Telescope recommendations

[bushcraftbob]

Im looking at buying the other half a telescope for xmas as she is fascinated with the stars. I am thinking of getting one off ebay as hopefully might be able to pick up a better quality one at a bit of a lower price.

Im looking to spend about £150. Can anyone recommend any good makes/models to look out for?

cheers

 

[gregorach]

I can't recommend any specific makes, but I can tell you what sort of questions you need to think about... The first being "what do you want to look at?" It makes a big difference - for planetary observation, you need high magnification, whereas for deep-field observation you need a big objective and low magnification.

A very common piece of advice is that "your first telescope should be a good pair of binoculars".

You might want to read the SPACE.com guide on how to buy a telescope, and buying a telescope on Astronomy.com .

 

[Walks with dogs]

Great bit of advice there! Lots can be seen with the naked eye and binoculars ( including a couple of our neighbouring galaxies) and it is often best to learn your way around the sky this way first.

If you do decide to buy a telescope don't buy a cheapo advertised for its "300x magnification". Optical quality and aperture width is far more imortant for viewing most objects. The wider the aperture, the more light the scope will collect allowing the user to view dimmer objects.

A six or eight inch Dobsonian is usually a pretty good start and can be bought relatively cheap. I got myself one of these...http://www.telescopesales.co.uk/skydob.htm a couple of years ago and expect to get years of use from it.

Can't recommend the book "Nightwatch" enough either, would make a great pressie for anyone interested in astronomy.

 

[Treeclipper]

I'd agree , buy her a good pair of bino's and a nice comfy chair and blanket + plus a copy of "Turn Left at Orion". She will be happy as Larry, it's a great place to start Astronomy. Don't buy one of the cheap scopes of eBay, especially the short length reflectors (makes like optrons are normally bad chinese knock off's).
If she really likes the stars after getting her bino's a good 1st scope for portability is a Skywatcher ST104 Star travel or a Skywatcher 6" Newt, these are relatively cheap & have a good build quality. From there the money will fall out your pockets and she will start to curse the cloud god every time she gets new kit

Hope this helps .

Tree

ps. I have some good Astro links on my website, you should have a look.

 

[Doc]

I have a 110mm reflector on an az-el mount. Its big and a pain to set up, so I don't use it too much. I think a Dobsonian would be easier for setup.

If she is also interested in nature then binoculars may well be the best option - a lot of serious astronomers use binos as well.

Terrestrial telescopes (with a non-inverted image) are not designed for astronomy, but I have been surprised what you can see with my 25x50 stalking telescope. You can see the rings of saturn and a lot of detail on the moon. Optolyth make some with fairly big objectives. But if astronomy is the main interest then a 6" Dob is probably the way forward.

The Russian Tal telescopes are low priced and get good write-ups but they are very big and heavy.

 

[crazyclimber]

I'd agree with what's been said above if she's fairly new to astronomy. You can see a lot with a good pair of binos - stars will look the same (though that doesn't change with a telescope) but there're galaxies, nebulae, double stars, clusters etc as well as fantastic views of the moon. Binos with a nice reclining chair and she'll be sorted
Telescopes - yep she'll be able to see more with it but probably not as comfortably and there is a hassle to them. The smaller ones have little advantage over binos and the larger ones are... large! Heavy to move and time consuming to set up. I've been through a few, finally settled on a nice 8" reflector through which I've had some amazing viewing, but I'll be the first to admit it doesn't get half the use it should.
Happy birthday to her whenever it is!

 

[bushcraftbob]

OK chaps you have won me over to bino's - I will have a look at the bin's recommendation thread. I always find that i can never hold them steady enough and everything is a bit of a blur though?

 

[Doc]

Canon make image stabilised binos and I was impressed when I tried them head-to-head with my Zeiss FL 8x42s. In daylight, used unsupported you can resolve more detail with the Canon. Supporting the Zeiss with a stick gave the Zeiss a very slight edge, but in low light I'm sure the difference would favour the Zeiss.

Big objectives are desirable for astronomy, but some models have a tripod fitting.

 

[Walks with dogs]

Good choice.

Whatever you buy it really is worth getting a decent book or two. Having something to view with is of little use if you don't know what you are looking at .I have already recommended Nightwatch, Turn left at Orion mentioned by Treeclipper is another classic beloved by astronomy buffs. Or if you fancy some fancy computer gadgetry, you could get her Starry night or Redshift, two programmes that make a decent job of replicating the night sky on the computer, very useful for learning your way about etc.