Im looking to buy a telescope, please help!

Hi, im looking to purchase a telescope, it will be my first one, im wanting to spend around the £150 mark, ive looked around and found a few but the descriptions meen nothing to me, im hoping someone with experience will be so kind to guide me in the right direction. Im wanting to view planets, galaxies that sort of thing. Please help me because i dont want to spend £150 on something that is no good.

Here is a couple i have been looking at

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Any help and suggestions would be realy appreciated. Thanks.

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.

reply to post by AlwaysQuestion


Thanks man for the advice, now i know its the obvious and sensible thing to save and get a better quality telescope, but im very skint, and even if i did save it would take me years because of bills and day to day living and supporting my family of 4 kids and fiance. Now i do have £150 put away that is mine and that is all i have, so out of the ebay scopes which would you recommend? or even a scope not on ebay but for the same £150, im so keen to get one and ive been driving my fiancee crazy about it.

No problem. Well the only one I would consider from your list is the Celestron.

Here is an unbiased review:

www.astronomyforum.net...

You could get a Skywatcher which from FLO which would give good 'bang for buck'.

The question is what do you want to view/do? That makes a big difference to what you go for.

reply to post by AlwaysQuestion


well i want to be able to see planets and galaxies realy, im not a mad astronomer, although when i get a telescope and start watching the sky no doubt i will be hooked and want something bigger and better which i cant have lol. something to see jupiters moons, the moon surface, saturns rings, that sort of thing.

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.

reply to post by AlwaysQuestion


seems to be a good review aswell, the guy who bought it seems to know his stars and constellations, so if hes said its ok for the price then would you also say its ok? i know not great but good enough for what i want?

I cant thank you enough for helping me out, i would of been so lost on my own and would of bought something that couldnt see a plane flying over lol.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


now that sounds like what i want to be able to view, my budget is £150, i know its peanuts when it comes to telescopes but thats all ive got, im also not too interested in all the gadgets and suchlike, just want to be able to see things crisp.

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.

Well if you are an impulse buyer (like me) then go for the Celestron. Like what has been posted you cant go wrong with Celestron or Meade (I use a 8" GPS Celestron + a DSLR with 500mm lens mounted).

However, all those things you will see clearly through some binos:

www.surplusandadventure.com...

It's worth getting one of the above so you get an idea of what things are going to look like (there is not much difference in capabilities). I probably use binos more than the scope!!

Or, if you can get yourself along to an astro club and look through a couple of scopes so you know what to expect through a scope of this size.

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 $$.

reply to post by AlwaysQuestion


Would there be much difference between the binos and the telescope? I meen the binos you have linked me too and the telescope i was thinking of buying. Because if the difference isnt much at all then i may aswell get the binos, but to me the word telescope just seems so much better than binoculars if you know what i meen, sounds daft but thats me.

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

Have you read Sky and Telescope's "Choosing your first Telescope" feature?

www.skyandtelescope.com...

Probably a better place to start than others.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Thank you for the link, it was a very interesting read.

So im leaning towards the celestron telescope for now, thank you again to everybody who has posted, its been a massive help.