UKH

My son (7) wants a telescope for Christmas this year (amongst many other things), now I want to encourage him if he is interested and so I am avoiding a kids / low cost telescope however being 7 there is also the possibility his interest might not last so I don't want to go overboard either.

I have searched high and low over the internet and found multiple opinions on which telescope would be a good first telescope and now I don't have a clue who or what to believe so I am going to leave it up to the accumulated knowledge of the UKC collective.

So which telescope should I buy? I would be comfortable paying anywhere between £100 and £200, is that a reasonable price range for a decent telescope.

In reply to ajsteele:
What is he looking at?

Telescopes often view upside down

look also at monocular spotting scope

In reply to Name Changed 34:

He is very interested in the solar system currently and wants to be able to see Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, for some reason he doesn't seem to really care about Mercury, Neptune or Uranus as they are never mentioned.
I have explained to him that telescopes show the image upside down and he seems happy enough with that.

In reply to ajsteele:
Trust me on this one! We bought our 5 year old daughter the telescope in the link below and it is absolutely outstanding. It is also the family telescope so we keep it set up in the garage and move it out into the garden 30 mins before we want to use it so the lens can adjust to the temperature.

We can easily see Saturn and its rings, Jupiter and all the moons and the moon is crystal clear when the conditions are right. We have also seen a few M clusters but that is with upgraded eyepieces.

It keeps the image the right way up, easy to set up and use, comes with a screw mount for a camera although we bought a "ring" camera holder and an adaptor for the mets for our DSLR. The only thing that will need replacing as you get used to it will be the eyepieces.

It comes with a couple which are still really good but trust me when you start seeing things you'll want to upgrade so you can see them even clearer. Before we had this one we had a skyscan (follows the objects in the sky after you have programmed a couple of things into the GPS) it was good but for ease of use, with this one, you just turn the red laser light on through the spotting scope, point it at whatever and it will appear in your main scope.

Really can't recommend it enough. For a beginner, the quality is amazing, it is cheap, the tripod is fantastic and it's really easy to use.

Hope this helps, Den

youtube.com/watch?v=x8PcsTem6m0&


Edit: you will also want to change the main eyepiece viewer from a 90 degree to a 45 degree angled one. Less neck pain all round :0)

In reply to ajsteele:

If you can get one for the price, get him a goto computerised reflector 4" or above (100-130mm). You align it with a couple of reference stars then the goto takes you to other stars (or sometimes nearly there)

If you can't find one in that price range the Meade ETX80 is a good choice £200 but the kiddie won't understand the optics.

If you don't want goto then all these are good:

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/tabletop-series.html

Either way it's making life easier for yourself because he isn't going to be a lot of help!

You can keep a kid entertained with planets without going further, so even binos are a good option.

Some people say that a refractor (no mirrors) is more intuitive and attractive for kids but I'm not so sure, I managed to get a 76mm chinese open newtonian, it's a 60s design with the mirrors just connected by 6 rods and my kids got the mirror stuff straight away. (inverted image, bit more complicated to explain). £11 off ebay including free postage from China.

Check which eyepieces are included, because you need to buy more afterwards (and a moon filter).

In reply to ajsteele:
If he is looking up stairs [the heavens] then he will not realise the upside down bit.
And who is to say its up side down?
so a telescope will fit the bill, IF you he can get it outside on the clear nights, away from light.
so often big [coffee table] types of telescopes are just left to gather dust, in kids bedrooms,
its not something to look AT,,It's to look through,

In reply to ajsteele:
I can only recommend the telescope that I own as this is perfect for me.

It's light, compact, can fit on the back seat of a car and can be set up in seconds.
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-heritage-130...

Don't forget to buy a moon filter as well. Looking at a full moon without one hurts my eyes.

Unfortunately I am posing this from my tablet and can't send a link to a great YouTube review so I will try again later.


Edit

As promised, here's a link

youtube.com/watch?v=FEs_MMcJ7JA&

In reply to ajsteele:

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/bresser-messier-nt-1301000-optical-tube...

I have this telescope and it is brilliant. You want 5" as the light gathering is a huge step up from 4". They all tend to come with a couple of eyepieces and a barlow lens (doubles the magnification of all the other eyepieces).

