Hello all. My Dad’s birthday is coming up, and as he’s always been fascinated by stars and space, the family have decided to get him a telescope for a spot of amateur astronomy.

It’s something we know absolutely nothing about, so I was wondering if anybody on here might be able to help?

Any advice on telescopes would be fantastic. Not really sure on budget as we’ve honestly got no idea how much these things cost. I guess we’d be looking for a decent beginner’s telescope, but certainly nothing too fancy (or expensive). More Deore or SLX than XT or XTR, if that makes sense.

Also, we’d be looking to get an ‘Astronomy for beginners’ type book to go alongside it. Any recommendations on that front would also be greatly appreciated.

Ta!

No idea if you’re near Worthign but this place seems to do the lot astonomy wise.

http://www.sussex-astronomy-centre.co.uk/

websites a bit dated but lots of info.

If your Dad is really at the beginners stage I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a telescope straight away. As with bikes you should really know what you want to get out of it before spending too much money.

For a complete beginner I’d look at a pair of high powered binoculars (maybe like these), a tripod mount, a planosphere and a guide such as this. Maybe throw in a smartphone app like Starmap Pro or Redshift.

From here make sure you get out to some dark sites and maybe join an astronomy club to get a feel for what’s of interest.

Something with a motorised go-to is a must – I’ve got a degree in Astronomy and I still can’t find anything in the sky 😉 With the motorised ones you just do a quick set-up procedure then it takes care of finding things for you.

Celestron do a bunch of reasonably priced ones.

Start here: http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/183-beginners/

Its a forum that will give you all the answers you need.

Hi, as a long time astro geek, I would recommend getting the book “Turn left at Orion” for your father, and start from there.

Wonderful hobby, but innapropriate equipment quickly kills any ethusiasm! (wobbly mounts, crap optics etc)

FWIW – I would recommend a 4-5″ simple dobsonian reflector to start with.

Also – consider portability. A dark sky is one of the most important components in visual astronomy. Hauling a heavy, complicated setup around takes the fun out of things quite quickly.

Hi, as a long time astro geek, I would recommend getting the book “Turn left at Orion” for your father, and start from there.

FWIW – I would recommend a 4-5″ simple dobsonian reflector to start with.

+1 and +1 – but don’t spend loads on kit straight up – I personally wouldn’t get a goto mount straight up but something that tracked would be nice. I can find literally thousands of interesting things with a telescope that cost me £100 and because of that I know that I have no great interest in doubles, am a sucker for a good globular cluster and quite like hunting for faint fuzzies.

That means that if/when I upgrade I’d go for something very different to if all I wanted to do was split binaries or etch planets into my retina all night.

If you aren’t looking to spend loads of money at first then a decent set of binoculars would be your best bet. Get ones with a reasonably large objective lens i.e. 8*50 rather than 8*25. Binoculars are rated as A*B where A is the magnification and B is the objective lens size in mm. 50mm binoculars should be hand holdable but larger sizes will need mounting onto a tripod.

A good beginners book should guide him round the sky. e.g.

Stargazing for Dummies

Recognise the author bencooper? 😉

+1 on recommending Binoculars + Tripod.

Just like bikes, astronomy has different niches and they require different equipment. There is no magic best telescope suitable for everything. They all have advantages and disadvantages in different areas. eg some are good for deep space objects and some are good for planets etc ..

If your dad is new to astronomy then he may not know what types of objects he really wants to see and so may not know which telescope is good in that area.

Binoculars allow you to learn the basics and see a wide range of objects after which you can settle on a telescope with the features you want.

Just to reiterate…Depends on money but +1 for binoculars and a small tripod for less than £100.

£100-£300 for a simple “dobsonian”…

More than that spend the extra money on a “goto mount” which will find stuff for him.

Finally +1 for “turn left at Orion”

Thanks all. Will definitely get Turn Left at Orion.

My Dad already has some binoculars that he uses (though not as powerful as the ones listed above), so I think a telescope would be a better choice.

Certainly seems the consensus is a Dobsonian reflector. I spoke to a very helpful guy at an astronomy shop and he suggested the Skywatcher Skyliner 150P would be a good choice. Anyone have any experience of that telescope, or any other suggestions?

I do really like the idea of those go-to mounts, but I’m assuming that would involve spending a fair bit more, which doesn’t seem sensible at the moment.

The sky watcher is what people had in mind

But eye peice height might be an issue with a dob that size. Its likely to be quite close to the ground. It would certainly be very low for me

This one might be better if your Dad is tall and or is averse bending down

£80 solves the problem

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-150pl-eq3-2.html

When Dobsonians were invented equatorial mounts were serious money

What I have is one of these

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-ota.html

on a video tripod. Im many ways its rubbish but its small when not in use and easy to take on holiday

Ah OK so he already has binnos, so he’s not a total beginner.

In that case a reflector type telescope would be ideal, you get a lot of bang for you buck with them.

They can be cumbersome to move about but if most his viewing is done from his back garden then that shouldn’t be a problem.

I think the Skyliner and the Explorer series are the same apart from the Explorer comes with a EQ mount. So pick which ever fits within budget.