UKH

Got a mate who sadly has MS and its affecting his mobility now.....

A couple of us are buying him a telescope as he can use it on a tripod....he's in to looking at stars/ the moon etc but also will be coming on a trip to Scotland in the winter....he cant climb now but we've booked a lodge at the Clach that has great views on to Aonach Dubh where all being well he will be spotting us as we climb.

He also has a long garden and likes the wildlife at the end....about 50'ish metres I reckon. 

So....the question is....is there a telescope that does all of that? I've been looking at the Celestron ones on line that are about 5 inches in diameter which look good for planets etc but could he also use that in his garden?

Thanks for any guidance...

No. I've got both. For star gazing you want a good aperture, 8 inch, but some people get by with 6.

For wildlife you want a reasonably wide field of view.

Both of mine were about a grand each. Maybe for not much you can get something not very good a either. What about binoculars with a decent tripod?

Use in the garden: Probably.  Depends on the closest focus - typically 10 m to 20 m for small telescopes.  If you have a specific model in mind, that’s the number to hunt for in the manufacturer’s datasheet - or to email and ask them for.  

Rather more annoying is that the image is likely to be either upside down or back to front - not really a problem for the heavens but immensely annoying when looking at - and panning around - the ground.

As an alternative, you might consider “normal” or “astronomical” binoculars that come with a tripod mount.  

My gut feeling is that a 5” has such a high magnification - or small field of view - that it’ll be very pernickety to use as a garden scope with manual controls, just for an inexperienced user let alone one with worse mobility limits.

Rather than listen to my uninformed views... You probably have a local amateur astonomical society - I imagine you’ll be welcome at one of their meetings and can pick the brains of a lot of equipment owners in terms of your special requirements - as well see/try a lot of kit if you ask nicely.    

For astronomy, i cannot recommend VirtualAstro's buying advice enough!

https://www.meteorwatch.org/equipment/beginners-telescopes-telescope/

Not true any more: http://skywatcher.com/product/dob-6-traditional/

Dobsonian so a bit of effort needed to keep it on target but the same company do GPS mounts.

The 6 inch dob is about 200 quid. I have one and it's very good indeed.

This looks even better as more portable and presumably they've been clever enough to sort out alignment issues:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/5fn/Skywatcher-Heritage-130P-Heritage130P-FlexTu...

An advice thread here that you could ask the same question.  For star-watching, a certain Rainshadow ticking astrophysicist recommended a Heritage-130p, small collapsible Dobsonian, available for around  £135 new.  The advised seems very happy with it.

https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,21063.0.html

A decent refractor seems to be the way. Something of a decent focal length should reduce CA, works well for daytime use and good for looking at the moon and planets. I always found visual astronomy a bit underwhelming, although the first time you see Saturn through a decent scope is a bit of a special moment.

My understanding is that most nature-spotting scopes really are a different kettle of fish to astronomy scopes because the requirements are quite different; the main one being that nature scopes, even though invariably used with a tripod are supposed to be portable. The big issue with them is having a big front lens that is not so heavy the thing can't be moved but also gathers enough light that small, distant moving creatures can be seen with relative clarity, even in sub-optimal conditions; much nature-watching is best at dawn and dusk, after all. All the best scopes have really high quality glass in that lens for maximum light transmission and everything else is of secondary importance. If only being used for looking at the garden that may not be an issue. A wider FoV than ever seen on an astronomy scope is still going to be very useful though, I should think - most spotting scopes have this. Generally WA eyepiece lenses are better than zoom lenses in this respect.

Don't know anything about star spotting except that the scope requirements are quite different and therefore, typically, the build.

My wife bought me a Lidl one, the reviews say they are amazing for the money.

it’s hard to set up and find stuff, the tripod is too flimsy but, having said that for 50 quid it is amazing.  There is a picture of Saturn on the box and I thought really, really.  Took me a while to find it but yes, really.  From my light polluted patio I could clearly see Saturn and its rings.  It was amazing.

if I was buying another i’d fork out the bit extra for one of the ones mentioned earlier though.

rather a magical and amazing thing to do. Good luck

cheers

Toby

When I was shopping for a telescope I decided that a Dobson mount telescope would be the best bang for buck for my amateur and infrequent requirements.  I initially had my heart set on an 8 inch telescope until I realised how big these beasts were.  So I settled for a small and portable telescope, that could fit on the back seat of a car.  I spent some pennies on a couple of good eyepieces.  As with photography, the glass is just as important.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextu...

I bought my Beginner scope on the strength of that article.  Cracking bit of kit.

lidl is selling 20-60x60 spotting scopes for £25 atm- probably adequate for starters?

i was looking for a starter portable goto system with terrestrial use a while back and nearly got this 4 inch refractor: https://telescopereviewer.com/celestron-nexstar-102-slt-computerized-telesc...

if that's any help

I'm encouraged by all the positive Heritage 130p comments, which is the conclusion I came to when picking a first telescope.  I have one sat beside me now waiting for #1 son to unwrap it on Christmas morning and then I think we'll be fighting for the eye piece the first clear night we get.

The customer service from https://www.firstlightoptics.com was excellent, which is where I purchased from, found https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube-dobs... were a fraction cheaper and with free UK delivery.  FLO were however more than happy to price match.

If you have some spare pennies, then I suggest that you get a moon filter.  The moon is painfully bright. .

And if you have deeper pockets, then a good quality eyepiece will make a huge difference.  At first I went for, I think a 3mm or 6mm eyepiece.  This was at the maximum zoomey in range of the telescope.  I discovered quickly that this was a bad idea not only because it was almost impossible to keep Jupiter in view but any atmospheric conditions also spoiled the viewing pleasure.  Its not very often you get clear skys and even harder to get clear still sky's with little atmospheric turbulence.  The eyepiece was returned the next day.

In the end I settled on a 15mm eyepiece after good magazine reviews.  This gave me a x43 magnification and with an adapter it went up to x87 magnification.  For me this was a sweet spot viewing wise.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces/bst-starguider-60...

Its all personal and subjective.  The eyepieces that come with the telescope are good too.

Thank you, I'll bear the advice in mind re: eye piece choice.

I got a moon filter, 2x barlow and a cheap collimating cap at the same time as the scope, so will see how I get on with those to start with.

Thanks again,

Gavin