Anyone know much about these or what I should get. Mrs bird has decided she wants to see the stars and planets

my mate is into all this infact to em them. one has even build a shed were the roof retracts his set up is a few grand, the other lads scope wasa few hundred had like motors on it you type in the codes ie bearings and its moves there there ad them follows what you are looking at. its amazing what you can see star clusters and the planets look unreal winter is the best time of years to clear skys,

Anyone know much about these or what I should get. Mrs bird has decided she wants to see the stars and planets

give her a good smack on the back of the head....sorted:devil:

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give her a good smack on the back of the head....sorted:devil:

 

thats what a lot of woman are short of now days

This is an incredible piece of kit of for the money

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/products/skywatcher/skyliner-150p-telescope-mount-kit-89958/show.html

Thanks guys. So, as I know nothing about this kind of thing... What is it that I should look for? And what makes that Jessops one good?

If you need it for star gazing you need a reflecting scope not a lens type mate , bigger and better the mirror , the better the detail

So the one linked above, is that pretty good?

I knew zip about zeds until I joined this forum. now I know about 20%. My advice would be to find an amateur astronomy forum to join. Might even get some second hand bits reduced or even free?

I did a bit of research before buying one for my Dad lots of articles like the one linked below quote the Orion Skyquest as a great beginners scope.

I was at the point of buying one when I happened upon a piece that stated the Skywatcher was the same telescope under a different brand name, and cheaper!

http://scopereviews.com/begin.html

You will also want to buy a few eyepieces as generally you will want lower magnification to find the object, then higher to view.

Also a filter, as with a powerful stargazing telescope if you want to look at the moon there is too much light so you have to cut it down.

This is what these things a re capable of

As always it comes down to how much you want to spend, I Paid £265 for Dads telescope (hence why I think that is a cracking price)and £185 for the eyepiece set (overkill he didn't need that many)

The telescope does come with a couple I think anyway.

He is very happy with what he's got.

My advice is just read loads and decide what you actually want to do with it.

Hope that helps.

Martin

Red moon tonight guys and I will have a great view of it from our hotel balcony in a cloudless sky over Portugal