Mate at work is looking to get one for her other half this Christmas. For a budget of about £125, anyone know what she should look for or avoid?
I know nothing but these people seem to;
[url= http://www.sussex-astronomy-centre.co.uk/ ]http://www.sussex-astronomy-centre.co.uk/[/url]
Look for secondhand in the small ads in astronomy magazines?
Reflectors are shorter for the same power than refractores
One of these at £130. Probably the best 'beginners' scope there is. Beware a lot of smaller scopes as they tend to be toys rather than the real thing.
[url= http://http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=SW_explorer_130 ]Skywatcher 130[/url]
At this price range reflectors (as above) give more 'bang per buck' than similarly priced refractors.
Also be aware that unless you spend thousands then you won't get Hubble-style images of deep space.
Ropy link thingy... cut 'n paste this.
http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=SW_explorer_130
I didn't realise it until I looked at the link, but I do actually need a telescope
All too easy to get sucked into spending vast sums on astronomy. Much like cycling really.
No wonder I never have any spare cash..
I ahve some experience, although kids have meant it will be taking a back seat for a few years. That's OK with me, saturn and jupiter will take a couple more years to be back at their prime viewing angle.
Anyhoo, standard advice still applies: it is not about magnification, but about light gathering and quality/stbility of optics.
1st things first, get the recipient a good book, and the best introduction book I know, and have had many compliments about is 'Turn Left at Orion' by Dan Consolmagno. Utterly wonderful book.
IMHO, avoid a refractor at this price. (that's a 'normal' telescope, lens at one end, eyepiece at the other). Crap optics, dim views, very shaky mounts. A crap mount/tripod makes the whole thing pointless.
Best bet is a reflector, or newtonian. Big mirror at the bottom of a tube, bounces light to a wee mirror at 45degrees in the cetre back up at the top, into the eyepiece. More light, easier to make reasonably at cheap price, much more fun!
This is an example of on on an Equatorial mount. decent scope, not a bad mount. EQ mounts can be a bit complex for beginners though (takes so much time to figure out how to work it that fun is gone!).
http://www.celestron.uk.com/viewsubcategories.php/telescopes/astromaster_series_firstscopes/36
I might be more inclined to go for a Dobsonian reflector, which is basically a completely manual push/pull affair, but is extremely steady (cannot stress how important this is) and means the money has gone to a better scope/optics. a quick google shows this one, which looks well cool!
http://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/Products/Sky-Watcher_Heritage_130_.html
I have been through numerous scopes over the years, computerised or otehrwise, but I have stuck with a Dobsonian. it is a big bugger mind you, csutom made wooden beauty in Nottingham (David Lukehurst, what an artist), but the views are stunning and is fast and easy to set up for me or family viewing.
HTH, happy to answer more Qs if you got em. If you get it right, it is an amazing hobby, but it can be frustrating. Oh yeah, and expensive!! (just google Televue nagler/ethos - and these are just eyepieces!)
Kev
there's a 1920's house in Worthing I drive past quite often that was built with an observatory in the roof. Lovelyu looking thing but I think there's too much light polution now for it to be used 'properly'.
And if anybody wants to know which star is which when you turn the Retina-burners off, try this..
I have a "toy" refractor - cost me £25 secondhand or something. its good enough to look at the moon and to see some detail on Jupiter and Saturn including the moons and rings. fiddly to use tho.
Tehe ones tortoise links to will be superior for sure
Too see planets with your own eyes is amazing.
Mine is similar to this.
Please be aware that the instant you purchase a telescope then it will be cloudy/wet with no decent visiblity for at least a month.
Cheers guys. You can always rely on STW to come up with the goods on any subject other than cycling!
Anyone done stuff like hike up to the top of a mountain on a clear winter's night to look at stars? If I had a scope that's probably what I'd do.
We stopped once on Rannoch moor on the way to Glencoe in a van at university. It was autumn, crisp, cold, no moon.
Strewth that was amazing, I have never been anywhere where the only light was star light. Amazing.
Seeing the milky way like that is quite incredible, and with so many stars visible it is acutally quite hard to navigate your way about as it is jsut mind boggling.
We used ot live north of Aberdeen, and it was only a 3 minute drive to get somewhere proper dark to view the northern lights.
Great stuff, but quite geeky!
I bivvied just below a glacier in the Alps once, at almost 10,000 feet. Never seen anything like it. There was more star than space. And it didn't get any dimmer down towards the horizon either - stars on the horizon were just as bright. It's worth the trek just to see that at least once in your lifetime I reckon.
I don't know much about telescopes, but I'll look into it.
(-:
Also be aware that unless you spend thousands then you won't get Hubble-style images of deep space.
A mate of mine is into astro-photography. Here's a photo of the moon that he took [i]with a webcam[/i].
http://astro.neutral.org/imagehtml/20060410_moon.html
(click the picture for the full-sized image)
That's a good photo. Although a pedant would point out that the moon doesn't really count as 'deep space' 😉
I had a look at getting a web-cam for imaging. The countless hours of PC geekery put me off though. Do enough of that in work. I'm not going to bother in my spare time as well.
Are we sure he wants to look at astral bodies? Does this bloke not have a more earthly body down the street he is trying to perv? If so, magnification may be more important! 😀
Well, no, it just reminded me is all.
Dunno why anyone would want to take that photo of the moon tbh. It's exactly the same as all the other photos of the moon face on.
Stargazers Lounge is a good resource for getting reviews on what is good and what isn't.
They also link to a store, First Light Optics, who do some decent gear.
If she doesnt mind second hand I have a telescope sat here that isn't being used. Mint condition and great for a beginner.