Beginers telescope

Hi

I am considering buying a telescope, but being a novice can I ask the astronomers on her what I should be looking out for?

I do not want to spend a fortune for a telescope that may not get much use, but would like to know of any pitfalls to avoid.

Ian

I would go for one of the smaller motorised models with the computerised drive. It will make viewing so much easier and they are not that expensive.

I joined an astronomical society at Bedford school and they had lots of loan equipment. I borrowed a 10 inch reflector and this made me realise that unless you take photos you don't really see much generally small fuzzy grey patches. The moon Jupiter and Saturn are alright a few clusters and I was done. Saved myself the hassle of getting something that wouldn't get much use. I dont think you need much magnification as that narrows the field of view and makes things dark what you do need is as much aperture as you can get, in my opinion but as you can tell I'm no expert.  There seems to be quite a few of the Meade motorised reflectors on the market because I think a lot of people probably think they will see loads of colourful nebula and things but you won't, you  need to take photos for that. 

Edited By Buffer on 08/07/2021 21:02:32

Edited By Buffer on 08/07/2021 21:06:22

I agree with Old Mart. Once you sort out the lineup you can spend a pleasant evening letting your telescope take you on a tour.

At one star party with the local astro society that I was member of, I ended up with a bit of a queue of interested passers-by taking a look at half-a-dozen or so good targets that the scope was finding pretty accurately. IIRC the Ring Nebula and the Great Cluster in Hercules showed especially well.

That was a Celestron NexStar 6SE, which I think many would regard as entry-level though there are several smaller.

A good birdwatching scope with a powerful eyepiece can give a certain amount of interest, especially on solar-system objects, and in the best conditions even century-old big-game stalking scopes can produce pretty results if decently mounted. Mounting stability and manipulability is fully as important as anything in the optics.

Thank you for your assistance, it looks like I would be spending around £800 for a starter telescope, more than I would want, but you have answered my question.

Ian

It does depend on the end objective (deliberate)
If just wanting to have a look at stuff visually then manual alignment is OK. If wanting fancy stacked pics then ideally motorised.

When I lived in Sth London I did buy a 6" refractor and had some happy time looking at the planets and their moons but it is huge and heavy and has been standing in the barn here, unused, for many years - partly because I live surrounded by hills and because Wales doesn't do clear skies very often and lugging it out, waiting for temperatures to stabilise on a cold clear winter's night did get old.
If you’re not too far from mid-Wales you'd be welcome to come play or I’d let it go for reasonable - but it is big.

pgk

This is the sort of telescope that is great for beginners, a little more expensive than I thought, but I'm very out of date:

**LINK**

Pgk, thanks for your advice and kind offer, I am in Northumberland so it’s a bit far to travel. Appreciated anyway.

Thanks for everyone’s advice.

Hi Ian,

if you want to do visual astronomy, look at the 'beginners telescopes section at First Light optics.

Because there are bright objects you can start on a first scope need not be huge, and looking at relatively easy targets like the moon, planets and bright deep sky objects will give you a better idea of how you might want to progress, rather than blowing a fortune on an expensive scope that will probably be specialised in its application.

Neil

www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html

Hi Neil

Just the info I need, they look like what will do to start at a price that is ok if I don’t want to take it up. Many thanks

Ian

Hi Ian,

One option to consider is getting a telescope suitable for looking at the sun. No getting up in the middle of a freezing night and tracking sunspots as they change can be interesting.

Regards,

Alan