Buying advice for noobs..

Krusty_Clown

Hi astronomers, my son wants a telescope for Christmas, so I was hoping to get some recommendations/advice (I'm sure this is annual re-occuring thread, but can't seem to find any other similar posts). Very much the absolute beginner end of the scale. We seem to have just missed the Lidl buying spree earlier this week, so I was hoping for some other suggestions for a telescope that would be fun and interesting (and fairly straightforward) for a pre-teen (10 y.o.).

Astronomy.ie seems to have a pretty good beginner telescope - Celestron Firstscope 60AZ which is advertised on their website for 252 euro, but which, on speaking to them sells for 180 euro. I have read on other sites that this crowd are very much over-priced (seems to be an Irish theme!). I've found various bits and pieces of advice about buying your first telescope, but very little practical content about which models and retailers are recommended/suitable, so any suggestions would be very much welcomed.

albertw

Krusty_Clown wrote:

Astronomy.ie seems to have a pretty good beginner telescope - Celestron Firstscope 60AZ which is advertised on their website for 252 euro, but which, on speaking to them sells for 180 euro. I have read on other sites that this crowd are very much over-priced (seems to be an Irish theme!). I've found various bits and pieces of advice about buying your first telescope, but very little practical content about which models and retailers are recommended/suitable, so any suggestions would be very much welcomed.

Wow Astronomy & Space actually selling something near the reccomended retail price!

The general advice is when going with a refractor (lens in front) not to choose anything with less than a 70mm lens. With a reflector tube with a mirror a minimum of 114mm (4.5 inches).

Personally I think a 60mm scope is too small, and you'd be better off with binoculars.

A pair of 10x50 binoculars will get the same amount of light as a 70mm refractor. The refractor will give you higher magnification but it will darken the image, so it will be of use to make out the two main cloud bands of jupiter and the ring around saturn which binoculars will not show.

As for good sites to help you choose, the following are from the uk.sci.astronomy newsgroup FAQ:
http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/firstscope.htm
http://www.astunit.com/faq/binocular.htm
http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/evaluating.htm
They are getting a little dated, as prices have dropped since then a little and new models of scopes are not included there. I can dig up other references if needed.

The retailers they mention are also all UK based. So here are a couple of others worth at least an email:
Green Witch Astronomy http://www.greenwich-observatory.co.uk/ ok they are uk based also, but I have bought a lot of gear from them and they usually turn up at the whirlpool star party in Birr so they should get an honourary mention!
North Down Telescopes http://www.mccreaa.freeserve.co.uk/ ran by Andy McCreaa in Bangor. Andy will find whatever you are looking for and generally get it cheaper than anywhere else I'm told. I've never bought from Andy, but I've heard nothing but good reports.
Andromeda Optics http://www.andromedaoptics.com Dublin based I have bought a scope and bits and peices from them also.

I can dig up the email addresses for them if they are not on the website (pm me). The last two will probably be cheaper than Astronomy and Space as a matter of principle :-)

For a 10 year old, unless thay are mechanically inclined, you might want to stay away from `equatorial mounts` they can be a pain to set up and can be hard to get your head around. That leaves you to choose between the alt-az (up down left right) mount like the firstscope 60 you mentioned, or a dobsonian.

The alt az is usually used for refractors and requires a tripod. The dobsonian on the other hand is used for reflectors and does not require a tripod, and you just point it, arguably the simplest yet most effective design.

Without knowing your budget its hard to help pick anything but looking at the websites Greenwitch have a "Skyliner-150 150mm (6") F/1200 Dobsonian Telescope"[1] for £199 stg. I know someone with the 8" version of that and have looked through it and it is a good scope. coverting that to euro and adding shipping may make it expensive. Though check the other two dealers are they supply these also.

Cheers,
~Al
--
www.irishastronomy.org

[1]http://www.greenwich-observatory.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_copy_of_Telescopes.html third from bottom.

Capt'n Midnight

There were still about 10 of the €60 scopes in Lidl this evening (Lucan)

Also Aldi are doing 8-24 x 50 binoculars for €20 (Belgard road) , not sure how much use they would be, but you wouldn't cry if they got dropped.

flyz

I'm looking to buy a telescope also. Don't want to go too expensive first time round.
However I already own an SLR camera and would like to be able to connect this to the telescope.

Probably a silly question but can all telescopes be connected to an SLR if you have to correct eye piece or do only certain telescopes support the use of cameras?

thanks!

Seanie M

flyz wrote:

Probably a silly question but can all telescopes be connected to an SLR if you have to correct eye piece or do only certain telescopes support the use of cameras?

Its not a silly question, and the answer is yes! Though someone more in the know on this than me might give you a detailed answer here, I would recommend looking at www.irishastronomy.org for a lot of tips. There are loads of discussions there about astrophotography with webcams and manual and digital slr's.

Have a look there!


Seanie.