Telescope for Christmas??

katie11

Hi all,

My 6 year old is looking for a telescope from Santa. I've been having a look around but to be honest I haven't a clue what I'm looking at!! I have about €50 to spend here which I know isn't alot when it comes to these things but he is only 6 and I don't know how long this interest will last. I have been looking at these two:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-76-mini-dobsonian.html

http://www.vikingdirect.ie/catalog/catalogSku.do?id=5199291&pr=QDN&cm_mmc=Google-_-NB||S||PM||Gifts%20%26%20celebration||Product%20Type-_-Telescopes-_-telescopes&_$ja=kw:telescopes|cgn:Telescopes|cgid:4115116301|tsid:34430|cn:NB||S||PM||Gifts+%26+celebration||Product+Type|cid:97959941|lid:16732671|mt:Exact|nw:search|crid:16287407981
I would be really grateful for any help here.
Thanks

Drake66

A pair of 10x50 binoculars might be a good alternative. You can pick up a good pair for well under €50 on ebay or amazon. There is always the danger that a telescope might be used a few times and consigned to the attic. Binos are less fiddly to use and have a much wider field of view. Star clusters like the pleiades and hyades look much better through a pair of binoculars because you are using both your eyes. You can also see craters on the moon, the moons of jupiter and the phases of venus in a pair of 10x50s.

mr lee

got my son a telescope for his birthday when he was 7 ,we used it together at first ,he really enjoyed looking at the moon and some of the planets but he kinda lost interest a bit after a while,now im the only one that brings it out,i think it would a good present though,its something different and i bet none of his friends would have one.

Possedion

lidl are doing some next week... are they any good:

http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_16248.htm

randofmact

I'd love to know what your opinion of the Lidl telescope is. I have no experience of telescopes to date but i'm thinking of buying one... i was looking at this one

http://www.denismacsweeny.com/store/product/18267/Saxon-Refractor-767AZ-T%27scope/

i would assume that the above is better than the Lidl one?! Can someone with the experiecen give their opinion on both please.

katie11

Drake66 wrote: »

A pair of 10x50 binoculars might be a good alternative. You can pick up a good pair for well under €50 on ebay or amazon. There is always the danger that a telescope might be used a few times and consigned to the attic. Binos are less fiddly to use and have a much wider field of view. Star clusters like the pleiades and hyades look much better through a pair of binoculars because you are using both your eyes. You can also see craters on the moon, the moons of jupiter and the phases of venus in a pair of 10x50s.

You're probably right but it's Santa and I think he would be disappointed with binoculars. The Lidl one is a little out of my price range but I might stretch to that if it is a good one. I appreciate everyone's advice

Drake66

The advantage of that little dobsonian in your first link is that it is very user friendly: all you need is a small stool to balance it on and you're in business.

Popoutman

I would steer clear of the Vivitar - the mount will be as wobbly as Santa's belly after too much eggnog. The little dobsonian scope from FLO is a great little scope, that reviews well online, and is worth the cash. The magnification isn't going to go high with it but you can't realistically go much above 100-120x with a scope that small anyway.

The Lidl scope may be reasonable, but it will take a fair space to store it where the little dobsonian scope will easily fit in a wardrobe or press.

The Lidl scope will be able to give you upright images (but mirrored left-right) and the dobsonian will give you an image that is not reversed, but it may be rotated so that "up" on something you are looking at might be at 4 o'clock on a clockface when you look into it. Some people get annoyed by this, others don't.

The little scope has been well-recommended by real astronomers, and it was designed to be a good first telescope for someone dabbling in the hobby. You will be able to justabout see the rings of Saturn and the belts on Jupiter, but you won't have detailed views of either. Realistic expectations, and all will be good. It's made by SkyWatcher (Synta in China) so the manufacturing is better than most in the price bracket for sure.