How to buy the right telescope for £300?
I am willing to spend £300 (or slightly more if i am getting value for my money) on a good telescope. I was trying to find one by myself but i dont know what size the lens has to be or anything like that for it to be a good telescope. When you recommend telescopes please state the statistics and tell me what kind of things i would expect to see like saturn, venus, jupiter or even the andromeda galaxy (i know you can see it without a telescope but it would be much appreciated if you would explain how much detail i would expect to see these in.
Thank you so much.
Well, …, That’s great news! You’ll find that astronomy is a really rewarding pursuit. Buying a scope can be a very personal and gratifying decision or it can be one fraught frustration and disappointment. Your local astronomy club has no loyalty to any brand of scope but we will be happy to give you some advice with respect to scope selection.
1) To Start, Let me suggest first that you read the article wrt to scope ownership: http://www.raleighastro.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=180
2) You may wish to go out to one of your local club’s observing sessions and talk to some of the club members about their scopes and try looking through a few of them. Most astronomy club members are very friendly and will be more than happy to give you all kinds of tips on the pros and cons of scope ownership.
3) Joining your local astronomy club is an excellent way to learn about astronomy, whether you own a scope or not. In fact our club recommends that you don’t buy a scope until you have an opportunity to see some of the scopes that our club members own.
4) One of the benefits of joining your local astronomy club is that, as a paid member, you can participate in the club’s telescope loaner program for free. Not all clubs offer this service so check with your club first. In the case of our club we will actually lone you a decent working telescope for 3 – 6 months so that you can get a real opportunity to "try before you buy". Now, we do not sell telescopes or make profits from the sale of telescopes. However, if you doesn’t offer such a program they can still help you with locate a reputable manufacturer who will sell you one.
5) Once you acquire a telescope your local astronomy club will help you (at your request) learn to use the scope. Many clubs offer free periodic telescope tuneup clinics, as well as, lots of free personal advice on telescope operation and observing techniques.
6) Finally, if after all this you still want to buy a telescope before talking with club members, let me suggest that you do the following (my personal opinion):
6.1) Only buy a scope from a telescope manufacturer or dealer whose primary business is the sale of telescopes.
6.2) Do not buy a scope from a department store, ebay, or warehouse chain (most of these scopes are trash and will not hold up and will perform poorly)
6.3) Do not buy a "goto" or "equatorial" mounted scope. They look cool and promise to do great things but they are very frustrating to setup and operate.
6.4) Do not buy a scope with less than a 6" mirror in it. 6" is the minimum size needed to observe (in detail) deep sky objects.
6.5) Do not by scopes that feature 400X or "super" powers of magnification. Magnification has very little to so with observing. Rather the ability to gather light through a large opening (or aperture) of the primary objective (e.g. 6" mirror) bears more infulence on what you can see through a telescope than than does magnification.
6.6) Look at a few of the following links for some suggested scope examples:
http://www.telescope.com/control/dobsonians/classic-dobsonian-telescopes
http://www.telescope.com/control/dobsonians/intelliscope-dobsonian-telescopes
6.7) Finally, feel free to ask us any question you may have about purchasing a telescope, telescope ownership, or astronomy.
6.8) You really want something that’s easy to transport, simple to setup, and easy to operate. This is why we suggest a 6" to 8" donsonian style scope as a first scope. They are simple to use, easy to transport, and can be setup in a matter of seconds.
I notice you’re in the UK and you should be able to buy a decent dobsoninan 6" to 8" scope int he £300 range. See the last link below for a UK company that sells a 6" and 8" dobsonian scopes in your proce range.
Most people that I konw had a reflector type of telescope, that’s because of aperture size(big bang for the pounds or buck.), but don’t be caught on Aperture Fever.For 300 pounds,you can purchase a decent xt8 scope from Oriontelescope with 203mm aperture, you can vividly see saturn,jupiter,mars.venus,mercury, and many others if you know your constellations.
References :
Well, …, That’s great news! You’ll find that astronomy is a really rewarding pursuit. Buying a scope can be a very personal and gratifying decision or it can be one fraught frustration and disappointment. Your local astronomy club has no loyalty to any brand of scope but we will be happy to give you some advice with respect to scope selection.
