be swayed by driven mounts, the optics are more important:icon_salut:

given that and his age maybe a better solution would be

Dobsonians - Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube

dobsonions give the bggest bang for your bug regarding apperture

[Stardust]

I have a spare 90mm scope on an altaz mount that might be of interest, I'll drop you a pm with details.

[brantuk]

Reflectors are generally cheaper per inch of aperture. A Reflector (e.g. 130mm) costing £150 (ish) will cost £500-£1000 in a refractor (depending on quality). Glass lenses tend to be more expensive to manufacture than mirrors

[Sirius_Starseed]

Whats your view on the Tasco brand?

2 words - STAY AWAY!

If you want a decent starter 'scope for your child that's NOT a toy then you need to be looking at the Skywatcher, Celestron, Meade, Orion brands. I nearly got sucked in by Seben I'm so glad I came here and got advised otherwise.

For your budget you'll get the most aperture for your money with Skywatcher. You can't go wrong with these. This would serve you well - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SKY-WATCHER-130M-TELESCOPE-CLOCK-DRIVE-/160489924810?pt=UK_Telescopes&hash=item255df1e8ca

Good Luck!

[Sirius_Starseed]

That model looks like a decent bit of kit and does have good reviews,but it is pick up only and i live a long long way from that seller,thanks though.

They often say pick up only but I always message them via eBay and ask if I can arrange my own courier and get it tracked then would it be OK. I've had 2 yes' so far Cheap Parcel Delivery | Parcel Delivery Service | Parcel Collection | International Parcel Services are excellent! I've used them 3 times now (sending and receiving) and for a 48 hour delivery service where your parcel is tracked online it costs £8.75 (24 hour £12.75). That's up to a weight of 30kg so that 'scope is well within that range (most 'scopes are).

It's definitely worth asking.

[Merlin999]

Hi 1616French,

If it was me I would probably go for a decent set of binoculars and a stand.

I have two girls one aged 14 and one aged 11. A few years ago we bought some great binoculars and a tripod stand and and we were amazed at the views we got. We saw four moons around Jupiter and it was staggering to see them change position over the space of a few days. We saw Saturn: we couldn't actually see the rings but we did see it was oval so we knew it was Saturn.

Views of the moon through good binoculars are great. You can easily pick out craters and we had great fun matching what we saw on the moon to books and photos.

We also saw the Orion Nebula near Orion's belt.

The great thing about binoculars is they are easy to store and quick to set up. I also use them for bird-watching and dolphin watching. However, they have to be big decent binoculars with wide lenses to allow enough light in, not the pocket sized ones. I bought Opticron 10x50s but there are lots of other makes out there.

I recently upgraded to a telescope which cost a few hundred pounds. The views are of course better (I can see coloured bands on Jupiter with the telescope whereas in the binoculars it is just a disk of light). However, the telescope is bigger, bulkier and more difficult to set up and technically a lot more demanding than using the binoculars.

My girls certainly developed a love of astronomy using our binoculars. I know binoculars are not as 'professional' as a telescope and I can understand that he might prefer one, but we certainly found that binoculars are a great first step and it took us a few years to outgrow them.

Good luck with your decision making.

[great_bear]

It's just weird when someone asks about a telescope and gets told to go and buy binoculars instead. That's like asking to buy a car and being told to buy a motorbike instead because you'll "learn the roads better".

I'd be very upset if I got a pair of binoculars for Christmas when I'd specifically asked for a telescope.

[Sirius_Starseed]

It's just weird when someone asks about a telescope and gets told to go and buy binoculars instead. That's like asking to buy a car and being told to buy a motorbike instead because you'll "learn the roads better".

I'd be very upset if I got a pair of binoculars for Christmas when I'd specifically asked for a telescope.

This!