UKH

My daughter wants a telescope for Christmas. Really don't know where to start but was looking in the £150-£200 mark. Big moon this month has got her wanting to see it better. Any suggestions? 

It depends what she might want to look at apart from the moon. I can only really speak about refractors but basically if it's for moon and planets you want a long scope: if for galaxies and such a shorter tube gives a faster device collecting more light.

Also bear in mid the mount: alt/az mounts are simple enough but equatorial ones take some expertise in setting up. Given the above , you can probably get a decent little Skywatcher 70 with tripod for £15 0. Edit(£149 @Harrisons)

The best bang for your buck will almost certainly be a dobsonian reflector (dobsonian is the type of mount). Although quality refractors are considered better for viewing planetary objects, reflectors are better all-rounders and a dobsonian mount will keep the cost down but still get you a good quality scope (providing your daughter is tall enough to use a dobsonian mount).

With a refelector, you can get a much larger mirror and greater light gathering capacity for less money. This will increase the usable maximum magnification of the scope and will allow you to get better views of saturn and jupiter etc. Having a larger mirror also allows you to look at dimmer objects and resolve them in more detail, things like star clusters, nebulae and galaxies (Bear in mind that the light gathering capacity of the scope does not increase linearly with the size of the mirror, a small increase in the aperture/diameter creates a big increase in the amount of light gathered, so it is worth getting the biggest one you can afford). 

Another thing to consider is the eyepieces that you need to go with it. Don't underestimate the difference that a good eyepiece can make! The scope will come with a few eyepieces but they are usually not very good quality and buying some others can make a huge difference. Do some research before buying these as the magnification that you get from an eyepiece depends on the focal length of the telescope (magnification = focal length/eyepiece focal length).

See if you can get hold of a 6 inch dobsonian reflector for that price, or even better an 8 inch if possible. I would consider looking at second hand stuff too as they are much cheaper, often come with good eyepieces and have been well taken care of.

Once you decide on a scope, it would be good to get a star map so that you can find some of the interesting objects out there (there is a list called the Messiers which documents them), and to identify the planets you can use a star map online (I always liked this one https://www.heavens-above.com/SkyChart.aspx?lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspeci...).

There is a site called weatherweb which is good for forecasting the conditions for viewing. You want high "transparency" for deep sky objects and good "seeing" conditions for planetary observations, it makes a big difference. Hopefully that wasn't too much information!

For astronomy or birdwatching?

Look through the small end

I can see why the downvotes, but I think birding scopes are worth considering - much more versatile.

A small refractor can also double as a birding/ terrestrial scope if used with a correcting attachment. When I upgraded from my kit 90 degree mirror I bought a correcting prism which means that I now see images the right way round and the right way up. Apart from terrestrial use, this is massively helpful when star hopping and finding your way about the sky. A dobsonian gives you an upside down and l/r reversed image and it might take a lot of getting used to.

Some good advice here:

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/off_belay/telescope-727102?v=1#x9321280

Thanks for all the advice - it gives me a great place to start my research. Thanks also for the link. 

When she gets her scope I'd recommend getting the book 'Turn left at Orion' which is aimed at beginners, lists hundreds of night sky objects and how to find them and even gives an idea of how the object will look in the eyepiece of different size scopes. 

If you're not set on buying new, then you might get much better value for money going secondhand. I'm v happy with my secondhand birding scope I bought from In Focus a while ago. https://www.at-infocus.co.uk/product-category/used-equipment/used-telescope...