Hello All,
I am new to the forum and have a few questions about buying my first telescope.
A little background... I borrowed a pair of good quality binoculars and a tripod during the summer to observe Jupiter. I subsequently moved on to finding star clusters and some deep sky objects. Unfortunately I have had to return the binoculars, but feel I am ready for my first telescope. I have a limited understanding of the equipment available and there seems to be an overwhelming variety to choose from.
Any suggestions or reccommendations would be appreciated. I'm on a limited budget and have between 300-400 euro to spend. I was thinking of a Celestron Omni XLT 150. If anyone has any experience of this scope I would appreciate some feedback. Will I need different eyepieces or a barlow lens?
Many thanks in advance.
Jonathan
First Telescope Advice
Moderator: SAC Committee
- John O'Mahony
- Posts: 552
- Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:36 am
- Location: Limerick, Ireland
Hi Jonathan
Welcome to the SAC forums.
The Omni 150 xlt would be a fine starter scope. See the review on cloudy nights below
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ ... in/3124766
Do shop around when buying though to get the best deal. Have a look at
www.telescope-service.com
www.telescopehouse.com
Skywatcher make pretty good scopes for a reasonable price also. If you can push to a 200mm diameter scope you won't regret it.
regards
John
Welcome to the SAC forums.
The Omni 150 xlt would be a fine starter scope. See the review on cloudy nights below
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ ... in/3124766
Do shop around when buying though to get the best deal. Have a look at
www.telescope-service.com
www.telescopehouse.com
Skywatcher make pretty good scopes for a reasonable price also. If you can push to a 200mm diameter scope you won't regret it.
regards
John
-
- Posts: 2980
- Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2007 2:45 am
- Location: Ballycasey, Co. Clare
Hi Jonathan.
Welcome aboard.
You can get a lot of value now for 300 Euro for a scope.
I suppose the first question you need to ask yourself is what kind
of observing do you want to do.
A hard one to answer if you have not looked through many scopes before.
I know you are unable to attend the meetings but you are absolutely
more than welcome to come along to any of our observing sessions
and have a look through ours.
This should give you a good idea of what is best for what.
I'd also say that Lidl each year run a great offers on scopes.
I'm not talking about the smaller go-to ones,
they are little better than toys,
but they do sometimes offer bigger scopes which are great.
Also don't overlook the benefits of a simple Dobsonian.
For 300 Euro you would get big aprature for relatively little cost.
All the go-to and electronic gizmos are nice but size matters!
Also...
a good link here
http://www.telescope-service.com/news/e ... vents.html
Welcome aboard.
You can get a lot of value now for 300 Euro for a scope.
I suppose the first question you need to ask yourself is what kind
of observing do you want to do.
A hard one to answer if you have not looked through many scopes before.
I know you are unable to attend the meetings but you are absolutely
more than welcome to come along to any of our observing sessions
and have a look through ours.
This should give you a good idea of what is best for what.
I'd also say that Lidl each year run a great offers on scopes.
I'm not talking about the smaller go-to ones,
they are little better than toys,
but they do sometimes offer bigger scopes which are great.
Also don't overlook the benefits of a simple Dobsonian.
For 300 Euro you would get big aprature for relatively little cost.
All the go-to and electronic gizmos are nice but size matters!
Also...
a good link here
http://www.telescope-service.com/news/e ... vents.html