Reflector brands - what's good and what's not?

[Smee]

Hi there,
I am going to buy my husband a telescope for Christmas. The price range is tight, too tight for a dobsonian (I'd probably wait and keep an eye on the classifieds here, but being a present it's time-sensitive too), and I'm mostly looking at reflectors with 700-900mm focal lengths.

What I'd like to know is which brands are good and which to avoid... there seems to be a lot of Celestron about, are they ok? What about Saxon, Tasco or Bushmaster?
ETA: Skywatcher?

It would not be used for land viewing (or not very often, anyway). We live in the country, so not a lot of light pollution, if that makes any difference to which one to buy.

Also, which is more important, the focal length or the lens size?


:thanx:

[Robh]

I own a Meade dob and a Skywatcher refractor which are both great. People I know use Meade, Skywatcher or Celestron scopes and are mostly satisfied. Can't comment on the other brands you mentioned.
There could be nasty scopes in any brand at the cheaper end.

I would go for a larger mirror to collect more light. This will show you fainter objects and improve resolution. The cheaper scopes tend to have flimsy mounts which are a pest as they vibrate a lot more when focusing and in a breeze. Also, equatorial mounts are difficult for the beginner. Small finders (25mm) are next to useless. You are better off with a red dot finder.

Dobs are steadier due to their sturdy bases. They are best value for your money as far as aperture size. As a point of reference, BINTEL has a Skywatcher 6 inch (~150 mm) dob for $379 with binoculars thrown in.

Regards, Rob

[Jeeps]

x2, the Skywatcher dob for less than $400 would be the best choice in your budget.

[GeoffW1]

Hi Smee,

I'm going to add a few qualifiers to the above. You will get the most telescope for the money in a dobsonian, like

http://www.myastroshop.com.au/products/details.asp?id=MAS-041A

however this type of scope must be "collimated", or optically aligned, for best results, every few times it is moved around. This can be accomplished with a few simple tricks, but it means that you cannot strictly just grab the scope and start viewing.

If your husband is a DIY type and does not mind adjusting and fiddling a bit, this will be OK. If in your judgement what is required is a scope which can be more or less just set down and used, then maybe this type is better:

http://www.myastroshop.com.au/products/details.asp?id=MAS-042D

It is a type which needs minimum adjustment, just pointing and focusing.

There are cheaper types from Dick smith, Woolies etc, but there you are running a risk. Some of them even have plastic lenses :eyepop:

Cheers

[NorthernLight]

Hi Smee,

the experience with my wife and some friends has shown me that most people really expect too much from a telescope, even from a moderate one (my wife found the orion nebula through a 300mm (12") F5 Newton disappointing as it still was just a grey fog with 4 stars in the middle-Otone).
What (non astro-hooked) people expect are stunning views as presented in pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. And when they then look through cheap glass (no ED or FLT elements) in a 80mm (3") F5 refractor and the only thing they can make out after 10min roaming the sky is just more stars - of course they are disappointed.

My advice: if you have a tight budget-go for a Newton-style telescope with no less than 6" of aperture (diameter of mirror) on a Dobsonian-style mount. Everything else will disappoint, sooner rather than later. Or you might as well abandon the idea at all until such time a bigger budget has accumulated.

For an enjoyable telescope experience you will also need a laser collimator, eyepieces and a barlow lens to be able to change magnification. Again, cheap glass doesn´t satisfy for long as it lacks contrast and gives only very narrow fields of view (looking into a tunnel). A medium good eypiece alone costs around ($60-130), a very good eyepiece costs around $200-400 (82°FOV) an awesome one as much as $1k (110°FOV).

The other thing to consider is that Astronomy is highly adictive and like most adictions VERY expensive over time. Look at the signatures of the people here in this forum, most of them own more than one telescope and a large number went into Astrophotography, a level at which you stop talking in hundreds of $. A question you have to ask yourself is: do you really want to get your husband hooked?

[Smee]

Thanks everybody =)
After stalking here a little longer I discovered the Andrews website (aha! what a find!) and ended up going with a Skywatcher refractor. Now I just need to find a good book and/or star chart to go with it...

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Hi Smee,
Philips publishing offers a beginners guide called a Stargazers Pack that contains a sky chart, a moon map, a planisphere (A device for locating oblects throughout the year), and a couple of useful little books on abserving and telescopes. Its around $20-30, from memory.
There are also a number of good books around like "A walk through the southern sky", "The southern sky guide" and of course, "Astronomy Australia - 2011" - a guide to what's happening here month-by-month.
Most or all of these should be available at Bintel (www.bintelshop.com.au (http://www.bintelshop.com.au)) or Border's.
Good luck and Merry Christmas,
Peter

[batema]

Hi,
I find this a useful site for downloading monthly skymaps and it also has a summary on page 2 of what is in the sky at that moment that can be seen with the eyes, binoculars and a scope.

http://www.skymaps.com/skymaps/tesms1012.pdf

Also you can download for free Stellarium and Cartes du ciel which will show you the night sky for your location.

Have fun.

Mark

[PCH]

Hi Smee,

can u tell us what model you bought ? Just out of interest :)

[Michelle]

I have a Startracker 127mm reflector on a GEM mount. It came with two eye-pieces -a H20mm Erect Image (50x) and H12mm (83x).

Is this a good telescope? I'm a complete beginner.

[Stinger346]

Hi Michelle, I also have one of these and so far it seems ok (I got it for xmas) it is a lot better than a tasco I had years ago which I broke. The GEM mount will make it easier to find what you're looking for by co-ordinates once polar alignment has been done....i am still yet to do this. The only thing I dont really like about this scope is the red dot view finder, but otherwise for general viewing it should be ok.
Cheers,
Ray

[Michelle]

Yeah, hate it already and don't use it. Is there something more useful i can buy? Of course I still have to learn how to use this thing first, but my red dot thingy seems all loose and wobbly even though it's all tight.

Hey, let me know how you went setting it up as I'm having trouble. Probably got the scope in backwards :P

[Stinger346]

Hi Michelle, a viewfinder with crosshairs is the go and shouldn't be too hard to find, ebay perhaps?. My red dot finder is loose as well and I don't see any way of overcoming this problem. Like you I'm a beginner, well restarting after quite a few years away from a telescope. I came across quite a good program called "Stellarium" for getting an idea of where things are and where to look. http://www.stellarium.org/ It's easy to use and you can see exactly whats up there at any given time.
Hope this helps you a bit.
Cheers,
Ray

[FlashDrive]

Well said Max......:thumbsup: ....about getting HOOKED...!!!!