Seben telescopes

[hickny (Peter)]

Hi. Does anybody know anything about Seben telescopes? There are several available on ebay Australia.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

dont know them but a general rule of thumb -ebay is not the best place to buy a telescope

you are much better of buying a 6 inch or even better an 8 inch dob from Andrews or if you dont want to spend that much when you are starting out-a perfectly legitimate reservation-consider a 10 x70 or similar pair of binos from Andrews or AOE

you will never regret such a purchase even if you upgrade later..cant say the same for an ebay telescope though

[Ric]

Hi Hickny, I aggree with Seeker's advice, I have never heard of them before now and would be researching the name and the optical quality before bidding.
I would definitely be ringing the astroshops around Sydney and discussing them and other option with people in the know.

cheers

[acropolite (Phil)]

I'm with the others, ebay is not a place to buy Telescopes, take a visit to Bintel and Andrews communications in Sydney and have a look at what they have to offer.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

hickny!

I've been seeing lots of "seben" labelled stuff on ebay. Accessories all look like the cheapest of Chinese gear and scopes don't look much better either: poorly outfitted optical tubes on flimsy weak mounts and toothpick leg tripods. ie, typical first live-and-learn scope one buys before buying a real usable scope. You would have very hard time selling it at any price on this site. You could probably give them away to people with a bit of know-how who would chuck the tripod and mount and make something out of the OTA.

Without knowing what exactly you are after, the general recommendation is to go for an 8 or 10-inch Dobsonian. Don't be fooled by the basic appearance of the Dob mount. It is very capable and a lot more useful than any "scientific" looking EQ mount you get with considerably more expensive scopes.

You have lots of options in competitively priced (by worldwide standards!) good quality telescopes: Andrews, Bintel, Myastroshop just to name a few. If you are just starting out and know little about telescopes I'd say go with Bintel.

[nightsky]

G'Day
I agree with all comments, they have lots of scopes on ebay with free shipping to Australia, the old saying "If it sounds to good to be true" it ain't

[astro_nutt]

Here's another one.."see and try, before you buy!!

[ving (David)]

hi hickny,

you been looking at those little 90mm maks on ebay? not sure what they are like, they might be ok or they might not... i looked into them once and found one or t reviews. one said ok the other shoddy. for the price you pay for that tho you could (as others have said) get a bigger and better scope. I personally can vouch for the 8 inch (203mm) dobsonian. it will show you a stack more stuff than a little 90mm

good luck with your choice!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

ebay>telescope NNNoooooooo!!!!!!!

You may......just may....pick up a good genuine private sale there once in a blue moon. I know someone who did.....true. Also people from here have sold good gear on ebay, but usually only after it hasn't sold here.

So think about it this way. If someone was selling a telescope that they had been using, and knew about astronomy, where would they sell it? I reacon it would be somewhere like here or or some other astronomy forum/sales site where other reputable astronomy gear would be sold. So if you are looking for second hand astronomy gear, check out an astronomy site. If looking for new stuff go with the flow as suggested above. You will save yourself heartache and anguish and angst and really enjoy the hobby.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Hi Hickny,
You've done the right thing asking for advise.
I bought my first scope off Ebay. Not a good experience.
Don't be drawn in when they say Huge or Professional telescope. Most of them have apetures of only 114mm which is ok if you are buying it for your 8yr old, useless for any serious observing. You will get better views from a pair of 10x50 binos.