jacklewis014

Hi - I am a frequent visitor to the UHH Photo Forum, but first time to visit the Astronomical Forum. My grandson is passionate about astronomy. I want to get him a telescope for Christmas for viewing and taking pictures of stars and planets. I am hoping this group can help me identify options to purchase. My grandson is a college freshman and is interested in taking astronomy classes (maybe major) - so this isn't a passing fancy. Can you recommend quality brands, must have options, focal length, etc. I am planning to send up to $750 if that much is needed to get a good telescope. It may be his first telescope but I want to get one that he can build on and obviously a more serious instrument than a beginner toy.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

MEADE ETX90 or ETX125.

I would opt for the 90 and some eyepieces to stay in budget.

jacklewis014

Thank you - any suggestions on the range of eyepieces?

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

I
If you wear glasses you’ll want what’s called long eye relief, less than 16mm eye relief is pretty much useless with glasses and 18mm or more is better.

These are generally a bit more $$$ but worth it.

If your interest are lunar then a 24mm to 28mm will do fine with sufficient eye relief.

For the planets a 8mm to 5mm will do nice. A 5 will give you 250X which is about that scopes realistic upper limit, an 8 will give you 156X.

As an in between 10mm to 15mm will do nice for lunar closeups.

I hope this helps.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Jack,

I see you are in the Atlanta area so I’m certain you could find local astronomy clubs. Many of the clubs have regular outings where the members will get together with their telescopes for an evening. These,generally, are open to the public and the ppl enjoying sharing information. This would be a great place to see many of the different types of telescopes, look thru them and ask questions.

This site can point you to a listing of clubs.

https://www.go-astronomy.com/astro-club-search.htm

This hobby is very expensive And a 750 budget Isn’t a whole lot. Generally the biggest bang for your buck are Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount. Here is an example of one https://optcorp.com/collections/sky-watcher/products/sky-watcher-flextube-250p

Keep in mind that this is a manual mount and no GOTO. Meaning no motors to track the sky and stay on target and it can’t be set to learn the sky and goto a target. The observer must learn to star hop around to see things. But really, the best thing to do would be to find a local club and see if they are having any star parties that you could attend.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

As I was getting interested, I began studying WHAT I wanted to do, then how to do it including how others were getting their images.
I decided I like Deep Space Objects, and specifically Nebula. So I steered my boat to that.
And because I intended to take images (mostly I got Picturds), I needed a camera lens in a telescope. So I shopped for telescopes specifically great at taking images. My telescope alone cost me near $1,000; and that was going as cheaply as I could at the time. I'm still using it, and still doing good, I think.

So it might be best to hold up and let him get involved, and find what interests him the most. Because there are almost as many ways to go about it as there are stars.
So when a specific direction becomes apparent is the better time to begin shopping. Or when he decides, and is ready to select equipment, bolster his funds at that time.
Because just buying a telescope is a sure way to miss the mark of where he winds up.

I have all my equipment earmarked for one of our Grandson's, who is a Business Major, but also very interested in Astronomy.

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

I must agree. I was 9 years old when I saved and bought my first telescope. Best is to get to a meeting or a skywatch night sponsored by an astronomy club. He should see a few telescopes and what can be viewed with a scope that size (and price). My second scope what a 4 1/4" newtonian scope - enough power, sharpness and camera capability at a price which was every penny I could save.

A full scope with a proper tripod mount, plus or minus the motor tracking or GPS skyfinder could swallow all of your budget. When you or he knows a bit more, he might even feel comfortable looking into a used setup which will be dramatically less than anything new. -

Definitely avoid the "Chinese cheapies" and ones geared to a child's gift for Christmas. They aren't worthwhile for the money spent. - And, the less you know, the better to buy a 'known' brand name telescope.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

Agreed.

I meant to add that for a beginner, especially one interested lunar, nebular and not too close planetary observations ... a pair of CELESTRON 20x80 SKYMASTER PRO binoculars is far superior to a department store telescope assuming you have a tripod already.

jacklewis014

Yes - very beneficial and appropriate as my grandson wears glasses
Thank you

jacklewis014

Thank you so much - this is exactly the information I was hoping to receive. Great suggestion on the clubs and I appreciate the candor regarding my budget and where to invest to get the most band.

jacklewis014

Just curious - what telescope did you land on?

jacklewis014

Paul - I think I realize how little I know about this hobby. I really appreciate the cautionary words and advice.

jacklewis014

Paul -great suggestion
Thanks

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Different kinds of scopes for different astronomy targets. Shorter focal lengths for nebula. A bit longer for galaxies. Lots of focal length for planets.

There are many cheap scopes made, but are not suitable for astrophotography. Most common problem is that they don't have sufficient back focus to allow a camera to achieve infinity focus. Best to stay away from those types.

Good refractors are easiest to start with and I suggest shorter focal lengths for starting.

And of course, astrophotography needs a mount to do the tracking. Two kinds: Alt-Az mounts which move up/down and left/right can only be used with shorter focal lengths because they suffer from field rotation as they hold on to a target while the earth rotates. They are easy to set up, and with shorter focal lengths, the field rotation won't be noticed. As focal length increases, the field rotation problem becomes more and more of a problem.

Equatorial mounts are best, and cost the most too. They are much harder to set up, and depend upon obtaining a really good alignment of the polar axis so that as the earth spins, they stay exctly on target. I would only use a longer focal length on this type mount.

Now let me ask what camera he intends to use. Some are way better than others when it comes to astrophotography.


As for surprisingly good scopes, that are designed to be used with a camera, look at Astro-Tech. I have one and I really like it when I don't want to drag out a big scope.

https://www.astronomics.com/astro-tech-at72edii-refractor-ota-fpl-53-f-6.html

Now I also like to just mount the camera and a telephoto lens on an ALT-AZ type mount, and that can work really well too.

Further down the road, if this is where his passion is, then it might be time to pursue big scopes and big mounts.

Here is a taste of what a small scope (Astro-Tech AT60ED with field flattener - predecessor to the AT72ED) along with a Sony A6300 can accomplish. This is a stacked image of m101 of about a dozen images of 15 sec each at ISO 1250 to show you that small scopes can actually see a lot of things in the night sky. In fact, look above and to the left just a bit and see a small blob like object. It is a small galaxy that orbits m101. In fact if you look close, you can see its bright core has been pulled towards m101 by the immense gravitational pull of the much larger galaxy.

But the point I want to really make is that small scopes are easy and quick to set up. Large scopes require much more time to set up and I have to start while its still light out and carefully proceed through all the steps. They just don't lend themselves to spur of the moment viewing.

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