Cheap Scope

A friend wants a very cheap scope. There are some Scopewise 6"
Newtonians with mount and a few eyepieces on Ebay for $130 shipped. I
think this would be a good alternative to the Tasco 2 1/2" refractors
(10,000,000x power!) from Walmart he has been considering. Are these a
complete waste of time? I don't expect him to use it but a few times
then lose interest...

wrote in message
oups.com...
A friend wants a very cheap scope. There are some Scopewise 6"
Newtonians with mount and a few eyepieces on Ebay for $130 shipped. I
think this would be a good alternative to the Tasco 2 1/2" refractors
(10,000,000x power!) from Walmart he has been considering. Are these a
complete waste of time? I don't expect him to use it but a few times
then lose interest...


Consider the 4.5" Luminova made by Tasco. Don't buy used unless you can
actually
use it before you buy.

wrote:
A friend wants a very cheap scope. There are some Scopewise 6"
Newtonians with mount and a few eyepieces on Ebay for $130 shipped.

Hi:

DO NOT buy a telescope off Ebay. While there are some reputable
astronomy dealers who are selling on Ebay, most--if not all--the
inexpensive telescopes found there are the most horrible _crap_ you can
imagine. TASCO is somewhat better, but not much. Frankly, TASCO and
Ebay will go a long way toward killing anyone's interest in amateur
astronomy. ;-)

Direct your friend at http://www.telescope.com

and, expecially, as I noted in another thread, at the inexpensive but
very good StarBlast. For just a little more (actually, probably less
than the Ebay scope once the outrageous shipping charges these Ebay
merchants usually charge are figured in) your friend can have a _good_
telescope.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

See: http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/
For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog.

Most of those are just as bad, Read the FAQ listed below, then think about
the Stargazer Steve Dob, the 4.25inch of one of his newer models would do
far better than those others.



Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Sidewalk Astronomy
www.sidewalkastronomy.info


wrote in message
oups.com...
A friend wants a very cheap scope. There are some Scopewise 6"
Newtonians with mount and a few eyepieces on Ebay for $130 shipped.

Most of those are just as bad, Read the FAQ listed below, then think about
the Stargazer Steve Dob, the 4.25inch of one of his newer models would do
far better than those others.

I would like to second the recommendation for the Stargazer Steve kits.
Assembling one of these kits, especially with a young person, is a great
learning experience. How many posts have we seen here asking about
collimation/mirror cells/mounts etc? The process of building the scope
allows folks to answer their own questions, as they know how the scope works
first-hand. Pull the mirror cell? No big deal, as they installed it in the
first place! Collimation? Intuitively obvious, as they understand how the
scope goes together and how it all should line up. Are his kits as cheap as
an Asian dob? No. However, he uses higher quality materials, and what is
knowledge and understanding worth? A cheap dob gathering dust in the
basement isn't worth anything, and maybe building one of these kits provides
the knowledge, motivation and pride to get out and observe.

Dennis

Orion (telescope.com) has a 3 inch reflector for $99 on an alt-az mount
or $129 on a eq. Sky and Telescope rated it highly. Also, add a map
like Orion Deepmap 600.

I haven't seen reviews, but Celestron has 4.5 and even 5 inchers in
this price range.

There's tons of junk out there. In this price range, I'd stick to
Orion or maybe Celestron. Stretch the budget to $259 for an Orion xt6
dob, and he'd have a scope good enough that he shouldn't lose interest.

Just because somebody wants something, doesn't mean they can afford it. I
want an airplane. Can you recommend the best one I can get for under $500?
I want to go coast to coast and have it carry at least 4 people.

Tell your friend to buy a book and do his observing with you...

Doink


wrote in message
oups.com...
A friend wants a very cheap scope. There are some Scopewise 6"
Newtonians with mount and a few eyepieces on Ebay for $130 shipped. I
think this would be a good alternative to the Tasco 2 1/2" refractors
(10,000,000x power!) from Walmart he has been considering. Are these a
complete waste of time? I don't expect him to use it but a few times
then lose interest...

So you'd tell prospective car buyers to choose between a Lexus and
walking?

http://www.scopereviews.com/page1s.html#3 (Ed Ting writes for Sky &
Telescope and spends most of his time reviewing colossal dobs and apo's
with 4 or 5 figure price tags.)

Don't Be Evil wrote:
So you'd tell prospective car buyers to choose between a Lexus and
walking?

http://www.scopereviews.com/page1s.html#3 (Ed Ting writes for Sky &
Telescope and spends most of his time reviewing colossal dobs and apo's
with 4 or 5 figure price tags.)


Not sure what your first sentence relates to. At that page re the XT
4.5 Ed says: "I usually recommend against buying a telescope under about
$350. But this cute little XT won my heart and my enthusiastic
recommendation." Hardly "colossal" nor "4 to 5 figure".

Phil

My point is that the $200 XT4.5 won his recommendation while most of
the reviews on that site are of 18"+ dobs and $3000+ APO's. In other
words, even an aficionado and expert like Ed thinks highly of some
inexpensive scopes.

The first sentence is a response to those (Doink) that say not to
bother unless you can afford big $$$. The analogy I was trying to make
is that if you can't afford a Lexus, you buy a Chevy rather than drive
nothing.