Telescopes?

Question

ok...so i want to get someone a telescope for christmas, but i wanna get a good brand one. Ive been told to stay away from brands such as bushnell and those companies..but im told that meade is a good manufacturer.

i was also told that one with a magnification of 200-250x is pretty food.

can anyone kind of lead me in a direction here...my price range is about $150-200

any help is appreciated

Answer 1

I agree with most of zahbudar's comments except #7: zoom binoculars really aren't good enough optically for astronomical use.

You can't trust some brand names. For example, Meade makes some excellent telescopes, but it also puts its brand on a lot of cheap junk, which is what you would be looking at in this price range, so stay away from Meade. Orion is probably the most reliable brand name in the lower price range, scopes such as these:
http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=starter_scopes;jsessionid=1DF1E45A07B31EF0BE59786411CCCE72.ivprod1

Don't buy a scope from a discount or department store, or from eBay. Virtually everything they sell is worthless junk. Buy from a telescope store, either locally (look in the Yellow Pages) or online.

Magnification is totally irrelevant in buying a telescope, because any telescope can yield any magnification with the right eyepiece. In fact, most astronomical observation is done at magnifications of 40x to 60x; high magnification is only used for looking at planets, and that only works if the optics are good. You won't find many scopes with good optics in the price range you're considering, unfortunately.

The _only_ scope in your price range that I'd recommend from personal experience is the second scope on the page linked above, the Orion StarBlast. I've owned 25 scopes myself, and tested at least that many more in all price ranges, and the StarBlast is the only scope under $200 that gets my endorsement.

Answer 2

Hello Interested Party...

When it comes to Telescopes, you are dealing with "optics", and if you have purchased any prescription eye glasses recently, you know that good optics can be very expensive.
Your specified price range places you into the category of beginner or first time user (consumer products). That range of products goes from around $50 to around $400.

Meade is a fairly good mfgr in the mid range of telescopes.
I personally own a 6 Inch Meade Refractor Telescope and a Heavy Duty Meade Go-To Mount with a whole raft of accessories. So, I am fairly familiar with their products and service. I cannot fault or complain about anything from them.

In purchasing a low cost telescope you will be confronted with the following:

1.) Stars appear only as pin points of light, but you see more of them than you did without the optical assistance.

2.) Mounts for the telescope will be fairly shakey assemblies and take a long time to settle down so that your view is not wiggling all over the place.

3.) Planets, when you finally locate them, will be very small and you probably will not see to much detail.

4.) You will get amazing views of the Moon which is, of course, much closer than the planets or the stars.

5.) You can use the telescope for land views if you use an image errecting diagonal accessory...otherwise, the view will be upside down.

6.) The performance of the telescope can be improved to some extent at a later date by purchasing good quality used eyepieces to replace the fairly inexpensive ones furnished with the new scope. Try eyepieces owned by other people in your scope before buying similar ones yourself.

7.) Consider purchasing a really good set of zoom binoculars and simple tripod before buying this telescope because often the views will be similar, and the binoculars might just be a lot more convenient to use...similarly, check out hunter spotting scopes. In doing this, you will be leaning toward versatility and portability over "bargain basement telescope clumsiness."

Check by searching for
www.telescopes.com
www.cloudynights.com
www.astromart.com

Answer 3

unfortunately the range your talking about wont buy a quality telescope. a quality beginners scope will cost 300-700. the best bang for the buck is whats called a dobsonian reflector. these scopes start around 300 and are good at gathering light. the downside is that they tend to be large and therefore not very portable. as far as brands celestron, meade, zhumell and orion make good quality scopes. the most important factor is not so much magnification, but light gathering ability. look for the largest diameter tube you can afford, this will allow you to see dim objects, which the dobsonian excells. good luck, i hope this helps.

Answer 4

Do you want a reflector or refracting telescope? That decision alone is a big factor in how much the telescopes cost.
Yep, Mead...they are the best!

Answer 5

here is a starter scope, but unless you go nuts about astronomy (like me) or spend years studying it (like me) you can probably use this with good results the rest of your life!

http://www.telescopes.com/telescopes/reflecting-telescopes/meade114eqarequatorialreflector.cfm#navbar=a