Astronomy Shed UK Astronomy Forum

Hello, My name is Steve, 56 and live in Skipton.
I don't even have a telescope yet but always been interested in Astronomy and several times have almost bought a telescope but due to family and work commitments really never had the time, or more to the point the money. Now I am a bit older, kids almost flown the nest and heading quickly towards possible retirement I am once again hoping to dip my toe into Astronomy.
Rather than just go on Amazon and buy any old telescope or risk a 2nd hand off Ebay thought I would join a good forum and get some advise as to what to buy.
So please bear with me and what might seem some stupid questions as my actual knowledge is very limited.

Steve

Hi Steve a warm welcome to the Astronomy Shed forum, this is a great hobby.

Welcome to the shed Steve- I am also in Yorkshire- ask any questions- no worries

Julian

Welcome!

Thank you all for the welcome.

Welcome to the Shed, you are wise in waiting to ask what to buy, you'll get good advice.

Carole

Hello Steve. I'm not from the Yorkshire, but I do visit there off and on. Take a little time and ask a few questions. decide what you want to see or photograph. The best telescope is the one that is being used, Astronomy can be a great way to spend an evening. Good luck

To offer a reply we need to know

what you can afford, what you want to use it for as it is horses for courses

spacehawk wrote:To offer a reply we need to know

what you can afford, what you want to use it for as it is horses for courses

Not 100% sure yet myself.
I know you can get a telescope for under £100 and could spend £1000's (although the wife might have something to say about it ).

I would like to be able to see at least some reasonable detail of the planets at least up to Jupiter.
I am guessing you would need a fairly high powered telescope (high magnification large aperture) to see Saturn in good detail.
I would also like to be able to look at some of the nebulas etc in deeper space without them being just a slightly larger white light. This maybe hoping too much from a starter telescope just not sure?

Unless it is going to cost a lot more then also would like some form of computer control to track objects and maybe go to certain objects automatically.

And of course at some stage would want to take photographs.

As to budget then it depends. Unfortunately just had to help daughter out with repairs on car so some money I had aside has gone but I do not want to scrimp too much but do wonder if
a) I am better buying something reasonably cheap (round the £100 mark) to just lever me into the hobby and then save over a period of months to get something that will really keep me entertained (but still not £1000's say around £500 to £600).
or
b) Buying something in my price range of about £300 to £400 to begin with.

I have looked around and nearly just went ahead and bought a "SkyWatcher Explorer-150P" but held off as I think I do need some guidance.

Problem with just searching the internet is that a lot of the info comes from the manufacturers and so of course they all sound good, also they never really show you any pictures of what they can see, and lastly I might have too great expectations as I see lots of photos from amateur astronomers and like they are fantastic photos of say Venus and you can see all sorts of detail but I don't know if they have massive very expensive telescopes to see in such detail at such brightness.

Sorry for waffling on but that's kind of where I am at the moment.


Steve

From my very limited knowledge I have gathered my thoughts are as follows.

To observe Jupiter in any detail I need around X300 magnification, but need a large aperture and to get good images require somewhere with minimal light pollution.

With such a telescope there are several deeper space objects, such as Hercules cluster, Pinwheel galaxy, Andromeda that you can see to some extent, again the quality of the image very much dependent on aperture and lack of light pollution.

As I say if this is too much to expect from a £400 telescope then that is my lack of knowledge, and hence why I am asking, but I am not expecting to see a football sized planet in my lens.

Steve