tmehrkam Loc: Houston,Tx

My sister is looking to get a second telescope for her grandson. Last year she got him a Tasco from Walmart. A total waste of money not even good for play value.

He is still interested and has asked for a better one for Christmas.

Budget around $100 :-{

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/meade-infinity-60mm-altazimuth-refractor-telescope-blue-silver-black/7139219.p?id=1219668770099&skuId=7139219

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/meade-infinity-70mm-altazimuth-refractor-telescope-blue-black/4365709.p?id=1219736716646&skuId=4365709

Mead 70 mm or 60mm. $99 and $79

Should be simple enough for him to use. Hopefully he will be able to observe the moon and terrestrial objects. The main concern is the tripod has three thumb screws that can be lost. These screws have to be removed to fold the tripod.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/celestron-powerseeker-70eq-refractor-telescope-black/5360242.p?id=1218637230756&skuId=5360242

Celestron 70 mm refactor with a German equatorial mount.

I am concerned that the complexity of the mount will be a problem.

Can any one make a recommendation in a good beginner telescope for some one if this age.


I have been looking at some of the low end Mead and Celestron refactors.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Of those three, I would recommend the Celestron. For the reason it has an equatorial mount.
With that he could actually gently guide the object to keep it in view.
Control is often overlooked when buying a beginners telescope.
My first telescope was very nearly unusable.
It took me 60 years to finally get one that is fun. ;)

tmehrkam Loc: Houston,Tx

I hear you but I do not believe that he or my Sister could manager the complexity of setting up the equatorial mount.

He lives with his grandmother. Sometimes he stays with us but My Sister would have the burden of setting this up and supervising him most of the times.

My first one was not near as good as either of those. I was able to observe the moon but not much else.

He is probably a little young for this.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

But... he is asking for a better telescope.
So I would suggest nurturing the desire. ;)
Possibly something gently used? I actually found a 4" reflector (Neutonian) at our Goodwill Store one time. It was overpriced in my opinion, but it was there.
Pawn shops?

Just because he is young, does not mean he is lacking. 8-)

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Here you go. It's in your budget, compact and easy to use and setup. Considered a good scope for children and beginners. No mount to mess with. It can fit nicely on a table or bench.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/celestron-cometron-firstscope-300mm-newtonian-reflector-telescope-white/8441819.p?id=1219334538896&skuId=8441819#tabbed-customerreviews

Bob

proteus1 Loc: NEVADA

How old is young fellow anyway??

Don't get him a scope that is so complicated that it will overwhelm all parties, much less this young mind that wants to improve. If the adults are unable to set up a scope and instruct the young man the whole effort will be a waste. Yes get him a scope with an equatorial mount and instruct him on it's use 'better to have and not to need, than to need and not to have'

Also look for an astronomy club in your area, you will find in most cases that the members will be a world of help in buying and instruction.


WALT

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Excellent suggestion Walt.
It may be entirely possible that a club member might have a mount and telescope available for little or no cost... :?:

proteus1 Loc: NEVADA

Thanks for that Sonny, Flattery will get you ALMOST anything.

YES I was thinking of the very near NASA space center..

WALT

tmehrkam Loc: Houston,Tx

Well my sister pulled the trigger and got him the 70mm Mead.


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/meade-infinity-70mm-altazimuth-refractor-telescope-blue-black..

I would have loved to get him a better mount but this one appears to be 10 times better than the mount on my first scope. It should be usable for him to get some experience and not overwhelm him with the complexity of the equatorial mount. Mine was a newton reflector but the mount was impossible to use.

This will allow him to gain some experience. I can take him to the Observatory at Brazos Bend and take him camping in the hill country for some clear sky observing with my ETX 125.

This scope is about right for his age and experience. He is in the first grade. As he gets older and shows an interest we can get him a more advanced scope.

I looked at the cometron scope but you need a stable table with a clear view of the sky to use it. That is hard to come by at the parks we visit and at his Home.

We can take the scope on the tripod to a clearing and go to work.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/celestron-cometron-firstscope-300mm-newtonian-reflector-teles...

