My wife has asked for a telescope for christmas. She wants to look at Planets so a refractor scope is needed.

Ill be looking at the lower end and currently a celestron Astromaster 90EQ for £149 looks like a good buy.

Any advice thoughts?

I also need a phone holder for the eye piece but I am finding it hard to find what I think I need. Can anyone point me in the right direction, or again, any advice.

I have not seen this discussed on LCB before so come on, dont let me down!!!

I quite fancy one as well so will be looking on with interest.

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Originally posted by bi22le
I have not seen this discussed on LCB before so come on, dont let me down!!!

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Originally posted by bi22le
I also need a phone holder for the eye piece but I am finding it hard to find what I think I need. Can anyone point me in the right direction, or again, any advice.

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I have the Astromaster 130EQ, and would recommend that as a starter scope. Anything smaller and although you can see things, they're just too small to get any 'wow' factor. With a 130 they're still not big, but large enough to get definition.
You'll be able to see ice caps on Mars, the Horsehead nebula, Jupiter's moons...
a 90 would be ok for looking at details on the Moon, and you'd see Saturn's rings.
Also, if you/she get into it a 130 will last longer before you want to upgrade, a 90 will need upgrading quite quickly.

Edit...also, the 130's cheaper? Astromaster 130EQ

[Edited on 29/11/16 by christim]

There are some very good Russian refractors available - through eBay, I believe*. The problem I found with refractors is that you have to use a 90-degree eyepiece adaptor and a stool to see anything, unless you have a huge tripod. At least with a reflector you are looking in near the top of the tube. When I looked through the refractor mentioned below I was hunched over the eyepiece while sitting on a stool; when I used the reflector I was standing on a stepladder!

When I visited my brother in Inverness recently I had a chance to look though some of the telescopes owned by the Inverness Astronomy Society (I think that's their name). The biggest was a computer-controlled 15" job - impressive! However, I also looked through a 10" reflector, and I found it easier to see images in that.

What did freak me out a bit later on was looking at the sun directly through a scope - against everything I'd ever been told - but it was a very special device. The primary lens had all sorts of coatings to reduce the light's intensity, then the image went through a thing called an etalon, which is a complex device to filter out all but a narrow band of light. It was weird but wonderful to watch prominences and sun-spots as they happen. As you can imagine, these scopes are expensive - the one I looked through was just short of £2000, and it wasn't very big! Add the cost of a massive tripod plus a selection of good eyepieces, and it all add up.

As for the Andromeda galaxy - not many people realise how big it is in the sky - it's about 6 times the apparent width of the moon! However, it's too faint to see without a scope.

Andromeda size

* Used to be available - not sure if you can still get them... they were good though, and came in a big wooden box with loads of accessories.

[Edited on 29/11/16 by David Jenkins]

As coozer I shall also watch with interest, I saw the ones mentioned in town the other day they look good. It sounds amazing that you will be able to see Mars ice caps, Jupiter's moons and the rings of Saturn. Although I have always been fascinated by the stars I didn't think you would be able to see such detail with relatively cheap telescope.

Not much use getting involved with astronomy where I live, as the light pollution is dreadful - there's a vaguely orange sky most clear nights. This is due to the town lights of Ipswich, Colchester, a nearby large village, plus the lights of the A12 and Felixstowe docks.

Hence my interest in solar telescopes... if I could afford one...

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Originally posted by bi22le
My wife has asked for a telescope for christmas. She wants to look at Planets so a refractor scope is needed.

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Thanks for the responses.

After reading some buying guides and speaking to Wex Photographic is send that the best type of scope to view planets is a refractor scope. So that's what I have been looking for.

I have a basic understanding of the scopes and what to look for but considering I have never used one I don't actually know what I am taking about!

We bought one a lot of years ago. My advice is make sure you get a decent mount/tripod - at those magnifications you need a really solid mount! I would also go for one that automatically tracks objects - sounds like it takes half the fun away but we got frustrated when one of us found an object, said 'wow look at that' only for it to be gone from the viewfinder by the time you got to look!

Telescopes are a waste of money. A small mirror is all you need to see Uranus.





Sorry, somebody had to say it.

A Maksutov-Cassegrain scope might be a better buy (longer focal length and larger aperture for your money compared to a refactor) and work well for planetary viewing giving nice sharp images. Irrespective of the type of telescope, low quality eyepieces will limit performance and cheaper scopes do tend to come with pretty crappy eyepieces.

I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Stargazerslounge. Stacks of information and lots of helpful people.

[Edited on 29/11/16 by MikeRJ]

What's the difference celestial and solar telescope?

See my post above - solar telescopes allow you to look directly at the sun due to special (and expensive) internals. This means that you can look at the sun without instantly frying your retina...

There alternative ways of observing the sun - use an ordinary telescope to project the image onto a white card, for example. Ideally, the white card is held in a special frame, usually boxed in so you can see the image clearly. Very safe, and you can still see an amazing amount of detail.

[Edited on 29/11/16 by David Jenkins]

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Originally posted by 02GF74
Telescopes are a waste of money. A small mirror is all you need to see Uranus.

