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Old 26-08-2012, 01:57 PM
brian nordstrom (As avatar)
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brian nordstrom is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Perth WA
Posts: 4,374
Hi Sara and welcome . On the scope ,,,well a little bit of education wont go amiss , I think , so here goes ,
The mount and tripod ( the bits the tube sit on ) are more important than the telescope as a whole , and the mount that this scope sits on is called an eq1 mount.
It is way to small for a tube of this size , lenght and weight and the wobbles will drive any aspirations you and your sister have away very fast sorry to say , eg.here so if the telescope is viewing , say the moom at 50x and small vibrations , wobbles that happen when you focus or even touch the scope are also magnified 50x and it gets way worse as magnification increases , sorry to say but the telescope is woefully under mounted .
The optics in these scopes ore usually good to very good , so in my opionion get a 150mm Dobsonion mounted scope from here at $419 or the 5 inch heritage at $399, both will be a joy to use , not an exersise in frustration that the 114mm will turn out to be , sorry to be blunt but I have seen so many aspiring astromoners put off for life because of the poor mechanics on this type of scope ( we call them Departement store scopes ) , shame really as , as I said optically they are good .
Google ," Bintel " and "Andrews Communations " and look at their prices of 150mm Dobsonion mounted telescopes as well .
I am sure every member here will tell you the same thing .
One more thing equatorial mounted scopes ( like the 114mm's mount ) are a steep learning curve and can add to more frustrations if you are not taught how they are to be set up for work .
A Dob is easy , just plonk it down , put in an eyepiece and away you go .
Sorry , I dont want to put you off , save your money and for a little more you will get a scope thats easy to use and will last years ,, before 'Apateure fever' sets in ( thats another story ) Good luck and please keep us informed . .
Brian.
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