Looking at the Stars

[Brookenstein]

I know there are some people on here that are star experts... so I was hoping someone could help me out here.

My son would like a telescope for his 7th birthday.

 I was wondering if you could look at what TRU sells and give your reccomendation.  Ideally $50 is what we would like to spend so this is what I want to know... keeping in mind this is for a 7 year old boy.
a) given the price restraint are any of these worth getting
b) is it worth spending a little more to get a better one, if so how much would he have to spend?
c) would he be able to see anything with these
d) realistically is he too young?
e) which one(s) would you reccomend (maybe top 2 or 3 if there wasn't much of a difference in case I can't find some of them)

http://www.toysrus.com/search/index.jsp?kw=telescope&f=Taxonomy%2FTRUS%2F2254197&f=Taxonomy%2FTRUS%2F2256399&f=Taxonomy%2FTRUS%2F2256543&fbc=1&fbn=Taxonomy%7CTelescopes&fbx=0

 
Thank you so much!!!!

[wmccall]

If your limit is $50, buy a real good set of binoculars.  Any new telescope under $100 will be a huge disapointment that will gather dust.    

A few things to watch out for.

Find out the diameter of the eye pieces.   .965 is pure sh!t.  1.25" is good. 2" is top end.

Any scope that advertises by its maximum magnification is the equivalent of selling spa motors by BHP.  My scope cost around $1500 and on a good night strains to give a good image over 300X.   If you see a small refractor under $100 that says 6000x, take it out of the box and smash it to pieces right in the store. You will be doing someone else who might have bought it a favor.   If you want to go up to about $150 look for a 4.5" reflector that has 1.25 eye pieces.    Such a scope will give great images of Jupiter and Saturn.  (And Bonnibelle's crappy moon  )If you spend $150 and the kid loses interest you can get a lot of it back in resale.  If you buy a $50 scope, you could only resell if for .50  Now I'm off to check your link.

[anne]

I'm no expert in scopes, but I used to be into birding, so I bought a really nice binocs, and they are quite good for looking at the stars, too. Not great, but still fun. I do wonder though if a 7 year old would be frustrated by the lack of stability. The cool thing about a scope is that you could direct it at something and then he could look through, and you'd know he was getting the right view. But then binocs are more multi-purpose, too

And I personally dont think he's too young, but I remember being about 7 and being really into the stars. I would have loved it.

[mattNY]

If you see a small refractor under $100 that says 6000x, take it out of the box and smash it to pieces right in the store. You will be doing someone else who might have bought it a favor.

Rofl, this struck me as pretty funny.  I can picture all those Walmart helpers piling on me with their happy-face smocks!

[Brookenstein]

Bill,

Did you have a chance to take a look?  My cousin thought the $52 Astrolin would work well enough given the circumstances.  I looked at Discovery Store and thought theres looked nicer..

http://shopping.discovery.com/category-1_TELESCOPES/3_TELE_BG_REFRACTCHARTS-27995.html  I thought the $99 looked nice, but you have to pay an extra $15 shipping fee in addition to regular shipping.  My mom wasn't sure how different it really was from the TRU one.

[wmccall]

I'm no expert in scopes, but I used to be into birding, so I bought a really nice binocs, and they are quite good for looking at the stars, too. Not great, but still fun. I do wonder though if a 7 year old would be frustrated by the lack of stability. .

What you say makes sense, however, the scopes under $100 are frequently not very stable (wobbly) and they feature such high magnifications and small field of view that any object will only stay in the field of view for not much more than a second or two, and that is if the scope is stable. (I can put Saturn in the view of my 12" scope at 200X and it will only stay in view for about 12 seconds because of the earth turning.  Add in the cheap finders on those scopes many times what you see in the finder and the scope itself doesn't line up.

[wmccall]

If you see a small refractor under $100 that says 6000x, take it out of the box and smash it to pieces right in the store. You will be doing someone else who might have bought it a favor.

Rofl, this struck me as pretty funny.  I can picture all those Walmart helpers piling on me with their happy-face smocks!

That is a funny image. Kind of a Don Quixote idea, which is funny to whom I usually compare Don Quixote too  

I belong to the Columbus Astrnomical Society  and am a member of several astronomy forums.  We always get a lot of request this time of year and are prepared for such questions.  If you go to GOOGLE and search on CHRISTMAS TRASH TELESCOPE   you will get an education.

Actually since you mentioned Walmart, they have been a little better than some other department stores. They usually have a few up in the front of the store and these, from my casual observation have been better than the average trash scope. I'm off to Walmart's site to see.

[wmccall]

Actually for the price, this one isn't bad.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5149658#Features+%26+Specifications



The eyepieces are decent.  The key to a 7 year old using this scope and not getting frustrated would be taking it outside in the daytime and aligning the viewfinder so that what yo see is the same as what is in the eyepiece. (should be done with the lower power ,25mm, eyepiece.)  Then if the night isn't windy, you will be ok.  Meade makes decent scopes, this is their bottom line and should be better than others such as TASCO or Gallelio.  

[wmccall]

Bill,

Did you have a chance to take a look?  My cousin thought the $52 Astrolin would work well enough given the circumstances.  I looked at Discovery Store and thought theres looked nicer..

http://shopping.discovery.com/category-1_TELESCOPES/3_TELE_BG_REFRACTCHARTS-27995.html  I thought the $99 looked nice, but you have to pay an extra $15 shipping fee in addition to regular shipping.  My mom wasn't sure how different it really was from the TRU one.

Those actually look like decent choices.  The main difference between the $79 & $99 is the pricier one is 5 pounds heavier which should help in stability.  The ones you listed are 70mm diameter which is considerably better than the 60mm one I referencd from Walmart as the image will be about 12% brighter.  I think you could do well with that one.

My scope is a meade by the way.  (slighly modified)

[drewstar]

Is there a good scope that works well in bushes and images aren't distorted if there are several panes of glass involved (like windows)?  Ideally not too heavy,  and can fold up quickly.  Is it easy to attatch camera's to these?

[wmccall]

Oh, yea, viewing a telescope while in your hot tub doesn't work real well.  The hot moist air fog's optics and makes the viewing pretty unstable.

[drewstar]

Seriously though Wm, where does someone get a scope like the  one in your pic?

What is the price range on something like that?

[wmccall]

Seriously though Wm, where does someone get a scope like the  one in your pic?

What is the price range on something like that?

It is a Meade 12.5" Dobsonian. The scope itself is excellent, the stand wore out and I replaced some of it with oak as you can see.  I added a higher power view finder (somewhere around $150,  computer guidance ($400) and a few other accessories. The model from Meade without my mods cost around $1200.

[drewstar]

DO you take pics with it? I'd be very interested in seeing what its like to look through somehting like that.

[tanstaafl2]

That meade scope looks nice with your modifications. I must say though that the perspective of the pic makes it look like a human cannonball is gonna come flying out of it at any moment!
 
Then again the tube is about 5 feet long and over a foot in diameter so that isn't too far from the truth!