End of Year sales?

Shikatanai · #1 29-12-2008, 12:53 PM

Hi all

First post - Not sure whether to put this in Beginner or the Wanted/for Sale forum?

I’m thinking of buying my first telescope and have decided on a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?ProdID=429 from Australian Geographic. Until Jan 1st they have a sale on – everything in store is 20% off, and then sale items like the 130EQ is another 20% meaning instead of paying $449.00 I’ll be able to get it for about $290.00 (Effectively it’s about 36% off RRP).

I’m mainly interested in viewing planets in the solar system and maybe the occasional bright DSO. I might also dabble in astrophotography, so having the option to do this is nice, but it’s not a main priority.

I decided on this scope due to price/performance (only at this sale price that is) & portability. I’ll mainly be using it when going camping, so space in the car is a big issue. Plus I don’t want it to take up a lot of room in the house in between trips. Also even at $290 it’s a stretch of the budget. From reading other threads a 6” Dob would give much better viewing but it fails on the size & price constraints. I was actually going to go for the Astromaster 70 refractor for $191.00 but figured stretching $100 to the reflector would be worth it.

My question is – has anyone seen any other sales on at the moment with similar End of Year Sales discounts? I’d rather buy from a specialist than from Aust Geo because I’d think after sales service would be better, plus I’d like to support small stores.

I’ve checked Yorkoptical, Andrews, AOE, Ozscopes and Bintel and haven’t seen any similar discounts on similar scopes, but sometimes websites are slow to be updated, as opposed to ads in papers etc?

Cheers

PCH (Paul) · #2 29-12-2008, 02:35 PM

Hi,

and welcome to IIS.

Firstly, many on this forum would advise beginners to avoid the Aust Geo and Department Stores as a source of purchasing. You can get great deals and a whole lot better after sales service from the various specialist stores that you've mentioned. As an example, I believe York Optical is currently offering IIS members 20% off their indicated price, which may mean some options look attractive to you.

But with regards to the scope you've mentioned, the tripod/mount looks like it might be a 'wobbletronic', and certainly would not be capable of even holding/driving, let alone steadily, the various pieces you'll need it to hold for astrophotography. For this reason, if AP is important to you down the track, I'd look for a better scope.

Unfortunately, if you want to get into AP, the costs will mount quite significantly as you go on. But I'm sure most here would agree that a great starting point just for the mount, would be an HEQ5 or EQ6 from the specialists you've mentioned. But you're already up to about $1500 to $1700 there without anything else.

For my money, and what I've done in fact, is commit to visual astronomy at first, and then if you're sure you like all the associated stuff that astronomy entails, like being out at night, going to dark sky sites etc etc, then you might want to consider AP and the extra cost.

For the money you seem to want to spend, you will not get a great scope. But you will get a very reasonable pair of giant binoculars from Andrews/Bintel/AOE etc. Why not consider this as an option. And also a stand, as you won't be able to hold them steady for more than a few seconds

That will set you back about $400, and you'll then own a very decent setup which will serve you well into the future.

Many of us here use binocs, which we probably bought first, as part of our ongoing ways of browsing the heavens.

Just my thoughts though, - wait a couple more hours and you'll have a chance to hear what others think.

Cheers

bmitchell82 (Brendan) · #3 29-12-2008, 03:25 PM

hello and welcome to IIS,

a good suggestion for you, use the search feature to look at past posts, pretty much all of the questions you have will be answered here.

Like PCH has said, for your price bracket you will not find anything that is worth its pinch of salt. though Binos will serve you well.! And alot of the more seasoned amatures use binos for scouting out a area before looking though a straw (telescope).

Good luck

Brendan

Shikatanai · #4 29-12-2008, 08:54 PM

Cheers for the replies guys

I was keen on getting the 130EQ as I was thinking that even though it's a Dept store telescope, at $290 down from $449 it looks like a good deal? I've googled some reviews and they looked positive...

The mount is an steel EQ2 and it looked fairly sturdy in the shop, but I'll take your word on it looking wobbly as I'm sure you have a better eye for this than me!

I'd thought about going binoculars but thought the telescope's 5 inch aperture would give much better than a similarly priced <$300 binos.

Unfortunately I don't have any capacity to spend any more than $290, as that's my upper limit already. I had only planned to spend less than $200. I've had a look at the other sites and can't see any end of year deals - was thinking that they might have in store discounts that I might not be aware of?

Screwdriverone (Chris) · #5 29-12-2008, 09:16 PM

Hi Shikatanai,

I agree with Brendan, for $300 you could get some seriously good binoculars that whilst they wont get near most DSO's, will give better views than a 5" scope and will probably be with you for life.

As for a 5" scope for $290, I bought a similar EQ2 mounted Skywatcher SW135 and while its not a bad scope, it cost me $469 and the moment I bought it, I wished I had bought a dobsonian.

So, my advice is, if you are wanting to get into Astrophotography in the future, buy a Dobsonian 8" or 10" and then you can rip the tube off the base and mount it on an EQ5-6 Pro later on and then you will have two scopes for the money (one dob and one EQ mounted AP scope)

Save the money up for later and do this, rather than blow $300 on a scope that will be past its use by date for you in about 3-6 months from now. Better still, buy some 20x80 binoculars and enjoy the views.

My 2.5c worth.

Chris.

bmitchell82 (Brendan) · #6 30-12-2008, 12:38 AM

If you are positive to go and buy a sale item then do so. We have tried to steer people away from these department. to enter into telescopes save your money and get a small dobsonian. 6-8" minimum. anything less and you might as well get a coke bottle and look though it.

thats why we suggest the binos for people that are starting out or don't know if they want to get into it. the other thing to do is go and join a club and see what we are talking about.

post to us if you have any other questions.

Screwdriverone (Chris) · #7 30-12-2008, 12:52 AM

Ahh yes, VERY good point.

Contact your local club or astro society and attend a viewing night. Try these http://www.seqas.org/ or www.sas.org.au which are clubs up your way.

Speak to the members, look through the club scopes, ask lots of questions, get some invaluable advice. Sort of what we give you, but with the bonus of trying the scopes personally at the same time.

Trust me, that $290 telescope is going to annoy you very soon, the boxes show you colour pics of galaxies and planets, you wont get these. If it does anything, it will get you interested more in Astronomy and then you will HAVE to buy a better scope, and have a $290 one gathering dust or being advertised on IceTrade or Ebay before long.

Best advice I have ever heard regarding scopes came from Les Dalrymple, contributing editor to AS&T magazine: "The best telescope is the one you use most often"

Sooner or later, you are going to grow out of that scope, sorry.

Edit: By the way, I just found on the SEQAS site an EXCELLENT guide for beginners, take a look and read the order of purchases...http://www.seqas.org/Documents/Begin.pdf

Cheers

Chris