1) To Start, Let me suggest first that you read the article wrt to scope ownership: http://www.raleighastro.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=180
2) You may wish to go out to one of your local club’s observing sessions and talk to some of the club members about their scopes and try looking through a few of them. Most astronomy club members are very friendly and will be more than happy to give you all kinds of tips on the pros and cons of scope ownership.
3) Joining your local astronomy club is an excellent way to learn about astronomy, whether you own a scope or not. In fact our club recommends that you don’t buy a scope until you have an opportunity to see some of the scopes that our club members own.
4) One of the benefits of joining your local astronomy club is that, as a paid member, you can participate in the club’s telescope loaner program for free. Not all clubs offer this service so check with your club first. In the case of our club we will actually lone you a decent working telescope for 3 – 6 months so that you can get a real opportunity to "try before you buy". Now, we do not sell telescopes or make profits from the sale of telescopes. However, if you doesn’t offer such a program they can still help you with locate a reputable manufacturer who will sell you one.
5) Once you acquire a telescope your local astronomy club will help you (at your request) learn to use the scope. Many clubs offer free periodic telescope tuneup clinics, as well as, lots of free personal advice on telescope operation and observing techniques.
6) Finally, if after all this you still want to buy a telescope before talking with club members, let me suggest that you do the following (my personal opinion):
6.1) Only buy a scope from a telescope manufacturer or dealer whose primary business is the sale of telescopes.
6.2) Do not buy a scope from a department store, ebay, or warehouse chain (most of these scopes are trash and will not hold up and will perform poorly)
6.3) Do not buy a "goto" or "equatorial" mounted scope. They look cool and promise to do great things but they are very frustrating to setup and operate.
6.4) Do not buy a scope with less than a 6" mirror in it. 6" is the minimum size needed to observe (in detail) deep sky objects.
6.5) Do not by scopes that feature 400X or "super" powers of magnification. Magnification has very little to so with observing. Rather the ability to gather light through a large opening (or aperture) of the primary objective (e.g. 6" mirror) bears more infulence on what you can see through a telescope than than does magnification.
6.6) Look at a few of the following links for some suggested scope examples:
http://www.telescope.com/control/dobsonians/classic-dobsonian-telescopes
http://www.telescope.com/control/dobsonians/intelliscope-dobsonian-telescopes
6.7) Finally, feel free to ask us any question you may have about purchasing a telescope, telescope ownership, or astronomy.
6.8) You really want something that’s easy to transport, simple to setup, and easy to operate. This is why we suggest a 6" to 8" donsonian style scope as a first scope. They are simple to use, easy to transport, and can be setup in a matter of seconds.
I notice you’re in the UK and you should be able to buy a decent dobsoninan 6" to 8" scope int he £300 range. See the last link below for a UK company that sells a 6" and 8" dobsonian scopes in your proce range.
References :
http://www.raleighastro.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=180
http://www.telescope.com/control/dobsonians/classic-dobsonian-telescopes
http://www.telescope.com/control/dobsonians/intelliscope-dobsonian-telescopes
http://www.telescopes.com/telescopes/dobsonian-telescopes/8197+8198+8209.cfm
http://www.green-witch.com/acatalog/Dobsonian_Range.html
Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner’s telescopes:
http://www.gaherty.ca/tme/TME0702_Buying_a_Telescope.pdf
http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html
http://observers.org/beginner/j.r.f.beginner.html
For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington’s Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley).
You’ll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these:
http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=telescopes/~VIEW_INDEX=0/~VIEW_SIZE=1000000
http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product.php?class1=1&class2=106
Buy from a store which specializes in telescopes and astronomy, either locally or online; don’t buy from department stores, discount stores or eBay as mostly what they sell is junk. Find your local astronomy club and try out different telescopes at one of their star parties:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations
I strongly recommend that beginners steer clear of astrophotography until they have learned their way around the sky. Astrophotography is by far the most expensive and difficult area of amateur astronomy.
Many people who buy telescopes have no idea how to find interesting things to observe. A good introduction to finding things is NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly). A more advanced book is Star Watch by Phil Harrington (Wiley).
References :