My six year old grand daughter wants a telescope, and her dad asked me to recommend something. I thought that consulting the brain trust here at IIS would be a good idea. She seems to have been inspired by the last lunar ecilpse, which was discussed in her year one class at school. She has been in my observatory (which is referred to as "Grandpa's Cubby House", and looked through my ED150.
So in terms of a recommendation, I was thinking of a simple Achro refractor on an adjustable height tripod, and these can be found on Amazon for around $100. But what do you think?
The requirements are:
Has to be fairly cheap.
Not complicated, not requiring collimation, comes with a basic tripod and maybe a couple of eye pieces. Simple one speed focuser. Easy to setup. Pack down for travel in a bag for something for when they go away for the weekend or school holidays. Robust enough that the younger kids probably won't destroy it.
Ideas?
Thanks in advance, but please no links to the big Planewave advertised by Testar.
I bought my kids (7 and 9) a cheap Celestron Powerseeker 50AZ that Bintel had going for $99 at the end of last year.
Like you, I chose this over the tabletop reflectors because of things like collimation. Even as an adult I think that's too much to do, so for a kid I figured they just want to setup and get going.
My daughter liked it for a few hours on the the first night they used it, then turned her back and watched Netflix. My son still loves it and can set it up blindfolded now. It's great for looking at the moon, and if you're in dark skies, you'll see more than you thought you'd be able to.
The only thing that's not great is the tripod. It moves around a lot and if you've got some time and woodworking skills, I'd suggest making one to replace or enhance the supplied version.
The plan was to buy something cheap initially and then get into something pricier later on if they show an interest. He'll likely inherit my 80ED in a few months when I upgrade to a bigger 'frac.
Not too sure what's cheap, there are a few celestron astromaster 70/90mm that show up in gum tree regularly, $80-$200 a pop.
I like the idea of the celestron starsense explorer series for an intro telescope. The addition of the telephone sky apps allows for a great wealth of objects to be chased down easily without the expense of goto or the setup requirements.
They start from $299 for a 70mm Refractor (F10 so its nice on eyepieces, under 3.5kilos for both scope and tripod) and offer a cheap way to access and use an electronic sky atlas for night viewing. Also you could dial up wiki etc to find out more about the object of interest, which always adds to the viewing experience imo.
Thanks Al, I like the all in one packaging. Importantly I need something a Child can assemble, and that might be it. The notion of Apps etc is out of the question at this time, more like a point and look sort of setup. I have checked a few on Amazon au and it looks like I could get a package for around $100.
If you want a Tasco 21EB 15-45x 50mm Zoom Scope in good condition gratis for your grand daughter then let me know & PM your address. It's lying in its original box unloved in the garage. Unfortunately I don't have the tripod, only the OTA in the Original Tasco Box with manual. I'm fairly certain it has a standard 1/4-20 tripod female thread for mounting to a standard photo tripod. Here are some stock internet images of the scope.
My six year old grand daughter wants a telescope, and her dad asked me to recommend something.
I’m in the exact same situation. Actually, already one mistake further down – she’s got a 60mm f/12 frac on a rickety AZ-1 mount. Everything about that rig is laughably inadequate, but her parents wouldn’t listen to me…
Even though it’s a featherweight, she is not able to set it up by herself, let alone use it. Truth be told, I’m unable to use it without a lot of swearing and cursing.
I’m leaning towards a 6” Dob, or perhaps a little tabletop Dob at this point, just waiting for something to come up.
I’m in the exact same situation. Actually, already one mistake further down – she’s got a 60mm f/12 frac on a rickety AZ-1 mount. Everything about that rig is laughably inadequate, but her parents wouldn’t listen to me…
Even though it’s a featherweight, she is not able to set it up by herself, let alone use it. Truth be told, I’m unable to use it without a lot of swearing and cursing.
I’m leaning towards a 6” Dob, or perhaps a little tabletop Dob at this point, just waiting for something to come up.
Thanks mate for the warning. I am now considering just giving her my Celestron 80mm spotting scope. No Eyepieces to change, it has a 20x to 60x zoom, no pieces to lose, other than the lens cap.. It is rugged and comes in a padded bag. It would be way over budget if I was buying it for her, but it's sitting in my closet and I hardly use it. I might have to get her a better short tripod than my tall skinny old one.