Hi, you will love the move into Astronomy.

My honest advice is avoid an eBay telescope. I say this with experience. My first scope went down this path and was a big disappointment. They just don't give you what you might hope for and the mounts are useless (one of the most important aspects is the mount - what is the point of gathering light if the scope shakes and you can't see what you are looking at etc).

Either - buy a GOOD set of binoculars (some of the most pleasing sights can be seen through Bins which have great clarity and wide field of view), or save longer and spend more. Andromeda looks great through bins.

Take a look at FirstLightOptics and get yourself along to StarGazersLounge. Its worth saving that bit longer.

It's great once you get going.

Cant go wrong with a Celestron or a Meade.

The type you get depends on your budget and your goals.

I myself have a Meade ETX. I've had it for about 10 years now. It's a magnificent little scope. Very portable and very powerful for it's size and diameter.

The newer ETX's are all flashy with gizmos and stuff but the core scope remains the same as it was when I got mine.

I can see the moons of Jupiter the clouds on Jupiter and the rings of Saturn in great detail to give you some perspective.

I have that Celestron model and it works great. Planets are viewable but dont expect to see any detail. With a $100 eyepiece set Im able to get a little more detail from Jupiter, but dont expect to see features. If you want more detail you'll have to go bigger, a 10" dobsonian is my next scope, as I want bigger and better. But those are 2 to 3 times the cost of the Celestron 130 you're looking at.

ps - Salsaking has it spot on. Believe it or not most cost goes on eye-pieces. However as he states there is only so-much detail you can get.

Obviously when you look at a galaxy (eg Andromeda) it does not look like a swirl/galaxy! It looks like a fuzzy object. You only get that look when you astro-image.

Look I know nothing about Astronomy or Telescopes...

But I do see a lot of them posted on craigslist... not just the crappy ones you give the kids... I mean really nice ones!

I know craigslist is available in the UK you may have something else/better but when you figure out what you want you might want to look there to buy...

Just go to an amateur astronomers´club with fiancée and kids to have a look
through different telescopes and get some good advice from those semi-
professionals. It´s for free. You may not get the fiancée on your side, maybe
the kids.

If not, feed the kids first and scrutinize your fiancée through a much cheaper
loop !



[edit on 21-10-2009 by Udo Hohnekamp Lux.]

sorry, loop = pocket-lens

If your spending around £150 than a 5" newtonian is about what you'd expect to get.

The celestron will be ideal as a serious starter and you realy wont find better new at that price.

To give you some reassurance i have had a go with all types of scopes from 60mm refractors to 10" Schmidt Cassegrains.

I have settled now on a 6" Celestron Newtonian on a nice Eq4 mount with tube legs. Cost me £229.

The reason i have this is it gives great viewing for its cost and is just about manageable for 1 person to transport and setup easily.

My previous fave was a 4" Skaywatcher skyhawk so small but excellent optics.

I had a Meade 8" Schmidt Cassegrain that i had to sell (gorgeous) and would buy again in a hartbeat if finances would permit!

Best value for money have been Skywatcher and Celestron.

One more thing, Clarity when viewing differs each night. Sometimes you will be amazed at detail and sharpness of the images and be chuffed as nutz with your purchase, whilest other nights you will curse ever buying the damn thing and think there is something wrong with it!

Enjoy those times of clarity!!

Why not buy a medium quality spotting scope?

I use a rubber coated Bushnell at the rifle range.

It's variable 12x - 36x and I have a 48x eypiece.

Under $100. when I bought it and probably under $150. now.


Useful for other things with its car window mount and good quality table top tripod.

A good quality camera tripod works well for moon gazing.



I fully appreciate I'm limiting myself, but a good astronomical telescope is perhaps 6 months away $$.

Thank you to everybody who is posting on this thread, its realy appreciated, without any of you lot i would be lost, so again thanks. Im deffinately going to take the advice of going to an amateur astronomers club, that sounds very logical.

Oh and it will be on my own, i will tell the fiance its boring for her and the kids