Need help with picking out a telescope for my dad.
November 2, 2014 3:09 PM   Subscribe

My 74 year old dad mentioned he always wanted a telescope, his birthday is coming up so I would like to get him one but I am clueless what to get. My price range is going to have to be below $100 but since he is a beginner I was hoping I could still get him a good one around that price range. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
posted by just asking to Technology (10 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I think it was an ask.me that pointed me to these binoculars as an alternative to a telescope. You would still want a tripod with them but they are quite well reviewed for casual stargazing and I personally find the binocular view easier to deal with than going one-eyed.
posted by acanthous at 3:43 PM on November 2, 2014 [6 favorites]


Assuming this is for star-gazing, I would actually get a him a decent pair of binoulars like this (which is what I use for star-gazing on my back deck) and a tripod instead, as most quality telescopes are going to be out of your budget, though if you really want to get him a telesocpe, this one is pretty good for the price, though it's about $8 over your budget. You can go even try this one and use the extra money left over to get some decent eyepieces and a Barlow lens. I still think the binoculars are a better idea, simply because if he doesn't like/use the telscope, he still has a pretty good set of binoculars for other uses besides star-gazing.
posted by KingEdRa at 3:46 PM on November 2, 2014 [3 favorites]


I've got the 15x70 binoculars that KingEdRa links. The work great, and have survived a drop or two from chest-high, which is a good feature for me. No usable tripod mount, though.

I use the for a bit of moon-gazing and a lot of people-watching as I have a lake view at work.

Protip: grip the binocs with your hands close to the large lenses, to form the largest triangle you can with two hands and the spot where the eyepieces rest on your face. Much more stable than if you choke your grip up close to your face, which is what I've seen most people do on first try. The less energy and effort you spend stabilizing the binocs, the longer you can bear the weight on your own.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:25 PM on November 2, 2014 [3 favorites]


Some here look to be in your price range and actually fairly good for the cost. I'm a bit suprised actually. Perhaps it's owing to phone-cams making lenses more common.

And as other's have said or alluded to, and in my experience, it's more to useful invest in a a product that gives you a stable platform than it is to invest in the optics and erm, at 74 [I'm 50] it is difficult to be steady.
posted by vapidave at 5:43 PM on November 2, 2014


As has been said, $100 doesn't buy much, but you can get a usable telescope for around that much.

A lot depends on the conditions under which your father would be using the telescope, and what he's actually interested in viewing. Many beginners will be happy to get good views of the moon, Jupiter & its moons, Saturn and its rings, and maybe a few double stars and open clusters. These are all easy to see from an urban or suburban light-polluted setting, but they require more magnification than you'll get from binoculars. For this sort of beginner viewing, something like this might work, although it's a little over your budget. I like that this scope has enough magnification to do a decent job with Jupiter & Saturn, and the finder is a style that is really easy to use, and the mount looks pretty solid, which is a point where a lot of the department-store and off-brand scopes fall down.

If, on the other hand, he will have access to a dark sky (one where the milky way can at least be glimpsed on moonless nights), then a good pair of binoculars would be more rewarding, for looking at star fields & maybe even some nebulae. Or, a small reflector, maybe a 4.5" dobsonian, but these are mostly well over $100.
posted by mr vino at 6:01 PM on November 2, 2014


I would get him a book instead. Terrence Dickinson's The Backyard Astonomer gives some great foundational education and a nice rundown of the types of telescopes available, so he can make a choice from that. This is one of those instances where the signal to noise ratio of a good book is so much better than the Internet.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:53 PM on November 2, 2014


Dobsonian telescopes, by the way, were designed to make telescopes more accessible-- they're reflector telescopes with cheap-to-buy lazy-susan bearings in the mount. The mount rotates at the base, and pitches up and down, a so-called Alt-Azimuth mount, popularly the Dobsonian mount after John Dobson, an amateur astronomer and evangelist of amateur astronomy and telescope building.

Owing to the difference in the way the stars move in the sky compared to the way the telescope is steered, they're lousy for any attempt at automated/mechanized star-tracking unless you're at the equator or the poles. But for spotting objects over a short term, they're brilliantly powerful, and often easily portable.

You can even make your own; if that's something your dad could and would do, buying some of the more exotic parts plus a book would be great. The entire telescope is going to blow out the $100 budget, according to this article from last year which plotted the cost (less one's own labor) of homebuilt vs. purchased Dobsonians.

Here's the first guide I found.

On the other hand, this might be next year's gift if he gets into the hobby with your telescope/binocs. As with all things, you can substitute money for time-and-effort in building these things, but maybe he's the sort he would follow through on days (weeks?) of constant glass grinding to create the primary [mirror].
posted by Sunburnt at 10:00 PM on November 2, 2014


I was in K-Mart and they are having a going out of business sale. Not sure if it's all of them or just the one in Ames, IA. Anyway, they had a 240 times scope for $69. They still had quite a few.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:27 AM on November 3, 2014


Like folks said above, binoculars may be a better choice for a beginning stargazer. Not only are they cheaper, but they are much easier to use and there's a lot of interesting things you can see with them. These Orion 7x50 binoculars are excellent optical quality and just about $100. Most guides recommend 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars; not too much zoom. 20x zoom is very hard to handhold.

But maybe your dad already has done binoculars? For telescopes, the do-it-yourself Galileoscope is loved. It's about $50 and is by all accounts easy to build, very durable, and not bad for the price. If you'd rather not have to build it, the Celestron FirstScope is about $40 and has a good reputation.

If you want to do more research on buying scopes, the Heretic's Guide has good info. Orion and Celestron are both decent brands, although at the low end some of what they sell is crap. Absolutely do not buy a telescope at a mall or big box store. They are garbage.
posted by Nelson at 8:28 AM on November 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


The big issues (1) where are you located? dark skies? (2) and what do you want to look at? Moon? Mars? Pleiades? If it's somewhat dark you can do well, if the idea is relaxed, low expectation fun using a telescope. Bright urban skies are a problem.

The main issue is that the space telescopes have accustomed us all to grand views views which cannot remotely be approached with inexpensive equipment (or expensive equipment, to be clear). Amateur astronomy is all about the hunt, trying to find and see things with low expectations about the dazzle, but enjoying the challenge.

However, if he and you are realistic I agree with the big binoculars recommendation, but only if you can find a very big sturdy tripod for cheap (think about the need to be under the eyepieces, and not have too much shake. I cannot agree regarding the galileoscope, it does not work well, and all telescope require a mount or tripod.

The Heretic's guide is good on this.
posted by lathrop at 8:11 PM on November 3, 2014


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