Thank you for the response.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Your links didn't work. But they got me to the store and I found these. :lol:

Mead Telescope 70mm

Celestron Cometron FirstScope

;) Have a blast with your Great Nephew. :-D

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

If you could get a little closer on his age that would help.
Elementary school age is 5-13 yrs???
Craig

tmehrkam Loc: Houston,Tx

He is seven years old

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

In that case I think your sister made the right decision.
Are you going to get to work with him???
Craig

tmehrkam Loc: Houston,Tx

Yes we take him camping with us 10 or 12 times a year.

There are many opportunities to observe in the state parks. Brazos bend even has a good size observatory.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

If the scope is the 70mm identified by Sonny, I recommend getting him a better eyepiece. The scope comes with one that is about 26mm and one that is 8mm to get the 78X power. That higher power eyepiece is basically too high a power for that scope and the barlow on top of that makes it even worse.

When I got my first scope, it came with two eyepieces. The one for the higher power was essentially worthless and I never bothered using it. And it had a Barlow lens too, and that only made things worse. Telescopes have a maximum useful magnification value and if the optics were perfect, and the seeing conditions were perfect, that would be approx. 50X per inch of objective. Both of these are not likely to be met, and a more realistic figure is probably less than 25X per inch of objective which at 70mm (2 3/4 ") which would be 68X (which is less than what is being supplied). Thus, that high power eyepiece is not likely to be used much since the image will basically look awful.

So I too had that problem. So I got the Edmond Scientific Catalog and ordered a 28mm 1.25" barrel Kellner eyepiece for $7 (that's dating myself).

What I found was that this eyepiece was absolutely superior in every way to the supplied eyepieces I had and made that scope so much better to use. This eyepiece also had a much wider field of view which made it so much nicer to look thru also. The stock lower power eyepiece was similar in focal length to what I had, but the field of view was so narrow that it just wasn't fun to look at anything. Sort of like looking at the world thru a straw (although I am exaggerating a bit).

I still have that old 28mm Kellner lens and today, I use it on a finder scope. Much better than the eyepiece that came with the finder scope.

As for what eyepieces I use now, I have a set of Baader Hyperion eyepieces with 68 degree field of view. I don't recommend these for a 7 year old, but the cheap Kellner I used would be perfect.

By the way, Kellner is the lens design, not the lens manufacturer. There are a number of different lens designs with some designs costing a lot. Kellner is a very simple, and very cheap design, but not as cheap as what they ship as standard eyepieces.

I will finish with a quote from this link regarding Kellner lenses: (My old Kellner doesn't even have a brand name on it and it sure works great. The lens opening is very wide, more than 1 inch, and the eye relief is great)

http://www.cloudynights.com/page/articles/cat/articles/how-to/eyepiece-review-pitfalls-r361

Eyepiece Designs

Over the years a number of different eyepieces have been designed. They are usually named after the designer, which is why you always see the name capitalized. [FOV]

Kellner (Ke or K) [40] Designed when f/6 was a "fast" scope and is better with f/6 or slower scopes. I accidentally put a Kellner in my f/10 telescope one night when I was viewing a star cluster. To my surprise I could see more stars and the whole scene was brighter. Now I use modern Kellners whenever I am viewing faint objects. Don’t bother reviewing a Kellner in a f4 scope though.

The Rank Kellner (RK) [45] was designed a bit later when scopes were a bit faster. The RKE is a later RK and uses a special glass element to provide a better wider view with even faster scopes (but not much). For some telescopes on many objects on most nights the RKE provides as good a view as many folks want.

I have found great variation in the quality of Kellners. In general newer, fully coated, K, RK and RKE are the best. Older Kellners, especially Orion brand are of less quality.



Just wanted to add that I found out some information on my old Kellner.

http://www.astronomyforum.net/telescope-eyepieces-forum/140513-edmund-scientific-rke.html

And even found a picture of it:

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l13596.html

And this is what they have replaced it with: (Plossl is a newer design that is superior to the Kellner)

https://www.scientificsonline.com/product/scientifics-plossl-eyepieces-f28mm-3082255?gclid=CIee8e6zqskCFdc2gQodewAL7A?gclid=CIee8e6zqskCFdc2gQodewAL7A