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Telescope advice. (Read 11993 times)

Mike Tyson

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Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 10:17:45 am
Bit of a random one this really, but UKB seems to have the power to answer most questions so I may as well ask here.

My kids are both interested in the stars and planets, and I was thinking of buying them a telescope for their room. Any keen astronomers on here who could point me in the direction of a good telescope for around the 100 notes region? I appreciate you probably can't get a world class one for this price, but was hoping for something of decent quality.

Thanks in advance.

mark s

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#1 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 10:25:53 am
message turner.he goes on the second hand astro sites.he knows what to get for moon gazing and planets

SA Chris

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#2 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 10:52:18 am
A friend of mine got one of Infinity telescopes for his kids and they love it and he was raving about the quaility, although I never saw it in use, or have anything to compare it to.

This type of thing, might be less if you shop around.

http://www.microglobe.co.uk/skywatcher-infinity-76p-children-parabolic-reflector-telescope-p-8376.html

get one for each of you; no squabbling!

Although I'm sure one of the pundits will be along to slate it shortly.

underground

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#3 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 10:53:02 am
I'm no expert on this but did the same research as you last year. In the end there was a shortage of lenses and no stock of my scope choice, by the time there was the whole year had been rainy and I decided not to bother.

The general consensus seems that at the lower price end, a Dobsonian is the one to choose for light gathering ability and ease of setup/star tracking. I think the simplicity is best for kids too.

like this one

Snoops

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#4 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 11:15:03 am

chris j

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#5 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 12:17:12 pm
A friend of mine got one of Infinity telescopes for his kids and they love it and he was raving about the quaility, although I never saw it in use, or have anything to compare it to.

This type of thing, might be less if you shop around.

http://www.microglobe.co.uk/skywatcher-infinity-76p-children-parabolic-reflector-telescope-p-8376.html


The missus' uncle has been recommending it to us for Xmas presents for all the grown up kids in the family. I wonder if there's any way of attaching a camera to it for taking photos of the moon surface etc (though I suspect you need to spend a vast amount of money for that sort of thing...)

Stu Littlefair

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#6 Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 12:17:39 pm
Some good knowledge here. The telescope Chris suggests is great for kids as its robust and good quality.

If your kids are a bit more careful with their toys then a slightly larger skywatcher scope is probably the best bet, although its slightly out of your budget it's an excellent scope for the price

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005KIXM66/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B005KIXM66&linkCode=as2&tag=meteorwatchor-21

The optical quality is really nice and the views are excellent even with the included eyepieces. The Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Andromeda Galaxy, Orion Nebula etc are easily visible with this telesscope.

There is a red dot finder included which will massively help actually finding stuff.


Johnny Brown

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#7 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 12:27:43 pm
Pretty tempted myself for that price. Is it a big jump in price to get better quality or are you mainly paying for a motorized mount etc? I daresay I'd be tempted to start attaching a camera...

mark s

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#8 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 12:30:07 pm
A friend of mine got one of Infinity telescopes for his kids and they love it and he was raving about the quaility, although I never saw it in use, or have anything to compare it to.

This type of thing, might be less if you shop around.

http://www.microglobe.co.uk/skywatcher-infinity-76p-children-parabolic-reflector-telescope-p-8376.html


as far as i know its a small plastic adapter than your web cam fits on to.wont be more than a few quid

The missus' uncle has been recommending it to us for Xmas presents for all the grown up kids in the family. I wonder if there's any way of attaching a camera to it for taking photos of the moon surface etc (though I suspect you need to spend a vast amount of money for that sort of thing...)

mark s

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#9 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 12:31:48 pm
oh,that came out a bit muddled up



the bit i put was its just a plastic adapter to put the webcam on to.

Johnny Brown

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#10 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 12:37:58 pm
I was thinking more of the one Stu linked. The bowl base looks a bit limiting on the kids one.

Mike Tyson

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#11 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 02:07:20 pm
Thanks for the advice all, the links all look good TBH but I am tempted by the one Chris mentioned as it is funky looking and I could get them one each! Will be looking at them all in a bit more detail later, off to fix a wall now in the glorious Lake District sunshine!  :2thumbsup:

SA Chris

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#12 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 02:44:58 pm
just get the google skymaps app!

Stu Littlefair

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#13 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 03:05:03 pm
Pretty tempted myself for that price. Is it a big jump in price to get better quality or are you mainly paying for a motorized mount etc? I daresay I'd be tempted to start attaching a camera...

If you go for one with a motorised mount etc you're going to pay a lot more, and for less than 400 smackers the view will likely be pretty poor in comparison.

This video gives a decent idea of the kind of views you can expect.