You definitely want equatorial mount or goto, and ideally if not goto you want a tracking motor to keep the object in view.

Skywatcher are good, and this one has a motor with it, however the bresser is more robust.

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-explorer-130m-motorized-refl...

As said, get a moon filter, and potentially a light pollution filter depending on where you live. A red light headtorch is really useful to keep your eyes adjusted.

In reply to ajsteele:
Expecting to be shot down in flames by the optics snobs but...

youtube.com/watch?v=wzsMiCBzciY&

Apparently the Aldi cheapy is the same as this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007WRY9SI/?tag=ho01f-21 Obviously not as good as many of those recommended above.

To be honest though, I'm not really even recommending it. Mostly I just liked that advert. ;O)

In reply to winhill:

What about a Celestron LCM 114, it is a 4.49 inch reflector with a goto mount, would that be ok for a child? Maplin have it on offer for £230 which isn't too far outside my price range.
Does the moon filter have to be specific to the type of scope or can I just pick up any filter?
Thanks everyone for the advice so far, very much appreciated.

In reply to ajsteele:

Just bought a Celestron C-90 spotting scope. Excellent optics, very portable, can be mounted on a normal photographic tripod, has a sighting scope and a handy junior sized rucksack. Here is a link.... and an article comparing some similar ones on the market...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-00149855-C90-Spotting-Scope/dp/B0038QYRDO
Here is the comparison,
http://www.scopereviews.com/90mmComparo.html

It's not bad for £129.00... and it can be used as a telephoto lens for wildlife etc , here is a picture I took of the moon with it a few days ago....
http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=120271&PHPSES...

Hope this helps.

SC.

In reply to ajsteele:

Ideally a reflecting (reflector) telescope but whichever telescope you buy ensure it has a good solid metal tripod. You need a steady base which does not move or wobble a lot.

In reply to deepsoup:

I'm with you....

Love the Aldi ad and £69.99 for a seven year seems pretty good especially as the OP said he wants "this amongst many other things"

But I guess it depends if its a present for Mum/Dad as well! Kids are very fickle he could be bored rigid in 6 months.

In reply to ajsteele:

I would MASSIVELY recommend you pay a visit to VirtualAstro. I follow him on Twitter and he is a mine of information - genuinely knowledgeable, and he comes across as very sincere and trustworthy. He was written extensively on buying a telescope and what to look for:

http://www.meteorwatch.org/

Specifically he goes in to the various types (Dobsonian, Newtonian & Refractor), and the componentry:

http://www.meteorwatch.org/beginners-telescopes-easy-guide-review/#more-356...

In reply to ajsteele: I still have (and use) the binoculars my parents bought me for my 7th birthday (heavy, but good optics), so some kids do/can look after their presents.

I would try to avoid a telescope that inverts the image, as it's more versatile if he later gets into other interests (bird/wildlife watching?) where an inverted image would cause problems.
Also don't forget a tripod! (TBH I would say a steady tripod is almost more important than good optics on the telescope)

In reply to ajsteele:


That looks perfect and a pretty reasonable price.


Make sure it is for 1.25" eyepieces and that it will screw onto the eyepiece, not sit on top. fleabay for a few quid, the Celestron one at £27.00 is exorbitant.

You can download a good planetarium called Stellarium free, just enter your location and it shows you the night sky thousands of years in the past or the future! It will help set up the goto.

If you want to know when to look for stuff the easiest way is to buy a book which has monthly starmaps in (they don't change much), even DK do a good one. Turn Left At Orion is one of the best books going but for a 7YO it has too much detail about the stars, when I reckon you want the planetary stuff really.

There's a telescope seller called Telescope House, certainly if you buy stuff off them but I think again free you can subscribe to their monthly email that tells you what to look for in the month ahead.

In reply to ajsteele:

For my money, I would save on the GoTo mount and spend on aperture instead. As long youhave a good, stable tripod with a proper equatorial mount, I wouldn't say the GoTo system is likely to add much value for planet-spotting, whereas increasng the aperture even by an inch gets one hell of a lot more light in and allows you to employ higher magnifications.

In reply to ajsteele: this ^^^^^^^ if your main target is bright objects. Go to saves loads of time for faint objects though.

