Good deal?

[tryagain]

Just starting to look into getting a telescope predominately for the kids but will probably use it a little for myself as well, just looking for a cheapie to see if it will be used and spending up to $200ish but if I can find something suitable or used for cheaper then I would be more than happy.
Came across this one on gumtree but as I have only just started looking I dont really know what I am looking at.

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/nerang/miscellaneous-goods/altazimuth-telescope-700mm/1052770968

Its cheap but is that because its nasty?

Mod, If this should be in the beginners equip section feel free to move it

[doppler]

Keep looking, too cheap / small aperture and it won't be interesting enough to be used.

[MortonH]

Do you already own a decent camera tripod by any chance? Or do you need a tripod/mount as well as the scope?

[tryagain]

Thanks, thought that would be the case



No tripod, need everything, time to do a bit of research I guess

[doppler]

Sometimes it pays to spend a bit more and then if it doesn't get used there is still a good resale value. Lots of cheap stuff out there because it has no resale value.

[MortonH]

The absolute best value in astronomy is a Dobsonian reflector. They're cheap and their solid wooden base is much more stable than the wobbly tripods you get with other designs.

I suggest going for something like this model:

http://www.bintel.com.au/Telescopes/Dobsonian/Bintel-BT152-Dobsonian/1728/productview.aspx

These are $349 new so should be around $200 used.

[Allan_L]

Hi Tim,
Welcome to IceInSpace :welcome:,
Best advice I can give, and to save your dollars, is to go to a local observing session near you.

There you can look through some scopes and see if your (kids') interest is stirred.
Also get some idea of what you get for your money.

All the best

[barx1963]

At the $40 price it said it would probably have one use, to teach someone not to buy cheap scopes!
At 76mm aperture it will not show much, just the moon, the rings of Saturn will be visible and some bands on Jupiter. For deep sky, only the brighter objects and not much detail in those! Only good thing I can say about these little 76mm altaz scopes for beginners is that at least they are not on an EQ mount.

Save your cash and wait for a good second hand 8" dob to come up for sale or get a brand new one.

Cheers ( Oh and welcome to IIS BTW!!)

Malcolm

[Renato1]

I owned one of those once, for about 24 hours.

Providing it's collimated correctly, you can get nice views of the brighter planets and the moon. But it probably has a lousy finder, and that mount will be difficult to use on anything else. I suspect you'll have a tough time with it - but then again, $40 is only the price of a bottle of Scotch.

Maybe try knock him down $10.
Regards,
Renato

[jeff.cotter]

No brand given; probably nasty.

[tryagain]

Any thoughts on this one, I think I would be able to solve the lack of tripod issue.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=123720