Lad wants a telescope for christmas and to be honest I’d quite like one too. Budget of a couple of hundred quid at the very most.

Any suggestions.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbd3E6tK2U[/video]

I can put you in touch with my dad if you want? He makes machines for making lenses which can be used in telescopes?

http://www.zeeko.co.uk/site/tiki-index.php?page=HomePagePublic

They go for around £1mil mind…

Celestron do a bunch of good cheaper scopes with auto mounts.

Do you want to be mobile with it, or just take it out intot he garden (do you live in a town – if you do, you’ll want to cart it out into the country to get away from light pollution).
i have an old Meade reflector, was reasonaly priced and optics are great for waht i paid, so if you want some thing mobile this might be your thing (slightly over but not exorbitant.
You might also want to look at this. A bit more portable and your budget will stretch to the motor allowing you to track objects as they cross they sky.

Both brands Meade and SkyWatcher are good enough for most astronomy.

didn’t know anything about them until last night when I spent about 3hrs looking into getting one for father inlaw. Basically don#t buy cheap as they are pants. Spent a minimum of £150. Skywatcher, Celestron are good names. Dont buy off e-bay unless you really know what your buying. Lots of advice out there on the internet, and as usual, some good, some just take the p1$$.

got a hot neighbour then g?

Not a chance in hell of that round here mate. Hence the need for a powerful telescope… 😀

sbz – you can get them cheap from the small adds in the back of astronomy magazines. there is a shop selling them on leith walk and I saw a half way decent looking one in aldi the other day.

I have a basic cheap refractors one and its good enough to see Jupiter mmons, saturns rings and so on. similar to the bay ones at around £60

hi,

i have a few for birding / nature watching – is it for this application or astronomy?

if nature – i would reccomend kowa as good for the money – you can pay thousands – and yes the dearer glass is a lot nicer than cheaper stuff – mine were bought 2nd hand and a good way to go but i still envy the high end stuff

email me if you want advice

snowpaul at hotmail co uk

paul