Re: Astronomy - Telescope for Teenager
Posted: October 18th, 2021, 6:55 pm
Just reading through this thread, the best advice given was (imho) to join a local astronomy club.
It will give both of you the chance to talk with people in your area and to have local astronomers guide you through the sky, demo starting different bits of kit. You don't need to buy anything to begin with, and the local club can help you with loan kit and recommended sources and decent 2nd hand kit as well
Astronomy is like many other subjects, a big topic with lots of specialist and niche areas within it. Depending on your daughter's interests, different kit will be recommended. They will also have meetups at good "dark sky" sights, so help you get the best viewing for miles around, rather than maybe suffer light pollution every night.
A few questions to consider:
Does she like the challenge of hunting and finding stuff, or will she lose interest/get frustrated if she can't see her target quite quickly? That may dictate whether manual or automated "go to" mounts are a better choice.
Does she want to learn star lore and to be able to navigate her way around the sky, or does she want to investigate specific stars? Does she want to take photos, or is she happy to do visual astronomy and use the internet for any images?
Does her GCSE in astronomy recommend anything, or does the syllabus have any segments where specific kit would be more useful?
Re kit itself, as others have said, a wobbly mount is bad news for viewing, and a disaster for photography. You were looking at the Celestron SLT and SE ranges. Check the maximum weight of kit for the tripod, and remember that eyepieces can weigh several hundred grammes, as well as adding a spotter scope or camera back, and you don't want to get anywhere close to the maximum weight, as that is only feasible in perfect conditions, not on a breezy Yorkshire evening!
Seeking of Yorkshire evenings, will she put up with cold nights (you can buy heated jackets etc.) or will it be better to do "remote" astronomy from the PC?
I'd recommend reading skyatnightmagazine.com, including kit reviews to get a feel for the choices and compromises that different kit configurations offer. Forum websites like cloudynights.com are also pretty good for getting more experienced astronomers' viewpoints.
Not sure how far away they are from you, but Rothervalleyoptics.co.uk have a good reputation for customer service.
Hope it goes well. It's a great hobby.
VRD
It will give both of you the chance to talk with people in your area and to have local astronomers guide you through the sky, demo starting different bits of kit. You don't need to buy anything to begin with, and the local club can help you with loan kit and recommended sources and decent 2nd hand kit as well
Astronomy is like many other subjects, a big topic with lots of specialist and niche areas within it. Depending on your daughter's interests, different kit will be recommended. They will also have meetups at good "dark sky" sights, so help you get the best viewing for miles around, rather than maybe suffer light pollution every night.
A few questions to consider:
Does she like the challenge of hunting and finding stuff, or will she lose interest/get frustrated if she can't see her target quite quickly? That may dictate whether manual or automated "go to" mounts are a better choice.
Does she want to learn star lore and to be able to navigate her way around the sky, or does she want to investigate specific stars? Does she want to take photos, or is she happy to do visual astronomy and use the internet for any images?
Does her GCSE in astronomy recommend anything, or does the syllabus have any segments where specific kit would be more useful?
Re kit itself, as others have said, a wobbly mount is bad news for viewing, and a disaster for photography. You were looking at the Celestron SLT and SE ranges. Check the maximum weight of kit for the tripod, and remember that eyepieces can weigh several hundred grammes, as well as adding a spotter scope or camera back, and you don't want to get anywhere close to the maximum weight, as that is only feasible in perfect conditions, not on a breezy Yorkshire evening!
Seeking of Yorkshire evenings, will she put up with cold nights (you can buy heated jackets etc.) or will it be better to do "remote" astronomy from the PC?
I'd recommend reading skyatnightmagazine.com, including kit reviews to get a feel for the choices and compromises that different kit configurations offer. Forum websites like cloudynights.com are also pretty good for getting more experienced astronomers' viewpoints.
Not sure how far away they are from you, but Rothervalleyoptics.co.uk have a good reputation for customer service.
Hope it goes well. It's a great hobby.
VRD