Me and my 7 year old would like to take up some astronomy and so seeing as though I'll have some extra cash this month and it's nearly christmyarse I thought it may be about time I got something.

I think I've found a decent telescope on fleabay but I have no idea if it actually is any good

Here's the spec
Aperture: 150mm
Focal Length: 1400mm (catadioptric system)
Faintest discernable stars: 13.8M! (over 5,650,000 Stars visible!!!)
Dawes Limit: 0.92 arc-seconds
Focal Ratio: 1:9
Eyepieces: 31.7mm (1.25“)
Magnification: PL 6,5mm/215x, PL 25mm/56x
Mount: equatorial mount
Weight: ~14kg
Extendable for astrophotography, usage of filters, etc. because of the 31.7mm (1.25“) accessory sockets

and it comes with this stuff
1x Plössl Eyepiece 31.7mm (1.25“) PL 6,5mm
1x Plössl Eyepiece 31.7mm (1.25“) PL 25mm
1x 1.5x Erecting Eyepiece 31.7mm (1.25“)
1x Moon Filter 31.7mm (1.25“)
1x Finder Scope 6x30
1x Equatorial Mount
1x Sturdy, vertically adjustable aluminium tripod

Does this sound like an okay setup?

Also what kind of thing could I expect to be able to see with a 150mm telescope? links to any comparable images would be great if you have them.

Also once I have the kit, are there any online sources which detail where I can look for particular things.

Cheers guys

I've got my youngest one of these for Xmas. I paid £29 from Amazon. They've gone up now, to £39 (went up 2 hours after I'd bought it in fact), but that's still pretty good value. Neat, compact, and seems pretty good quality. If he sticks with it, I'll upgrade, but for now ...

I don't need to worry about him not sticking with it, this is more for me than him, he's just showing an interest. What I'm looking at I think is around £180

Only problem is the fact you really want a motor to track objects otherwise Jupiter will move across your view (especially on high mag) and you will need to move the scope constantly to follow it.

Great for looking at the moon.

The_Metatron wrote:Who made the kit? Any model numbers?

I've just checked out some reviews, it's a seben big boss. Apparently it's going to be shite . Going to read some more reviews

mattwilson wrote:Me and my 7 year old would like to take up some astronomy and so seeing as though I'll have some extra cash this month and it's nearly christmyarse I thought it may be about time I got something.

I think I've found a decent telescope on fleabay but I have no idea if it actually is any good

Here's the spec
Aperture: 150mm
Focal Length: 1400mm (catadioptric system)
Faintest discernable stars: 13.8M! (over 5,650,000 Stars visible!!!)
Dawes Limit: 0.92 arc-seconds
Focal Ratio: 1:9
Eyepieces: 31.7mm (1.25“)
Magnification: PL 6,5mm/215x, PL 25mm/56x
Mount: equatorial mount
Weight: ~14kg
Extendable for astrophotography, usage of filters, etc. because of the 31.7mm (1.25“) accessory sockets

and it comes with this stuff
1x Plössl Eyepiece 31.7mm (1.25“) PL 6,5mm
1x Plössl Eyepiece 31.7mm (1.25“) PL 25mm
1x 1.5x Erecting Eyepiece 31.7mm (1.25“)
1x Moon Filter 31.7mm (1.25“)
1x Finder Scope 6x30
1x Equatorial Mount
1x Sturdy, vertically adjustable aluminium tripod

Does this sound like an okay setup?

Also what kind of thing could I expect to be able to see with a 150mm telescope? links to any comparable images would be great if you have them.

Also once I have the kit, are there any online sources which detail where I can look for particular things.

Cheers guys

You may find an equatorial mount tricky to use if you are not familiar with them. You need to polar align them. In the Northern hemisphere, the relatively bright star Polaris can be used to align well enough for visual work. The most important thing with a mount is that it is rock solid steady. A wobbly mount becomes frustrating really fast.

Your description says that the OTA is a CAT but not what sort. Given that it is described as an F9 system it is most likely an SCT or some variant thereof.

Generally a six inch aperture scope should be very good for veiwing the moon, planets and star clusters. For nebula and galaxies, much depends on your sky conditions (rural versus city). In the city even very large scopes will have difficulty with objects having a low surface brightness such that the urban skyglow is brighter. You should be at least be able to see M42 (the orion nebula) as it has quite a high surface brightness compared to most.