ALT.SF4M

  Telescopes for Xmas?

   • Stargazer
     17/12/1997 00:00:000 UTC

     All:

     I have been getting a lot of calls at the planetarium where I work about

     buying someone a telescope for Christmas. I thought I'd post this FYI
     and

     for the good of the group! Enjoy.

     Lincoln wrote:

     > Someone at work was looking for a telescope for his 12 year old kid.

     >Do you have any suggestions or catalogs (on-line)?

     Well, that could be a problem to find one this late. Be warned that
     there

     is are a lot of "$500 telescopes on sale now for $139.99 -- see Saturn
     at

     900X!!" crap going on at this time of year.

     Here are my three rules of buying a telescope:

     Rule #1: Never ever buy a department store telescope

     Rule #2: Never ever buy a department store telescope

     Rule #3: Never ever buy a department store telescope

     That goes for camera stores, malls, and "Nature Company" type stores
     too.

     Fact is you can't really buy a good telescope for under $300-400. The

     hands-down best choice for a beginner (whether it is a kid or an adult)
     is a

     6" diameter Dobsonian-type reflector. Good name brands for these are
     Meade,

     Celestron, and Orion. Orion is online, I think you can order at:

     http://www.oriontel.com. The only other telescope I can recommend is a
     4"

     diameter "Astroscan" made by Edmund Scientific. I know they have a web
     page

     somewhere, but I don't think you can order online. Anything else would
     be a

     waste: the kid will get discouraged, and it'll end up collecting dust in
     the

     closet.

     Hope that helps,

     --Kevin

     s********r@i********l.net

     k*****d@e******y.net

     This article was posted from http://www.slurp.net/">Slurp Net.

       • a*****o@i*.******b.edu
         26/12/1997 00:00:000 UTC

         Kevin,

         When not lurking in the forum, I can often be found working at

         a local hobby shop here on L.I. We recently became a dealer for
         celestron..

         .... only the lower end... up to $400 or so... which covers the
         basic

         refractors with equitorial mounts, and some of the newtonian
         reflectors.

         Celestron has some really nice pamphlets that we give to customers
         about

         how to choose a telescope -- any, not just theirs... but they don't

         have much info onthe dob. type telescopes..

         my question is .. what makes them unique / better than the
         newtonians?

         Thanks,

         Adam Fabio

         Science Fiction Forum Treasurer

         who someday will be able to afford a decent telescope of his own...

         someday