Help in choice of telescope

wexfordman

Hi,

I ready the sticky on this, so hope people dont mind me posting this query. The reason I am posting it, is that I am trying to pick a telescop as a pressy for my wife, and I now nothing about them, as does my wife. So in addition to normal troubles a newbie would have to buying thier first telescope, I have the added difficulty in that I am buying it for herself, who is also a newbie.

Anyway, from what I think she would be interested in, here are some of what I think would be her requirements. We live in arural area btw if this is relevent.

1) She seems quite interested in moon and planet observation.
2) Low complexity setup, like to have a motor for tracking
3) I think she would be interested in photography with this also.
4) Very easy setup, I have seen some examples where you can for example select a "recommended view of the night" and it will auto track it for her.
5) I have also seen some with usb connection which will allow connection of PC.
6) Budget, we set a budget of 200 euro each for our christmas pressy, but the way I look at it, I am happy to spend more to ensure I get the right device. 200 euro on a mediocre telescope is 200 euro wasted, 350 on a decent one, is 350 well spent if you know what I mean.

The device would not neccessarily have to have all the above features to start off with, but upgradeable (for example camera or pc attatchments)

I genuinely think she will be interested in this, she has expressed an interest, but it needs to be a stress free introduction if you know what I mean.

Obviously, first port of call was ebay, here are some examples I was looking at:-

Mead ETX 90RA, second hand. I think its a good telescope, but not as "plug and play" as I should be looking at, "autostar" not available for example

http://cgi.ebay.ie/Meade-ETX-90RA-325-x-96mm-Motorized-Telescope-stand_W0QQitemZ320321463774QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Telescopes?hash=item320321463774&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14_trkparms=72%3A1300|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Seben, this includes a motor for auto tracking ?

http://cgi.ebay.ie/1400-150-Seben-6-Telescope-with-Automatic-Motor-Drive_W0QQitemZ330290322530QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Telescopes?hash=item330290322530&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1300|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1308

Another Seben, but with USB eypeice so she canhook up pc to it. This seems to be my prefferred opn at the moment, price and feature wise

http://cgi.ebay.ie/Telescope-Big-Boss-6-1400-150-Motor-USB-PC-Eyepiece_W0QQitemZ330290537424QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Telescopes?hash=item330290537424&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A3|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Skywatcher
http://cgi.ebay.ie/Skywatcher-Skymax-127-AutoTrak-Motorised-Telescope_W0QQitemZ230300372532QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Telescopes?hash=item230300372532&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A3|39%3A1|240%3A1318


Woudl really appreciate some advice, thanks.
Wexfordman

Guvnor

Hi Wexfordman,

I am a newbie myself but saw this on adverts.ie

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=79552&cat=32

I don't know maybe a good scope for the money?

Best of luck mate!

wexfordman

Thanks Guvnor,

Under pressure now, getting close to deadline ordering :-0

I think looking at it meade seems to be the way to go, as they seem to have the best features for a novice, and lots of interfacing to pc etc.

Affordability means the etx range, and at that I am looking at

etx80
etx90
etx125

the etx 125 being about 700 stg (my budget has had to go up), the etx90 about 300 stg. I am not sure what I will get in the difference beween the two , and if the extra 300 to 400 stg is worth it for the 125. Being a complete novice, I did look at the meade galary for the etx range of telescopes, and the one thing that did strike me is that all the photos in the gallery were from the etx125, none from the lower spec ones, leading me to think the lower spec are not great for astrophotography.

This may be a simplistic way of looking at it, any advice appreciated.
Wexfordman

rhonin

Hi Wexfordman

I'm a newbie as well but one thing I would say is that you shouldn't be thinking too much about astrophotography at this stage. I recently bought my telescope. Its a Celestron Astromaster 90EQ and I paid €175. I bought mine from astronomy.ie. BTW I don't work there or have any connection with them but when I rang them they were very helpful. It has an equatorial mount which can take a while to get used to but once you master it, its great. It doesn't have a pc interface but as a newbie I don't think you really need it.
I also use a book called "Turn left at Orion". Its an excellent book that shows you how to find objects in the sky easily.
The difference between the Meade ETX 125 and ETX 90 is the size of the Aperture. The larger the Aperture the more light the scope gathers. My telescope has a 90mm aperture and I'm well impressed with the images I see. However I have no intention of doing any astrophotgraphy yet. I'm still enjoying exploring the night sky.
I guess what I'm trying to say is don't have to overspend on your first scope and when you do get it enjoy it!

redman

Have a look at www.irishastronomy.org for extra advice on this