Help with brands for novice wanting to buy a second hand telescope

[Green Monkee]

Hi

I was hoping you may be able to help me!

I am trying to buy a telescope as a present for my partner. We have
both recently got into atronomy and I think it would be the perfect
present. I have done some reading and have decided to go for a second
hand one (currently looking on ebay) as I want a good one but only
have a budget of under £100. I know I won't be able to see images
anything like the amazing ones shown on documentaries but would like
to be able to see the moon, the nearby planets and hopefully would
like to see beyond our solar system in some form (you'll probably
guess this telescope is as much for me as it is for my partner as a
gift!)

If it was a car or a PC I would have no trouble spotting the good
makes and being able to discern the right spec for the brand (ie a
lower spec made by a good brand is beter than a seemingly amazing spec
from an inferior brand) but am at a total loss with telescopes.

Could you tell me the brands I should be looking out for that have a
good reputation please and also what sort of specifications I should
look for?

I have heard that doubling the aperture size (when in mm) tells you
the max magnification but most are listed with lens size and focal
length (and also focal ratio). Also, not sure what the different
magnifications actually allow you to see. And finally, should I be
looking for one that plugs into a PC to find the stars; is this a real
necessity or is it just a nice additional accessory but manual works
fine?

As I don't yet know how much we will use it I don't want to pay
ridiculous amounts for one that will sit in the cupboard for years
(hence the small budget) but at the same time I don't want to go for
something cheap that's no good and will definitely end up in the
cupboard! And I'm v confused by all the different specs so any help
will ge grreatly appreciated!

Kind Regards

Lucy

[Robin Scagell]

Hi Lucy,

Good questions there. As for trusted manufacturers, I'd say Sky-Watcher and Celestron are the two I'd recommend. That's not to say that everything they make is perfect, though, particularly at the budget end. Some of the instruments are also definitely rather flimsy, and sturdiness is a very useful feature in something that magnifies around 200 times.

You might be tempted by the Sky-Watcher Skyhawk 114 mm reflector at £129 new, for example, but I am not keen on this telescope or other of its type because of its optical design. It is a basic short-focus Newtonian telescope with a lens placed in the optical system which doubles its normal magnification. This enables them to call it a catadioptric telescope, which sounds like one of the much more expensive types, but in fact it is nothing of the sort. The Celestron Astromaster 114 EQ-Short is in the same category. Beware of Newtonians with short tubes but long focal ratios.

I'm not sure that you could get a PC-compatible scope for under £100, but in any case I think the benefits are limited. They are great for locating faint objects in a poor sky, and I wouldn't be without mine, but for a beginner it's far better to concentrate on getting to know the sky for yourself and spending the money on a larger aperture which will allow you to see more objects and better.

Buying secondhand is probably a good idea because in fact most telescopes don't lose performance greatly, though they do depreciate quickly. However, if it's a reflector, the mirror might be badly tarnished so you'd have to see it before you buy. The other risk is of loose mechanical parts or missing bits, which can be very hard to replace, as there isn't a spares market as there is for cars.

I'd recommend going for a Dobsonian telescope of around 150 mm aperture, which will give you good views of a wide range of objects and will be easy to use. Or you could aim for either a reflector or refractor on an equatorial mount, but it's only worth having an equatorial if it has a motor as well. If you have to push it or use manual slow motions you might as well have a Dobsonian or an altazimuth mount anyway and save yourself the added hassle of figuring out how to set it up.

Hope this helps. You might also like to buy the DVD 'How to Use a Telescope' from the Society for Popular Astronomy for £9.99 post free, and of course join the SPA as well!

All the best

Robin Scagell
www.stargazing.org.uk

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[suthers]

Robin modestly fails to mention that he is the author of an excellent
guide to choosing a telescope, published by Philip's, which is
available at very modest cost here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0540090239/ref=dp_ob_olp_book_display_on_website

Paul

[DAVID EDWARDS]

You might like to know that there was a good review in the Sunday Times 'In Gear' section last Sunday as to what telescopes would be best for a beginner   Regards   David Edwards --- On Sun, 7/8/11, Green Monkee <lucyor...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Green Monkee]

Thankyou so much for taking the time to write such detailed and useful
replies! For some reason my email decided to only show me a small
section of these at first so apologies for asking a few questions in
another post that you had already kindly answered!

After a lot of thought today and research and, despite being excited
and wanting to get the telescope right away, if I hang on a couple of
months I'm due a bit of a bonus from work and could afford to raise my
budget to about £200 - which should give me enough for a new
Skywatcher, at least the 130/900 (seems to be some good second hand
ones but either require travelling to the ends of the country to
collect or risk posting - which I imagine is not the greatest idea).
I noticed there are different versions though. From your comments
would you reccomend I definitely go for the motorised mount (the more
expensive model). Some models do not seem to have a finderscope and
just have a red dot finder, I'm guessing a finderscope is also a must
in order to find the stars/planets? And I've also heard something
about a parabolic mirror - is this v important?

Apologies for so many questions. It's just a whole new area for me and
I want to make sure I get it right so that we can hopefully have years
of enjoyment looking at the skies, rather than getting it wrong and
losing interest due to either poor quality views or difficulty in
using it!

Thanks so much for your help - it's so useful in what is, to me, a
completely beweildering subject!

Kind Regards

Lucy





On Aug 9, 12:23 pm, DAVID EDWARDS <david.edwar...@btinternet.com>
wrote:

> You might like to know that there was a good review in the Sunday Times 'In Gear' section last Sunday as to what telescopes would be best for a beginner
>  
> Regards
>  
> David Edwards
>

> --- On Sun, 7/8/11, Green Monkee <lucyorange...@gmail.com> wrote:

> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to telescope-tip...@googlegroups.com.