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Hi All: Advice needed

Beestonia

By Beestonia
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Beestonia

Beestonia

Posted
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Hi all i'm Mike iv been into astronomy for many years since my school days, i recently moved into my own house and noticed my back garden is superb for looking at the night sky (on clear nights obviously). To take my interest a little bit further im looking into buying my first telescope.

I have a decent budget £150-£250 but have no clue really what im looking for, iv seen a PENTAFLEX 80 AZ GOTO Telescope for £200 but am not sure on the quality of it or if its any better than any other.

i think i would prefer a goto telescope as i prefer enjoying the stars as opposed to spending all my time looking for them, but if the quality and price is right im open to suggestions.

All help would be greatly appreciated...

Mike :D

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Doc

Doc

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Buy from a reputable dealer such as our sponser FLO see banner above. Your Pentaflex are one of many inferior scopes marketed on e-bay and other places and are at best reasonable.

Check out FLO and see what you like. I personally always say that a beginner with a budget like yours should look at a skywatcher dobsonian. The main reason you get more for your money, bigger aperture and ease of use.

Something like this:

http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=dobsky150

Dobsonians - Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Mike and welcome to the forum.

Your budget is not to link an effective GOTO system AND decent optics to see sufficiently what has been found. As already said, a dobsonian will represent the best value for money for your budget and will help sustain your interest for longer. I would advise also to stay away from Ebay, supermarkets, Argos, shopping mall stalls that advertise scopes with x545 magnification - you'll just end up with a load of empty cardboard boxes.

Clear skies in the meantime!

James

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dod

dod

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Hi and welcome from me too. Like everyone else has said, the skywatcher range seems to offer the best quality gear for a limited budget. Hope you find the right scope.

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brantuk

brantuk

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Welcome to SGL Mike - Doc's advice is good - you'll have fun learning how to find stuff in the sky and realise how easy it is once well practised. If you go for a dob then you'll get superior views, and a Telrad, Wixey and AZ Setting circle are very useful :D

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Rusty Strings

Rusty Strings

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Hi and welcome

A search on the forum will show plenty of beginner frustrations with setting up goto scopes. A dob will pretty much work straight from the box (once built) and as long as you have realistic goals with the first objects you want to view (try the moon and not a faint galaxy).

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NickK

NickK

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As a relative newbie - I would echo the advice of Doc and the mods.

I have a Vixen and porta mount. My first night it was enough just sorting out the alignment of the finder scope etc. Using something like stellarium (Stellarium) will help and then it's just point with the finderscope and look through the eyepiece - bingo!

With a manual or non-goto dob you will have to move the scope to follow the earth's rotation (the stars move). Learning a bit about the sky is worth while.

Looking back on it, the dob may have been a better entrance scope as the Vixen is quite dim at f11.4 as it lacks aperture for it's focal length.

The scope I have now is f6.38 with more aperture and you can see more, alot more. It has goto too - however it's taken me a few nights to understand how to get the goto working.

Goto requires power, requires transporting (usually heavier) and time to set up.

Yes, goto is great when it's working - select and *zip*. However learning to use stellarium is just as easy and you can very quickly start picking up nebulae and stars.

Nebulae? Yes.. but that's where additional aperature of the dob will help. The vixen could just make out Orion nebula and not much more. The 'faster' f6.38 scope can see more.. a dob would see even more than a similarly priced refractor..

Next I'd look at a good quality eyepiece(s). Baader's are great value. These you can take with you between scopes, so if you then decide to move onto something further up the range these will give you a really good basis to work from. My Baader Hyperon 13mm is twice as bright as the bundled 20mm eyepiece! Not to mention clearer.

Just my two pence from my experience of starting out.

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Trull

Trull

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Don't overlook the diy option, seek out a mirror and build a scope around it. Its really not that hard, fairly simple mechanics, and will give you huge kudos. Not to mention the satisfaction of spotting Saturn's rings on your own telescope.

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