[Chantal (Chantal)]

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking at buying a telescope as a family Christmas present. I have 3 children aged 10, 7 & 5 and myself and my husband who would all be using the telescope (hopefully)! We've never owned a telescope before but the kids have always shown an interest. After a recent trip away where my husband and I were lucky enough to view the moon through a telescope we thought it would be great to get one for the family to enjoy. We live in Erina, Central Coast NSW Australia.

I've been doing ALOT of research and quite frankly think I've complicated the whole process now lol. After speaking to a couple of telescope shops, I think I've narrowed the choice down to either the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130 Dobsonian $239 (lowest sale price I have found) or the 102mm Meade Infinity Refractor - $409

Dobsonian Telescope - SkyWatcher Heritage P130 Telescope | OZScopes
Meade Infinity 102mm Altazimuth Refractor Telescope 209006 | OZScopes

I was just wondering what you thought of these two telescopes and any advice you could give me?

Some other things to note:

1. We need the telescope to be stable (3 children all wanting to have a look, say no more....)
2. We will be using the telescope mainly from our backyard (at least to start off with)
3. We do go camping so would like it to be portable so we could take with us
4. Quick and easy to set up and use - there won't be a lot of patience waiting to get a look at the night sky lol
5. I'm not sure what we would like to look at yet besides the obvious planets and the moon, its a new exciting adventure. I know people talk about "deep space" but have to admit that it's hard to know whether we need to have a telescope that is going to show us that when I don't really know what there is to look at. I have seen some pictures and it does look amazing!!

I must admit, I am also a little bit nervous and scared about collimation and that did steer me away from the dob a bit and the fact that I had read it needs 15 to 20 mins to cool down before using?

I think that's it - just reading through it seems like I'm asking for everything lol. Oh well, any advice GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you,
Chantal