[Closed] Telescope help!! Yes... Random I know

You're... buying a telescope and you want someone to look into it for you?

Sort of. Yes!!

Main problem could be availability! Astro has seen a surge in interest since 1st lockdown.

As a pure astro scope, I would recommmend the Heritage Flextube. As you live somewhere where you can see stars the red dot finder is relatively easy to use. Download a suitable night sky app to help. Also Stellarium is a good free planetarium prog. for laptops.

'Turn Left at Orion' is a recommended what to look at book.

Use the lowest power eyepiece at first (this is the one labelled with the larger number). Gives you a wider view of the sky.

Good luck!

Clarkpm is my worry that the lack of interaction from an app to directly help target the scope a silly concern? Or do the other apps you can get achieve much the same thing? I'd assume that they are harder to use to point the scope in the right place hence the attraction of a motorised scope or equivalent?

We bought ours from these guys. http://www.firstlightoptics.com
Call them, straight and honest.

We bought ours from these guys. http://www.firstlightoptics.com
Call them, straight and honest.

What @5plusn8 said.

If you really want a GoTo telescope FLO will give solid advise.

I don't know anything about those particular scopes but I would definitely get a guided one...either GoTo or the smartphone one (if that works....). You can spend time looking at things you want to see rather than wondering what you're looking at (tho you do have to be able to reliably point it at a couple of stars so it knows where it's pointing)

On reflector scopes, they can be a right pain to set up.
The mirrors have to align perfectly. It is all do-able at home, but it is fiddly and time consuming.
I had a tracking scope a number of years ago. I couldnt work out how to use it. I just moved it manually.

I got into backyard astronomy about six years ago. I have a 200mm Skywatcher Dobsonian and a small 127mm wifi enabled Skywatcher Maksutov. The smaller scope is much more handy, not just for lugging out into the garden, but for storage as well. I'm also hugely impressed with it's ability, (once properly aligned), to slew around to any target selected on my mobile phone or tablet.

Although the Goto scope cost a LOT more than my much bigger Dobby, it is far more accessible. I often find myself failing to find any of the targets I'd set out to look for with my Dob, although Rioja often plays a part in that as well. Whereas, five minutes setting up the goto Mak at the start of the evening and the rest of the night can be spent hopping from target to target with little or no effort, which might be a winner if kids are concerned.

The downside is that the smaller aperture collects less light and gives less detail. Which might be worth thinking about as well. Amateur astronomy has seen a huge upsurge in interest this year. The Astronomy Scotland Facebook club that I'm in has seen its membership quadruple. Many people are coming onto the pages and are blown away with the imagery on show, but then they're looking down their scopes and getting confused.

Our eyes can't pick out the colour and detail that cameras can, so what might look like a magnificent spiral galaxy in a photo, actually comes across as a barely detectable, ghostly grey smudge in the eyepiece. Again, just saying as it's something you might want to think about, to temper expectations.

I tend to do a bit of research on what I'm going to look at, to bring it to life a bit. So, looking at M80 and M81, two galaxies which just fit into the view of a low power eyepiece in my Dob, might look like unimpressive, barely visible smudges (200mm is a medium sized, verging on large aperture telescope), but with a bit of background, knowing that the light I'm looking at is 12 million years old, the cool factor increases.

With that in mind, I'd get the Skysafari Pro app for your phone. It's a virtual representation of the night sky, but it also has an option to give you an audio description of the target you've selected. It's a very good app, which you can get for free, or the Pro version costs only about £10. I'd also thoroughly recommend 'Turn Left at Orion'. It's a brilliant introduction to the hobby and it also has lots of drawings which show what you'll actually see down the eyepiece, rather than what the Hubble can see!

Telescope? My Mak cost £500 and is worth every penny, but do you want to spend that if you're just dipping your toes in? My Dobby cost £300, is bulky, and heavy but gives fabulous views if you're prepared to work with it. In astronomy, aperture is king, so always try and go as big as you can. Bigger scopes need sturdier mounts though, and this is where trade offs begin. I love the GOTO capability of my Mak, but the tradeoff again, is smaller aperture.

If you're buying for your kid, why not look at some of the smaller Dobs like the Skywatcher 130mm-150mm Heritage range? It's not a huge investment if the youngster thinks it's a shite hobby after the first night, but it's still a good quality scope, and won't take up half their bedroom. You can then make a family event of going out and learning to navigate the night sky with it, rather than just pushing a button and watching the goto do everything for you!

Sorry for rambling!

Have you got sky map or equivalent app?
Have managed to take photos of saturn, jupiter and mars with my phone this year (granted it's pictures of white dots against black sky but it got me excited)

Another vote for FLO.

One thing I would have is a sighting scope rather than the red dot thingy my ( now surplus to requirements) celeston astromaster 114 reflector has PM if you want it for much cheapness!

I have a very old 3" refractor that I use instead as it has a sighting scope so is much easier to use

Thank you all! Decision basically made I think with the Skywatcher Heritage 150 and some books/apps.

Now to try to find one...

Excellent. Things are looking up.

Yep - you lot are truly a bunch of stars

FLO sponsor

stargazerslounge.com

a mine of useful info. for all levels of experience.

Thanks clarkpm I've joined the lounge and emailed FLO.

Reakky appreciate the guidance. It's a bit nebulous otherwise.

Look at the Orion 10022 Mak-Cas. Really handy size and easy to use.

So a 10 year old is likely to be most interested in Saturn, Jupiter and the moon and some of the brighter star clusters. (Not much co.pares to your first look at Saturn)

These will generally (certainly the planets and moon) be fairly easy to find and not need goto. BUT what goto will give you is tracking, which keeps the object in the eyepiece for longer, allowing you to share the experience more with your son, rather than constant 'no, its moved' which could frustrate and loose your audience before they get started.

Bigger scopes don't usually mean more magnificatiob, but make thinks brighter and more detailed

The heritage flextube will need something very solid to put it on,if on for example garden furniture, it will get knocked lots, or vibrations from you leaning on it will spoil the experience.

Equatorial mounts appear a bit complex and can out off some

To start with, a 127 or 130 goto reflector on an alt az mount would probably be easy enough to use, and give enough to see.

Like mountain biking, n plus 1 rule also applies when you want to take it a bit more seriously, and scopes also sell well second hand.

Agree with others that FLO are great, so are either valley optics and so is turn.left at Orion.

Enjoy