jerrodh Posted November 20, 2020 Report Share Posted November 20, 2020 Anyone know jack shit about Telescopes? My nieces one in particular are really getting into space and my Brother is more than down to learn and play with a telescope to teach them and enjoy it with them. They are younger and I'm on a budget but wouldn't mind getting something they could grow with and enjoy for awhile. I just remember getting a telescope as a kid that was basically a more vertical spotting scope, aka it sucked for trying to look at space haha. :dumb: I want something better than that for them. If anyone has ideas of a somewhat user friendly telescope on a budget. Really looking for sub $200 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted November 20, 2020 Report Share Posted November 20, 2020 https://www.telescope.com/mobile/index.jsp https://www.telescope.com/index.jsp I've been serious in astronomy for over 30 years and love helping people get into it and learn about it. The used market would get you an amazing telescope for not a lot of money. So many people buy them and never use them. There's also a ton of junk out on the market but anything in that link I posted will be reasonable quality compared to stores etc. Even cheap ones these days have computer drives and can make using them very easy and it really doesn't take much of a telescope to enjoy the moon, planets, and tons of deep space objects like star clusters, ie the 110 Messier object catalog was created by guys in the 1700s with far weaker equipment than a child's toy these days. If they really want to get into it Perkins observatory on Delaware has a very active club, I went there a lot when I was still in Ohio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky31186 Posted November 20, 2020 Report Share Posted November 20, 2020 I got a basic one for my son for around 200$ from telescope. Com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xlr8tn Posted November 20, 2020 Report Share Posted November 20, 2020 I've seen this question twice this month on forums. I'll copy my reply to the other one. I'm not an expert by any means....just know what I bought my son and how much use he's gotten out of it. For the money it was a great investment. Bought this one for my son a couple years ago and he still uses it pretty regularly which, to me, says alot about the telescope. When he's 17 and still gets it out 2 years later so him and his younger brother can look at stuff. I'd describe it as a true beginners telescope. You can see the rings on saturn and things like that with it. He raided another old one I had for eye pieces so not sure what combo of eye pieces he uses but it works. We bought him a phone mount for it to take pics but he never really got that to work very well. He would be the one for me to ask his opinion and I will if you'd like because he's spent hours and hours using it. Again....that tells me everything I need to know about it. https://www.celestron.com/products/powerseeker-127eq-telescope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted November 20, 2020 Report Share Posted November 20, 2020 There's a ton to know about buying a scope and looking at the specs on that scope, its a good beginner one for sure. The two really big things are the diameter of the main lens or in your case the primary mirror which is 127mm which is about 5 inches and then the F ratio of the scope, in this case F/7.87 which makes it a very good middle of the road scope. A lower number would make it good for "wide views" and a higher number would make it much more suited to looking at planets and kinda hard to use to find galaxies etc. The tripod is the only cheap part of that scope and that could be fixed easily by upgrading or modifying, ie remove the tripod and install the mount onto a heavier base. That would probably eliminate the biggest frustration of using that scope when viewing planets at higher power. I personally have a Celestron scope that was made in 1984 and the brand is high quality for consumers and professionals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimTaylor751647545500 Posted November 20, 2020 Report Share Posted November 20, 2020 There are some great clear skies here at my place and the full moon is extremely bright as well, so a few months ago, I picked up this $99 unit from Amazon and have been pretty pleased with it. Can get some great pictures with my iphone with it. https://www.amazon.com/Gskyer-Telescope-AZ-Astronomical-Refracting/dp/B081RJ8DW1/ref=asc_df_B081RJ8DW1/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416961890636&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17598633198512892300&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1016957&hvtargid=pla-870103642710&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=96633979089&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416961890636&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17598633198512892300&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1016957&hvtargid=pla-870103642710 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrodh Posted November 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2020 Thanks for all the input guys. Going with the Orion SpaceProbe II. Thanks for the input about the Perkin's Observatory I'll let my brother know as they are still in the Columbus area. Almost pulled the trigger on The Gskyler Tim (damn Amazon and how easy you are haha). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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