In reply to ajsteele:

Patrick Moore used to advise a 3 inch refractor/6 inch reflector as minimum, otherwise binoculars- so i never got one as they were too expensive at the time - much cheaper now though..
the 130mm reflectors mentioned above may be worthwhile- also check out the celestron astromaster 130EQ
the astromaster 90mm would be a good starter refractor- or buy something like the 102slt 2nd hand..

In reply to deepsoup:



I used to own this very telescope, and my friend's son owns one too. Sadly, in my opinion, they are not very good telescopes. The tripod is exceptionally wobbly and this causes any image to zip around while viewing.

Maybe if the telescope was put onto a more firm tripod and collimated properly then it would be worth a punt. But don't try and zoom in higher than 150 times magnification to stay on the safe side for such a small mirror.

In reply to ajsteele:

If it was me I'd rather spend the extra money of a goto mount on a better telescope rather than a gimmick of a telescope mechanically moving to a celestial object. Both yourself and son can then learn to recognise star constellations and star hop around the sky finding stuff with a greater sense of satisfaction.

You could install a star finding app onto a tablet or phone to help find stuff in the sky as well. Stellarium is free for computers and a few quid for android kit.
http://www.stellarium.org/


I just got a filter from Amazon that fitted the eyepieces that came with my telescope.

In reply to The Lemming:
Ah, too bad.
(I still like the ad though. ;O)

In reply to malk:


Yeah, but he had a 2x monocle.

In reply to Jamie Wakeham:


Generally, yes, but it seems like a generous present already and you won't getter better on an EQ mount for that money, a 6" dobsonian, yes, 6"EQ definitely not. A 6" dob will be too far off the ground for a 7YO.

You're trying to do 2 things here, produce a visually satisfying image and then engage a 7 year old with that image.

The first simple but not necessarily easy, the second, well, good luck with that.

There are a few problems with kids, firstly in winter it's very cold when it's dark and in summer it's very late when it's dark. So it's best if you can to set it all up first, then give them a planetary tour on the PC, in the dark to get them some night vision without going outside, then you can let them out and have a play. The GOTO allows you to pick objects quickly, gives them a great deal of buttons to push and is much more engaging, plus you can reset it if they play with it. You can also relatively easily set up a webcam and control the scope from indoors (not sure if the LCM does that, probably), even more engaging for the kiddler and a lot warmer. Also that scope has a dovetail style fitting (and oddly the scope is on the outside of the mount) but that means you could upgrade the OTA. The tube would be too heavy for the motors but would be good for pushto mode.

If the worst comes to the worst and the kid hates it then the GOTO will sell more easily and for an added extra loss of only about £50, or a day out at Go Ape.

The Aperture quality, star-hopping etc can come later, what you're trying to do initially is light a fire by, in effect, rubbing two sticks together in the rain.

In reply to The Lemming:

If it was purely for myself I would probably buy a better telescope and learn how to use the EQ mount effectively and efficiently, but for ease of use for the kid I think the goto mount will be necessary to avoid him getting bored before he has even seen anything.

In reply to ajsteele:

Bear in mind that most celestial objects (even ones brain-stoppingly profound to a teen or adult, like another galaxy) appear as identical misty grey blobs. 'Go to' will locate a sequence of misty blobs with names like motorways that might soon bore a 7-year old. Planets, on the other hand, are easily located, but whether they look 'wow' to a 7-year old will depend on the quality and size of the optics, not the software. More generally, I do tend to agree that 7 is quite young to get a dedicated astronomical telescope (i.e. a reflector), and something more versatile like binos or a spotting scope might be more fun.

In reply to thomm:


The moon, Jupiter, Saturn and other planets look awesome on a computer screen, especially with world renowned optics and governments working hard to get those images for your kid to be inspired with.

You have to ask, will they still be awe inspired when they go outside and look into their own telescope to view a 2mm to 4mm diameter Jupiter with a couple of stripy bands of colour surrounded by a few dots?

As said above by another contributor, galaxies can be a little meh. The Andromeda galaxy for example is just a grey smudge. For me, seeing the Andromeda galaxy for the first time was exhilarating as I had to find it myself in a built up town environment with an awful lot of light pollution. I did not care that I was looking at a faint smudge, because I knew that I was looking at a galaxy, a freeken galaxy. Don't think I would have been so excited if I was a 7 year old today with access to the tinterweb.