Hi,

My OH and I are looking to spend a good Thousand on a decent telescope at xmas BUT in the meantime I want to buy him for his birthday next week a cheaper one($1-200)just to get the juices going, does anyone have any recommendations(on both)

Thanks

Dont buy the cheap one would be my recomendation, its almost certain to disappoint. Decent binoculars are a better bet and will get more use after you stump up for a good telescope.

I have a cheapo 6" reflector I bought off the local kijiji, its OK for some simple stuff, but gets an F for anything requiring accuracy or decent light gathering. Not bad as I only paid $50, but if I had paid its new cost of $300+ I would be unimpressed. The main weakness is in the rigidity of the tripod, it shakes like crazy as you track objects...the world spins pretty fast when you are looking up with a lot of magnification! We can just about make out the moons around Jupiter, but more than that is asking too much of it. Looking at the moon is really fun though, on the three nights a year its not too cold, too cloudy or too buggy!

do you reckon yu could see keannu reeves in his bathroom with that?

Not from my deck...and he would be upside down if I could?


Another thing in favour of good binoculars

First of all, as Iain said, don't buy the cheapie in the interim. Use that money for good eyepieces for the proper scope.

Best bang for the buck is a Dobsonian reflector. The drawbacks are that they are mounted axially (no autotracking or setting circles) so you REALLY have to know the sky to avoid being disappointed. They are also rather unwieldy.

Next up, Newtonian reflector. Can be mounted equatorially, so you can use setting circles and motor drive. Also large and unwieldy, but you might be willing to live with that to save money.

Large refractor. Most cheap (under $200) toy telescopes are small refractors on flimsy tripods. A large (6 to 8 inch) refractor is a fine instrument, but will be far more than $1000.

Catadioptric design. Meade, Celestron. Much shorter than other reflectors, so easier to store and transport. Can be mounted equatorially. Pricy, but for many people these are a good choice because of convenience.

check these guys, I've been thinking of getting one myself but waiting to spend on a decent one rather than one from Canadian Tire.

http://www.rasc.ca/info/vendors.shtml

Don't know a thing, but these guys http://www.all-startelescope.com/ should be able to help (seen their sign whilst driving past). Apparently they do star at night viewing things as well.

Thanks, this was an excellent site, looks like a cheapo is out, have to pay $500 for something even half decent so will prob save up and just go for something more expensive, the pics taken from the top range ones are amazing!

Not everyone can afford the hubble telescope unfortunately

From what Ive seen the top end imaging detectors cost nearly as much as the telescopes do! The picture above was taken by holding my camera against the eyepiece, kind of the other end of the spectrum

Someone is advertising a Meade 2045 for $350, it has a little motor doody and a thing to attach your camera so you can take piccies, its old though and hard to find reviews on, anyone seen one?

Coventry

No idea but I'll look into it for you.

Maybe , but you could easly mistake him for a shelving unit

Or any other inanimate object .