David

[Goosey Lucy]

OH would like to buy a telescope as we have fabulous skies here with hardly any light pollution. We have a budget of £500. We would like to buy one that is more than just a basic point it at the sky job, he quite likes the idea of one which will track objects in the sky. One day he would like to be able to take photographs of what we can see.

 

He likes the look of the Skywatcher Explorer 200P 8" parabolic Newtonian reflector

 

and the

 

Celestron Nexstar 102SLT 4" refractor with a GOTO mount.

 

What would you recommend?

 

He has bought the BBC Sky At Night magazine for the past few months but we can't come to a decision as it's quite a lot of money to spend. We don't know if this will become a serious hobby but we'd like the boys to also be able to see the night sky.

 

My main concern is how easy it will be to manoeuvre in and out of the house and where it will be stored.

 

Thanks in advance for your help

[Busybird]

Don't know much about this but OH has an Optolyth TBS that he mounts on a tripod to star gaze. I know it cost a few hundred pounds and is fairly basic as far as decent telescopes go but it is good enough for him to find the various 'shows' that the sky offers from time to time and easy enough for my boys to use when the sky events happen early enough in the night for them to join him.

 

Neither the telescope nor the folded tripod are too big or heavy so can be moved around and stored easily when not in use.

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

Is there a local astronomy association or camera shop which could advise you? Best to talk to specialist amateurs. It's an expensive thing to get wrong. A brilliant thing though!!!

[Goosey Lucy]

Thanks Busybird and Chicky..enn. We've tried to locate an Astronomy Club in our area and have been in to a couple of shops with no real success yet. I agree he would be much happier if he could try one out

 

TBH I'm not sure if he's convinced himself he doesn't want one, a couple of websites and blogs are recommending you start with binoculars then move on to a scope.

 

It seems it can get very expensive indeed (makes chickens look cheap in comparison )

 

If anyone else has any ideas I'd be grateful for your thoughts.

[Charlottechicken]

From a photography angle if he hasn't taken many astrophotos he should have a play with what camera equipment he has got, like a shutter release cable and tripod to take some star trail pics, or one of those multi moon photos. Then maybe he could get a better lens for the camera and move up that way. Does he follow the planets and meteor showers too? He will be able to take pics of whole constellations with an ordinary camera because of the wider view but a telescope will give a very narrow field of vision.

 

Have a look at a couple of astronomy magazines, especially the American one, the amateur stuff in there is awesome! They usually tell you what equipment the picture was taken with.

 

Alternatively, you can see a fair amount of detail with a 3" refractor (non motorised), which is what I have, bought over 20 years ago from Argos for £100. I liked the traditional shape I can see the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, (well numbers 1 to 4 anyway ), and the colour of Mars. Stars are always just points of light, with a hint of colour

 

When I was into astronomy I had decided that my dream scope would be an 8" motorised catadioptric, but can't for the life of me remember why! I think different people prefer different styles and ultimately you need to look for something which meets all your requirements.

[Goosey Lucy]

Thanks Charlottechicken

 

my dream scope would be an 8" motorised catadioptric

 

This is what he thinks he wants

 

He's mentioned a ... Schmidt Cassegrain on a motorised equatorial mount.

 

I'm still struggling with what is a star, galaxy, universe...just been outside to look at the sky through our very basic binoculars, there were lots more tiny dots

 

Our budget of £500 is now looking like £2000

 

We need to have a little chat I think. That's a lot of chickens

 

Maybe 4-5" not 8"

 

thank you for your tips about photography. A friend this evening said he actually wants an observatory not a telescope.

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

Go see these dudes?

 

http://www.iomastronomy.org/

 

http://www.iomastronomy.org/observatory.html

 

 

btw - can't believe you get to live there. Cool place! V jealous!!!

[Charlottechicken]

 

my dream scope would be an 8" motorised catadioptric

 

This is what he thinks he wants

 

He's mentioned a ... Schmidt Cassegrain on a motorised equatorial mount.

 

 

Ah yes, amateur astronomy heaven, a Schmidt Cassegrain 8" cat on a motorised mount

 

He could of course, build his own Dobsonian telescope You can find plans online I'm sure (could make for an interesting Christmas gift, some A4 paper plans and a box of wood )

 

Have you looked ***here***

[chickenanne]

I bought my OH a telescope last Christmas. It's not something I'm into, and the one I bought was from scopes'n'skies, who were very helpful and gave good advice to a budget! However, as my budget was a good bit less than yours I can't really give anything resembling specific advice.

 

One thing I would say is that for every "slightly better" gizmo the price goes up another £20 or whatever, and it is very very easy to spend way more than you wanted, hence I was pleased with the scopes 'n' skies people (via internet).

[Goosey Lucy]

Thanks for all your replies.

 

He's slowly sorting himself out

 

He'll be getting a membership to the observatory, unfortunately he mostly works off island so going to meetings is almost impossible.

 

Chicky: yup, it's great here, I'll happily show people round if they visit