SA Chris

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#14 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 03:37:51 pm
I wonder if there's any way of attaching a camera to it for taking photos of the moon surface etc (though I suspect you need to spend a vast amount of money for that sort of thing...)

Again this is unsubstantiated, but he said he got some good pics just holding his point and shoot to the viewfinder. Although I doubt they are Andi Turner quality.

Drew

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#15 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 06:56:59 pm
The site seems to not be working at the moment, but I'd be interested if Andi T etc agree with this

AndiT

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#16 Re: Telescope advice.
November 05, 2012, 09:11:56 pm
Drew, I'd say there's some pretty sound advice on there. Skywatcher telescopes on a whole are as good as any chinese kit you can buy is. The kit is well thought out and the mounts are normally well matched to the telescopes. The infinity scope is a good buy too, you can take it away camoping, plonk it on your bonnet or a picnic bench and you're good to go. There's all sorts to consider when buying a telescope, it's a bit like when someone asks what climbing boots to buy for the first time....if they go too cheap then they'll never really get the benefit and soon take up scrambling instead, too precise and they'll end up in pain.

You'll need a good mount whatever you get. A wobbly scope is no fun. Anything above about 8 times magnification needs a good mount (binoculars included). A lot of mounts these days are 'goto'. This means you align the mount at the start of the night and then you can simply punch in 'Saturn' or 'Orion Nebula' and it'll swing the scope to it for you. Saves a lot of hassle.

Adam, if you're gonna get into, save your money and go straight into the astrophotography side of things. You've got a good camera and lenses already. Stick them on an Astrotrac and you'll soon be getting some very nice results. The thing a lot of people don't realise is the size of the objects that the astrophotographers image. My main imaging scope is a Takahashi FSQ-85, which is basically a 450mm lens, I normally further reduce that to 330mm F3.9, even at this focal length a lot of objects are too big for my camera sensor. A high quality 200mm lens (the Leica Telyt Apo 180 is a pretty legendary astro lens) which get you well on your way. A nifty 50 will capture the whole of Orion, and there's a lot going on around there.

So, £100 won't get you very far, but in the same ball-park you should be able to get a Skywatcher 130 on some sort of reasonable mount and that would be money well spent. Worst comes to worst, they sell for about 3/4 their new price anyway on ebay.

If I had around that money to spend on a first scope however, I'd buy this http://astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=62332

SA Chris

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#17 Re: Telescope advice.
December 13, 2017, 06:06:08 pm
Resurrection....

Son has expressed an interest in a telescope for Xmas, and TBH something I've always fancied too, so something maybe a bit better than the infinity I mentioned before, which I've used and is pretty decent,

Celestron Powerseekers seem to get a lot of recommendation, but a minefield of varieties! Ideally something both of us can use, be nice to be able to mount up a DSLR if possible. Budget - £150ish, a bit over if it can be justified. Or any alternatives. TIA

Stu Littlefair

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#18 Re: Telescope advice.
December 14, 2017, 11:32:56 am
To be honest, most of the advice on this thread is still valid: things move pretty slow in the telescope world.

Given your budget, think seriously about your desire to hook a DSLR up to it for anything other than shots of the Moon and Jupiter/Saturn. The issue is not so much the scope, as getting a mount that will track well enough to allow photography for anything less than £500ish. Even within budget, you'll have to give up a lot of aperture* and optical quality to get a motor drive that will allow (disappointing) photography. Whatever you decide, save a few pounds to buy "Turn Left at Orion" - a lovely book which will be a source of things to look at for years to come.

If you purely want a telescope to look through I would strongly recommend a Dobsonion based telescope - no motor drive, easy to point by hand plenty of apeture for your buck. I love this chap, but he's over your budget:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html

The smaller Skywatcher Dobsonions (130p and 150p) are nearer your budget and also grand.

If you stick to the original idea, and budget, the best bet in that case is still this bad boy:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-explorer-130m.html

The tracking of the motor will be very disappointing if you want to take pics of Galaxies etc.

*aperture is about the most important aspect of a telescope - all else being equal a bigger aperture will allow you to see fainter objects and more detail. Since you've got some nice dark skies in your neck of the woods, you'd really benefit from this.

SA Chris

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#19 Re: Telescope advice.
December 14, 2017, 12:05:24 pm
Thanks Stuart, shots of Moon / Jupiter / Saturn / some constellation is all I would hope to get.

One of reasons I'm interested is I've got an internal astrotracer on my Camera, which i've not really used in anger and like to see what it can do.

https://www.outdoorphotographer.com/photography-gear/cameras/pentax-k1-astrophotography-camera/

I think the "5 min" quoted would be reduced drastically with a telescope though.


