Nowt to see here

Jsacker

Nowt to see here

forgotmyname

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAzhOSbxMiI

martinthebandit

I have always fancied building something like this, parts list is a bit out of your budget though.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-125-inch-Dobsonian-Telescope/

arciere

Normally when you buy a telescope, half of the cost goes to the telescope itself, the other half goes to the mount.
If your main goal is observing (no photos), then have a look at Dobsonian telescopes. They are basically newtonian telescopes (mirrors compared to lenses), but since the mount is pretty much non-existent, or heavily reduced, what you pay goes 90% towards the telescope, therefore you get better quality for the same cost.

Back to your budget, a £400 Dobson telescope should give you an aperture of 8" (it's been a while since I looked at the prices so I could be wrong), which is good enough for Moon and closer planets. The downside is that you won't have computerised movements that find the objects for you (if you ask me, this would actually be a bonus) and can't take pictures.

AZ mounts are great but 1) they are expensive, 2) it takes quite some time to align them properly, 3) they are useful mainly if you are planning to 'follow' the objects in the sky while the Earth is rotating (so, basically, if you are taking pictures that require a long exposure or if you are using a computer to track and find the objects).

arciere

Jsacker wrote: »

That's great cheers! Taking pictures wouldn't be a major issue so food for thought with the models you've provided. Tracking could be a good thing but will need to look into how easy setup and manual trackign would be. Thanks for your post

Just remember that the best telescope is always the one that you will be using the most.

There is no point in buying the biggest and greatest if it takes you hours to move, set up and align. In the long run, it will remain in a corner collecting dust.

martinthebandit

Jsacker wrote: »

Cheers!

I'm just a bit worried about seeing the planets as a blurry spot. Ideally I'd like to see Saturn as a blurry, but distinct, planet under fair atmospheric/weather conditions so the info you and forgotmyname provided is really helpful to help narrow it down! What martinthebandit provided looks fascinating but expensive and too hard for me!

£20 ish any better? http://www.astromediashop.co.uk/Telescopes.html

justaquestion

I get Astronomy magazine digital edition free from my local library and one of the recent articles says that the photos in these kind of magazines are usually more colourful than you would ever see with a telescope.

So maybe a thought so you won't be disappointed.

arciere

Jsacker wrote: »

Cheers!

I'm just a bit worried about seeing the planets as a blurry spot. Ideally I'd like to see Saturn as a blurry, but distinct, planet under fair atmospheric/weather conditions so the info you and forgotmyname provided is really helpful to help narrow it down! What martinthebandit provided looks fascinating but expensive and too hard for me!

I've just opened the link and that's a lot of money, for a "hand-made" telescope.
I've owned quite a few telescopes, I can tell you this: you'll never get any kind of colours, no matter how big your telescope is. BUT, if you are passionate enough about astronomy, it will be just as fun and fascinating the moment you start to recognise objects in the sky, even the faintest one.
To give you some examples, there are plenty of objects that you can observe with a 8" telescope (apart from the moon and some planets). In regards to planets, Saturn is one of the easiest to observe, as is Jupiter. Obviously, don't expect to see shiny red stripes, but if you are lucky you can spot some of its moons.

If you want to get an idea of how Saturn might look like on a 8" telescope, check the first picture here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p018q5t9/p018q087

arciere

martinthebandit wrote: »

£20 ish any better? http://www.astromediashop.co.uk/Telescopes.html

Cheap binoculars would be 100 times better than that!

Norman_Castle

Have you looked for used telescopes?