best telescope for a 15 y.o?

Stressica

So My sister seems to have a bit of interest in astronomy (well often anyway she'll drag me outside on a clear night to point out all these constellations ; I have no idea btw what she's talking about )

So i thought a telescope is a gift she might appreciate. She's not 100% into it so I don't want to spend more then €100. . . I don't know if that's even possible?

Anyway had a quick look in Argos.. and saw this for €64 something any good? /:

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/1228764/Trail/searchtext%3ETELESCOPE.htm#tabrev

Rhys Essien

Id say just buy her something cheap.It will probably be forgotten about after a few weeks anyway.

murphyme2010

You could try this.

It's in your budget and is probably easier to manage than the Argos scope.

Michael.

username123

I'd say get her a nice pair of binoculars. Even if her interest in astronomy fades, the binoculars have a variety of uses.

I'm fairly attached to my Celestron 8x42s, perfect for a beginner in astronomy.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-821436-Nature-42-Binoculars/dp/B003LKWA4U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1387545459&sr=8-2&keywords=celestron+binoculars+8x42+nature

Although you're probably too late for online buying.

ThunderCat

To echo the poster above, I think a set of binoculars are the way to go.

It's great that a girl of her age is expressing an interest in the constellations and if you go down the route of getting her a cheap telescope then the quality will not be up to much and might extinguish her interest in the stars there and then.

The difference bincoulars and telescopes is that you are viewing a far wider portion of the sky with binoculars than with a telescope. In the telescope the view is very narrow, like looking at the sky through a straw almost. With the binoculars she will see the constellations in a similar way as she does with the naked eye but in more detail as other stars in the constellation will be visible with the binouclars but not with the naked eye.

One last thing. Numbers relating to binoculars can be confusing. What you need to do is get a pair of 7x35 or 8x40 binoculars (dont bother with any binoculars that have different numbers to the ones above) and buy a pair that are as close to your budget limit as possible, as naturally they will be better quality. Go too cheap and the binoculars will be worse than useless. And dont get any binoculars that have "zoom" written on them.

Best of luck.

Novaman

Definitely a pair of binoculars - a pair of 7x50 or 10x50 would be an ideal starter.

Also you can download any starmap for free on the web, or indeed get any free astronomy app for a smart phone, stellarum comes tomind.

It would be a lot easier to learn the sky this way than loosing your way with a scope with higher powers and getting lost.

NM

Capt'n Midnight

IIRC Lidl / Aldi had some 60mm binoculars recently for €20 - €30

and they'd beat any 60mm toy telescope

at this stage Kodak is just a brand name

they also had a bird watching scope thingy


any number of free programs to show stars, and don't forget google sky map for Android smartphone - real easy