Stu Littlefair

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#20 Re: Telescope advice.
December 14, 2017, 04:05:28 pm
If you assume that 5mins is for a wide angle (15mm) lens, then the time you'll be able to expose will drop in proportion to your focal length. The 130m has a 900mm focal length, so you're looking at 5 seconds!

The tracking of the mount provided probably will allow more than that (maybe 10-20s) but I don't think you can combine the two, which is a shame because that would be amazing!

Andy's advice for astrophotography below is top-dollar, unsurprisingly. Many of the astrophotography pictures you've seen will be taken with telescopes of 400-600mm focal lengths and you can get really good pictures with a fast telephoto, which you may already have.

It's a tough call, but for people on a budget my advice is usually that you can buy:

1) A telescope on a motorised mount that will be disappointing for astrophotography and ok for visual use
2) A telescope for visual use only, but it will be heads and shoulders better for visual use.

SA Chris

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#21 Re: Telescope advice.
December 14, 2017, 04:23:11 pm
Astrotracer is also unfortunately limited to stars only (based on GPS and internal compass), no override, so no good for moon or planets.

Thanks otherwise Stu. I'll have a closer look and decide between the 2.

Johnny Brown

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#22 Re: Telescope advice.
December 13, 2018, 10:21:19 pm
So after my annual perusal of this thread, this year I actually did some further research. What stopped me in the past was that I was convinced (from my photography and binoculars) that anything under £400 was going to be irredeemably shit. Summary might be useful for anyone interested.

So initially I set a budget of about that. I ruled out refractors very quickly, I've used cheap ones before (see conclusion above) and I've already got a cupboard full of exotic glass telephotos. Reflectors seemed more interesting, physical aperture being far bigger, and value that became more astonishing the more I read. Basically the construction is very simple, there is only one optical surface and it's left up to the user to align (aka collimate). Second hand, you can get a thing that looks like Hubble for under a monkey! Tempting, but what I really needed was something portable and quick to set up, so I ended up back at the Heritage-130p Stu linked above, the only small collapsible dobsonian afaik. But it still seemed too cheap to trust. After reading most of the internet, I was finally convinced it was worth a punt, and I won a barely used one for £85 on eBay, cash on collection in Glossop (price new £135).

Driving back from picking it up, the clouds cleared as I passed Stanage and the moon appeared, so I pulled in and set it up. After some difficulty aiming it I found the moon. Fucking hell! Looks amazing. Switch eyepieces, from 25 to 10mm. Fuck me! This is the best £85 I ever spent. Had a further look around, found Mars, and what I'm fairly sure was Neptune. Wow. Quickly got the hang of pointing it, easier than a spotting scope despite the rotated view. Now also have the red dot finder set up which is brilliant.

Anyway, bargain, highly recommended. Nice height for kids too, and pretty simple and robust.

And I have £320 left to spend on exotic eyepieces, any suggestions?

Stu Littlefair

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#23 Re: Telescope advice.
December 14, 2018, 09:12:40 am
Glad you like it!

I can point you to some excellent notes about eyepiece optics 😉

http://slittlefair.staff.shef.ac.uk/teaching/phy217/lectures/telescopes/L08/index.html

For that scope you’re looking at eyepieces in the range 5-40mm being useful. I don’t know what eyepieces you currently have but from your text above you might want to splash out on something wide field; ie nearer the 40mm range which will give you a magnification of 16x. You can divide the apparent FOV by your magnification to give you an idea of true FoV.

We use the celestron luminos eyepieces with the students. Really nice.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-eyepieces/celestron-luminos-eyepieces.html




Johnny Brown

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#24 Re: Telescope advice.
December 14, 2018, 11:27:03 am
That's great, thanks. It's only 650mm, so from what I read anything longer than 32mm is likely to show the secondary?

It came with a 10mm and a 25mm. They are better than I expected, but the afov on the 10mm is very small. Assuming a better short ep with a wider angle would give a wider true field of view, i.e allow less frantic repositioning?

Paralysed by choice on eyepieces tbh. I'd been looking at the Skywatcher panorama which are supposedly repackaged Luminos, but forums suggest they might not be great at f/5? Forums suggest ideal for this scope is ES 68 24mm, plus Meade 5000 5.5mm or ES 82 6.7mm. Pricey! Currently leaning towards ES 62 26mm, OVL Nirvana 7mm (£75) plus a barlow. But I dunno... might just get the 7mm for starters.

Nice view of Venus this morning, even through the double glazing Jake could describe it a a 'white banana'.

 

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