Recommend?

Xcom2

Can anyone recommend a cheap telescope to a newbie(me).I have one that let's me see the moon(belonged to my granddad).

I have about 200euro to spend at the moment.Any tip's as to what to buy or where would be appreciated.

G

stepryan

global wrote:

Can anyone recommend a cheap telescope to a newbie(me).I have one that let's me see the moon(belonged to my granddad).

I have about 200euro to spend at the moment.Any tip's as to what to buy or where would be appreciated.

G

for 200 euro you will not get much. you could get a decent pair of binoculars which can be used for more than astronomy and can always be used even if you don't develop a serious interest in observing. you could try the follow companies:-
http://www.mccreaa.freeserve.co.uk/ north down telescopes or
http://www.andromedaoptics.com/ andromeda optics both of these are run by amateurs so they should be able to help you decide. i would try to stay away from astronomy ireland as you can get better deal for your money elsewhere, they appear to a bit overpriced. the best advice though would to be to join a society in your area. have a look at:-http://www.irishastronomy.org to find one in your area as you can get advice from people who own telescopes and also on observing nights a chance to look through some of them. you can then maybe leave a telescope till later when you have a better idea and saved more money.
stephen.

Flukey

Start with a good set of binoculars and get a good star atlas and then get to know the skies a bit. You can see an awful lot with a pair of binoculars. Very portable and good for sweeping across the sky quickly, which you can't do with a telescope. It is more for stationary observing, looking at a particular point for a bit longer. So get those binoculars and in the meantime you can be saving to get yourself a good telescope.

C Fodder

Were the telescopes that Lidl /Aldi had last year any good. From the very little I know one of them seemed to have a scope that was high spec and if so expect it again this year was around €60 / €70 afaik. leaves a nice few quid for a half decent binoculars and a copy of Redshift

Xcom2

Thank's for the advice

I guess it is binoculars for now then,sorry but where would I get a star atlas?

G

albertw

Hi,

C Fodder wrote:

Were the telescopes that Lidl /Aldi had last year any good. From the very little I know one of them seemed to have a scope that was high spec and if so expect it again this year was around €60 / €70 afaik. leaves a nice few quid for a half decent binoculars and a copy of Redshift

I got one from Lidl and it was fine. The eyepieces are fairly crap, but using decent eyepieces they make a decent small scope.

Cheers,
~Al

Flukey

Any good bookshop will sell good star atlases. Find something physically small enough to carry around. They will also give you a lot of other information on astronomy, maybe even advice on telescopes.

Is1ldur

I saw binoculars in that camera shop in Blanchardstown, cannot remember the make, but they were 16*50, and were not too expensive, about 130 or 150 IIRC. Would these be any use whatsoever. I have a pair 10*30 at home, and you really cannot see very much, even of the moon, would 10-50 allow me to see much more detail, or would 16*50 be better.