buying a reflector

[jmnoo]

I'm thinking of buying a reflector telescope from Australian Geographic (their own brand) 130mmx900mm. Is this telescope a good one to buy

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi jmnoo, welcome to IIS!

How much are they selling it for? What type of mount is it on?

Generally the recommendation would be to avoid those type of scopes sold in department stores or non-telescope shops.

Reasons can include:
- Over priced
- No pre or post sales support (they'll only tell you what they know, which in most cases of young sales people, is usually not much)
- Bad telescope design (eg: newtonians with a built in barlow)
- Small, wobbly mounts

Tell us what your budget is, and what you'd like to do with the scope.. eg: astrophotography or purely visual observing? deep space or planets?
How portable do you need it to be? Will you always observe from home or will you take it on road trips? What's your light pollution like?

Keep asking questions, and you've made the right first step - asking for advice before rushing out and buying something you'll regret!

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

You will get much better value for money and a much more usable scope if you buy from a proper telescope shop, eg Bintel. In QLD Sirius Optics, Star Optics and Frontier Optics spring to mind...

[browndog (Ian)]

Hi jmnoo

I purchased the Aust Geographic 150mmx900mm as a Christmas present for my kids last year. It was adequate... but in hindsight I should of done some more research and purchased something else. After a few months of frustration of not being able to see what I wanted, or use it for astrophotography I ended up purchasing another telescope within 6 months.

It was an OK present for the kids - but an even better one for me as I was now "hooked" on this astro-stuff . It can be addictive...

I think that you should have a look at the other types of brands that are available. Some great Oz websites for online shopping (or window-shopping) are:
Andrews - http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-section-10.htm
Bintel - https://www.bintelshop.com.au/welcome.htm
MyAstroShop - http://www.myastroshop.com.au/

There are plenty of other great shops out there.... so don't just try this list.

[jmnoo]

thanks to all who replied its food for thought alright

[Starkler (Geoff)]

I have read that the standard 130x900 does NOT have a parabolic mirror, and at such an f-ratio it will have an impact on performance.

[PCH (Paul)]

Be sure you're happy with the price. When I was hunting for my first scope, I checked the price of one of their Nexstar models and it was several hundred dollars dearer than it was from the regular online dealers. I'd avoid department store brands as you have no way of quantifying or qualifying them.

Cheers,
Paul

[snug]

Hi Jmnoo

I only bought my scope last week, but as any one i bought would be a $outlay. I just kept coming back here and asking questions after questions. Everyone here is brilliant with advice. I also kept coming back to this chart. http://www.howtopickatelescope.com/suitable_for.htm.

Icemans questions are extremely relevant as you need to pin down for yourself, your expectaions, budget etc ...so you dont end up disappointed with a scope gathering dust in the corner...as ive read here the scope you use the most-is the one best for you..I also wrote lots of lists to compare scopes,..till i found the one that worked for me..oh also big welcome from one newbie to another

Snug
Ps...and keep asking questions...smile

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

Hi jmnoo - unless you are planning to do some astro photography in the near future I'd recommend the 6" dob for $299 at Andrews I must admit.

That's nearly an extra inch of aperture, or more precisely 133% surface area of the primary mirror by comparison. That's a definite parabolic shaped mirror too whereas the 130mm is an unknown on that point. The scope is also mounted on a very solid and usable base, at an excellent price.

You didn't mention how much the Aus geographic scope would cost, and as they have now removed the online store section from their website I can't get any info on it, but if you were planning to spend $450 or more why not option up to the 8" dob anyway! That will give you a total of 236% mirror area as compared to the 130mm.

These are suggestions only, and as I said above if you want to get into astro photography soon you'll probably want a different type of mount (ie an Equatorial tripod type mount) and a whole bunch more money to spend.

Keep asking the questions, and whichever way you end up going always have fun with it all!

[ColHut (Colin)]

G'day

Jmnoo,

Noooo Don't do it! They are right! You can do much better. I bought one from there. At 50% off it still was not really a good buy. Read some of the telescope reviews here too.

cheers

Wol

[rmcpb (Rob)]

If you are after a good first scope with PLENTY of scope for expansion into astrophotography or visual then look at an 8" dob first up. You can use it as a dob and later get an EQ mount if the photography bug starts biting. If you want to stay at visual but want tracking then you can get an equatorial platform.

Best of all worlds for a beginning

BTW welcome to IIS.

[jmnoo]

Silly me I went ahead and bought it $314 and i cant see a darn thing with it I,m pretty sure I set it up right but the instructions were mediocre to say the least. I virtually had to get their(Aust. Geographic ) as no one else seem to have them in town.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Oh well, you can't say you weren't warned!

Originally Posted by jmnoo

I virtually had to get their(Aust. Geographic ) as no one else seem to have them in town.

Many (possibly most) of us get them delivered. Not all of us live near a telescope dealer.

[iceman (Mike)]

Ken is right - there are hundreds of members here that have ordered their scopes over the phone/internet and had them delivered. It's really not that risky - the reputable vendors do this day in and day out and have insurance on the delivery, and of course you'd get a warranty if it arrived broken.

I'd say a large percentage (50-70%) of gear that ALL forum members buy here is through mail order. It's not often that we get to drive into Bintel for example and pick up what we want.

It's unfortunate you bought it, but you may as well try and make the most out of it now. Take some pictures of it for us so we can see how yuo've assembled it and what it looks like. I'm sure we can help you get the most out of it.

[KG8]

just take it back and tell them your baby nearly choked on an eye-piece and that it is dangerous. No one argues when it comes to babies safety.

[jmnoo]

thanks to all for their responses i now have a celestron astromaster 130eq have i done good

[PCH (Paul)]

Hi jmnoo,

Well done Did you take the Aust Geo scope back? What tale did you tell them ?

Cheers,
Paul

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

I wish I had consulted you guys before I bought my first 150 reflector from ebay, it turned out to be the kind with the built in barlow/corrector and has I think a spherical primary. (Not even glass, a coated fibreglass disk) Darn near impossible to collimate properly. Beware of scopes specified as 700/1400 focal length. 2 months later I purchased a 150/750 Andrews OTA which is much better but a bit too heavy for the mount. Just waiting for an EQ5 to be delivered. Asking for some advice would have saved a lot of cash and frustration.

[jmnoo]

Hi Paul, I just told them i wasn,t happy with it and they gladly replaced it with the celestron.Though I'll have to buy a 2x barlow sometime in the future once i get the hang of it cheers John

[g__day (Matthew)]

Personally I think Andrews Comms have the best low price, high value gear - particularly 80 * 20 triplet binoculars for around $200, and ED 80 mm refractors or 70 mm spotting scopes.

Andrews MC70860 Now $99.00 AUD

This compact spotting Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope is complete with tabletop steel tripod legs and slow motion controls.
Includes a 32mm focal length screw-in Plossl eyepiece.
Comfortable 45 degree angle viewing.
Good for both terrestrial and astronomical usage.
Includes a nice carry case, too!
Aperture is 70mm aperture. Focal length is 860mm


Used and surplus stock

Synta/Skywatcher EQ6 mount/tripod hand controller (not Go-To) $799.00 Synta/Skywatcher 70mm x 900mm OTA ONLY! (no mount/tripod) NEW! $149.00