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First scope


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Hi everyone Im in the market for my first scope for a long time and after reading up for weeks now, I rather like the celestron nexstar 6se it gets great reviews and I like the idea of the goto system you see my grandson has decided he wants to start as well so size and weight are another factor (hes wimpy),the goto scope initially will be used for finding our way around while learning and after reading many old threads it comes highly reccomended another favourite when we are looking is the skywatcher skymax 150 with eq5 pro goto mount but heavier,we have also been looking at a cheaper (lots) evostar 90 on an eq3 mount or skywatcher 130p eq as a second scope for when we get all confused trying to use whichever of the above we decide to buy,weve bought loads of books (charity shops less than a pound each and plenty about including turn left at orion £1.25) and the grandsons doing a course at school,we also intend to visit sunderland astronomical society, your thoughts on any of the above items would be really helpful and if you decide to destroy me and totally change my mind then Im willing to listen and learn from your experience, also I live in a teeeny little two bed house so space is limited and round our way you cant leave your paving slabs out or they go missing and a garden shed contents goes missing in broad daylight so that option to store one is a no no.We have a 1000 to spend between us :).:)

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Hi starjump

Welcome to the forum, looks like a decent choice of scopes for a beginner you have picked out, I can only comment on the Celestron, was it the Nextstar 6se you meant? I had one as my 1st scope and found it a decent piece of kit, very nice optics, small and compact, set up was really quick, all I had to do was make sure I gave it long enough to settle to the right temperature before using it and the views were excellent also it was good enough to use away from home if you had a portable power source, the Go To system worked well and was good enough to track objects in the fov for up to an hour. I have realized how useful it was to help learn my way around the night sky, of course learning the night sky is not something you ever really finish doing.

For your £1000 you could get the scope and a few extras like a lens shade and a couple of ep's. One thing I would definately recommend would be a pair of binoculars which would not cost you that much.

Good Luck with the scope you do pick :)

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Fail to see why, by using a Go To telescope, you are unable to understand the night sky? I think the main aim for most people may be, in the case of visual astronomy, to observe what its possible to view with a particular scope, if you want to take your time and use manual means then thats great, if there are reasons that you don't then go for it. Either method has its merits

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Hi Starjump, what do you hope to observe? Planets, DSO's?

Do you hope to do astrophotography?

This should give an idea of what to recommend.

Also, if your grandson is studying astronomy, and you both want to learn, it maybe better not to bother with GOTO. :)

Hi no astrophotography yet just want a decent scope to start with while the cash is here, the grandson will probably be the one that will get interested later on in taking pics due to the science course he chose, hoping to observe the planets and dso but realise some scopes are better for one than the other I am open to any suggestions,the goto idea is being suggested by most of the dealers weve spoke to recently hence the choices above.

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Hi starjump

Welcome to the forum, looks like a decent choice of scopes for a beginner you have picked out, I can only comment on the Celestron, was it the Nextstar 6se you meant? I had one as my 1st scope and found it a decent piece of kit, very nice optics, small and compact, set up was really quick, all I had to do was make sure I gave it long enough to settle to the right temperature before using it and the views were excellent also it was good enough to use away from home if you had a portable power source, the Go To system worked well and was good enough to track objects in the fov for up to an hour. I have realized how useful it was to help learn my way around the night sky, of course learning the night sky is not something you ever really finish doing.

For your £1000 you could get the scope and a few extras like a lens shade and a couple of ep's. One thing I would definately recommend would be a pair of binoculars which would not cost you that much.

Good Luck with the scope you do pick :)

Hi nexus 6 it was indeed the nexstar 6se thanks for that,it is the one being reccomended by all the dealers for the cash we have to spend and in thier view the easiest one to learn with,they also suggest the other manual scopes as one guy said once the goto finds the objects for you then a decent manual scope would help in the learning process I suppose hes right really were just a little confused as to what to buy for the best.

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I have to say that something like a 6SE is a cracking scope. easy to set up and use.

If I had to lose all but one scope i would keep the C6. its very portable and easy to use. the goto is very good and its good value.

imaging is a whole different ball game but the C6 tube could be used later to image with a large EQ mount and equip with a reducer can give some decent fov.

providing its visual only then a single arm mounted Sct or Mak looks like the way to go. Maks i find are better optically but a SCT is more versatile with the range of accessories on offer.

The downside of both designs is the need to put the scope out for cooldown for about 30 mins.

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I have to say that something like a 6SE is a cracking scope. easy to set up and use.

If I had to lose all but one scope i would keep the C6. its very portable and easy to use. the goto is very good and its good value.

imaging is a whole different ball game but the C6 tube could be used later to image with a large EQ mount and equip with a reducer can give some decent fov.

providing its visual only then a single arm mounted Sct or Mak looks like the way to go. Maks i find are better optically but a SCT is more versatile with the range of accessories on offer.

The downside of both designs is the need to put the scope out for cooldown for about 30 mins.

Looks like the 6se is the one to go for for now and the grandson has rang to tell me his friend has bought a evostar 90 so can he have that one thats one problem sorted I suppose, Ill let you know how he gets on.Is it the celestron c6a xlt your referring to

as we were shown them very nice piece of kit and something I forgot about in the mix a little more expensive but not out of the way ,

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