Beginner setup < $500?

[nimrod77]

Hi all,
I'm looking for a beginners Telescope for my son and I to do some star gazing. He is mad keen on all things space at the moment and I would like to keep him interested but don't want to spend thousands. I have seen these Guan Sheng GS-680 8" dobs at Andrews (http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-content-section-10-guansheng.htm) for $400 and I am thinking that they might be the way to go. If I went with a Dob, could I take this out into a field some where and use it or should I go with a tripod? I'm open to suggestions and bribery if a better option exists for my $500 limit.
Any help would be great!:thanx:

[takdriver]

Great choice:)

[that_guy]

buy second hand from iis classified, save yourself some penny and buy a decent pair of binos. You'll never look back :thumbsup:

[yusufcam]

it looks like, after culling the menagerie of scopes i've collected, that it will get wittled down to two, both of which i got second hand from here.

so i would tend to agree with that...

[BB]

A dob is a great 1st scope, I have been extremely please with my 10" Meade Light Bridge it has given me many nights under the stars even thought im about to sell it and upgrade :). A dob really makes you learn the sky so a good star chart is essential or there are some great apps on ipod and iphone. I use Sky Safari by southern stars and it is brilliant.

[yusufcam]

all things being equal that is the best advice...

but if you live in a flat or have to move your scope around a lot then portability becomes an issue

[nimrod77]

Thanks for the input guys! I have been looking on the for sale forums but I can't find anything much on there at the moment within my budget. The GSO setup looks pretty tempting.

Yusufcam, would an 8" dob be to hard to move around?

[yusufcam]

with the forums you need a bit of patience, but 8" dobs come up pretty regularly.. (mine might end up there soon)

as a rough guide i would say 8" is about as big as you would want a teenager to handle, 10" for a single adult and then they become a bit unweildly.

many people who have backyards put dobs on carts and wheel them around.

often depends where you will end up doing your observing and if a single person will set it up.

i use my refractors a lot more than the dob because of having to negotiate the stairs and hallways even though the views are much better in the dob.

if you have a backyard and your son is able to move it around then the dob would be the way to go.

good luck

[that_guy]

personally, ive owned an 8 and a 10. being a teenager myself, its pretty darn easy to lift the tube seperately from the lazy susan mount. and me, i dont excercise if my life depended on it :P

[nimrod77]

I rang Andrews today and found out that there GSO 8" dons will be back in stock by the end of the week. While I am waiting I am wondering if a refracting scope might be good too? Are these not as good as a Newtonian dob or just different? Keeping in mind that we are wanting to look at the planets, stars and perhaps some DSO's down the track. Would a bosma 102x1000 mm redractor be any good?
Thanks for all the input guys!

[M54]

Hi Nathan,

:welcome: to IIS.

Regarding the Bosma refractor, are you aware that the price doesn't include the mount? The mount is an optional extra.

Personally I wouldn't buy an equatorial mount that wasn't a goto.
I had one and it was a pain in the proverbial to use.

I made a dob mount for my scope and it is the best thing I ever did. A dream to use compared to what I used to go through during an observing session.

The 8" dob. is an excellent choice to start with and within your budget.
I would go with that, if it were me. :)

[ausastronomer]

Forget about a 4" refractor. 30 years ago a 4" refractor was an excellent visual instrument for an amateur astronomer. Today as a visual instrument a 4" refractor is barely more than a toy. A 4" refractor is an excellent astrophotography tool.

You got it right with your first choice, an 8" dob.

Cheers,
John B