"Steve" wrote in message
...
Hi all

I realise this subject has been done to death, but I was hoping somebody
would be patient enough to help make a suggestion of actual models of
telescopes that might be suitable for me to buy in the UK (and where to by
from exactly).

I'll admit I'm not an avid astronomer and therefore am looking for
something
that primarily will give me some nice views of the moon, and occasionally
some of the planets when they are brighter.
However, despite having a permanent location in a loft room,
with large Velux windows, we live in a suburban area with large amounts of
light pollution, so I'm not expecting great things.

Pointing scopes through a Velux window is definately NOT recommended. Other
than light pollution, a major curse of astronomers is unsteady air. A Velux
window will be a small aperture where warm air (from indoors) meets with
cold air (from outside) and will produce lots and lots of 'shimmer'.
General advice will be to get into the garden and preferably view away from
the house.

Would anyone be kind enough to offer a few pointers to what might be
suitable? And NO I don't want to buy any old model from a Department Store

I have a Meade 4504 telescope - this is a 4.5 inch f8 telescope that was
widely available from Costco in UK, and also from BCF, the UK official
importers. It has reasonable optices and comes with an equatorial mount and
a pair of electric drives that allows tracking. In fact, it comes with
GOTO, but I know that many people still prefer to find targets by dead
reckoning or star hopping. Once you have found your target, having the
ability to track in RA is very useful as it keeps the subject in the field
of view.

It is a relatively light telescope, so it is quick to move outdoors if the
mood takes you. As such it seems to meet your basic requirements. It can
also be taken apart to drive to darker skies with very little bother.

It seems to be relatively common on ebay or on loot.com for less than £200.

The main downside is the quality of the eyepieces as supplied through
Costco. This version came with 0.965" diameter EPs, and these are very poor.
It is possible to buy an adapter (£15) to fit standard 1.25" EPs, and a set
of these can be bought for use with this scope, but also with a mind to
keeping them for your next scope. I believe the official UK imports came
with better EPs, but I don't have personal experience.

Hope this helps

Owen