Or if its my wifes, a large mirror




I bought a 150mm refractor telescope a few years ago, and have never seen a bloody thing trough it, so it went back in its box, and stayed there

but I might try it again at some point,

steve

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JoelP - 29/11/16 at 07:34 PM

pretty sure you can get solar filters for any telescope.

As with all things, id suggest a secondhand one on ebay is better than a new one.

Im going to make my own one day!

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David Jenkins - 29/11/16 at 07:46 PM

The solar filters that go at the back of the scope (i.e. in the eyepiece mount) are supposedly very dangerous - there is a risk of them breaking due to heat and exposing your eye to the full blast of light, causing instant blindness in that eye.
There are different filters that go across the front of the telescope, made of similar stuff to the plastic they put in solar eclipse glasses. This is a lot safer as it takes the majority of the energy out of the sunlight before it gets magnified. It's important to get the proper stuff from a telescope supplier though (it's cheap enough).

[Edited on 29/11/16 by David Jenkins]

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907 - 30/11/16 at 05:05 PM

I've got a 6" refractor home build.

I bought this book. Build Yourself A Telescope For Only Fifty Pounds.




Paul G

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907 - 30/11/16 at 05:07 PM

I've got a 6" refractor home build.

I bought this book. Build Yourself A Telescope For Only Fifty Pounds.




Paul G

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steve m - 30/11/16 at 05:13 PM

So good he said it twice

But its a good idea though!

[Edited on 30/11/16 by steve m]

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907 - 30/11/16 at 07:58 PM

So that's why it cost £100

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David Jenkins - 30/11/16 at 08:31 PM

One for each eye...

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907 - 30/11/16 at 09:21 PM

It does have an iris.

This is great for looking at the moon, as you can cut down the light.


The lens came from the camera in a WW11 Mozzie.
I wonder what its seen in its time?

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MikeRJ - 30/11/16 at 11:31 PM

It's quite possible to make your own refractor, including grinding your own lenses but it's a long and involved job.

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jps - 30/11/16 at 11:39 PM

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Originally posted by David Jenkins
Not much use getting involved with astronomy where I live, as the light pollution is dreadful - there's a vaguely orange sky most clear nights. This is due to the town lights of Ipswich, Colchester, a nearby large village, plus the lights of the A12 and Felixstowe docks.

Hence my interest in solar telescopes... if I could afford one...

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Funny you say that, I live on the outskirts of Colchester and think the view of the night sky down here is incredible (certainly compared to growing up in a village handily positioned between Sheffield, Barnsley and Manchester!!!)

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907 - 1/12/16 at 07:45 AM

I have a mate who bought a scope, set up the spotting scope one afternoon so that it was parallel with the main body,
put it up in his garage loft, and that's where it has stayed. Not uncommon apparently.



We are spoilt nowadays with photo's on the internet taken from the Hubble and suchlike so that when you see the
likes of Saturn for example as a white blob with a line going though the centre, and it's the size of a golf ball at 100 metres
then we can only be underwhelmed. Especially when your then told it will be another 5 years before the planet tips enough
for the rings to have shape and look like rings.


( Old astro joke. I would look at Saturn's rings but I don't have the inclination. )

Paul G

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David Jenkins - 1/12/16 at 10:58 AM

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Originally posted by jps

Funny you say that, I live on the outskirts of Colchester and think the view of the night sky down here is incredible (certainly compared to growing up in a village handily positioned between Sheffield, Barnsley and Manchester!!!)

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After the hurricane in 1987 there were power cuts across most of Suffolk & north Essex for a day or two - the night sky was amazing! Nowadays even on the darkest nights there's always a sodium yellow tinge to the sky. You can get directions to the local towns (and Felixstowe docks) at night just by looking for the glow in that part of the sky.

Up near Inverness the sky is very dark once you're away from the towns, and their observatory has very good vision most nights.

If I ever got serious about astronomy again I'd probably concentrate on the sun (with the correct gear, of course!).

Coming back to the original post - you can get a tremendous amount from a GOOD pair of binoculars firmly mounted on a sturdy tripod. You'll certainly see a lot more of the Milky Way than you've ever seen before. As Paul said above - an amateur's telescope won't give superb images of the planets, so maybe that's not a good target to aim for. Even looking through a 10" or 12" reflector set up by an enthusiast in Inverness, Andromeda was a bit underwhelming - a long fuzzy streak. Planets would just be dancing fuzzy discs most nights.

[Edited on 1/12/16 by David Jenkins]

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SteveWallace - 1/12/16 at 01:39 PM

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Originally posted by MikeRJ
It's quite possible to make your own refractor, including grinding your own lenses but it's a long and involved job.

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I made my own reflector a few years ago, including grinding the 8" mirror. The tube was made out of PE water main pipe and the mount from plywood. The low friction 'washers' to allow it to rotate easily were two LP's from the local charity shop - Max Bygraves IIRC. It cost about £100 all in, but another £100 for a good set of eyepieces (which I now use on my professionally made one).

Great experience to see the clouds on Jupiter etc with something I put together in the garage.

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