SingAstro

Hi All,

My 7yo boy has always been interested about the planets and outer space and recently, he requested for a telescope. Have tried to read up but all the information and technical terms are giving me a headache. Would really appreciate if any of you here can help advise me?

My budget is around $50-$60, just something good enough for him to have a clear/proper view (hopefully the moon perhaps). It more of getting him started and for the interest to grow before investing in something of more professional quality. I managed to find one that fits my budget so i'm hoping to get some advise on whether i should proceed. Am just worried about getting one that can't work and dampening his spirits. He has been really excited and looking forward after i agree to getting a telescope.

Features
Optical design: Refractor
Aperture: 50 mm
Focal length: 360 mm
Finder scope: 5 x 24
Max height: 38 cm
Eyepieces: 0.965", SR4mm, H20mm
Magnification: 90x, 18x
Mount type: Equatorial
Table-top Tripod: Aluminium
1.5x Barlow Lens

Looking forward to get some opinions! Oh if you guys have any recommendations please do let me know too! =)

The tabletop equatorial mount may be confusing to use. An alternative is altazimuth style mount that is more simple point up/down/left/right like a cannon.
Otherwise the other parts will show a basic moon view to impress your child although the parts are based on obsolete standard.

happymummy wrote:Hi All,

My 7yo boy has always been interested about the planets and outer space and recently, he requested for a telescope. Have tried to read up but all the information and technical terms are giving me a headache. Would really appreciate if any of you here can help advise me?

My budget is around $50-$60, just something good enough for him to have a clear/proper view (hopefully the moon perhaps). It more of getting him started and for the interest to grow before investing in something of more professional quality. I managed to find one that fits my budget so i'm hoping to get some advise on whether i should proceed. Am just worried about getting one that can't work and dampening his spirits. He has been really excited and looking forward after i agree to getting a telescope.

Features
Optical design: Refractor
Aperture: 50 mm
Focal length: 360 mm
Finder scope: 5 x 24
Max height: 38 cm
Eyepieces: 0.965", SR4mm, H20mm
Magnification: 90x, 18x
Mount type: Equatorial
Table-top Tripod: Aluminium
1.5x Barlow Lens

Looking forward to get some opinions! Oh if you guys have any recommendations please do let me know too! =)

With that amount of budget, a pair of 7x35 binoculars would be a lot better than a garbage telescope.

I agree with Dark Neptune. 50-60 cant get you much, stretch it abit more, get a good decent piar of binoculars.

A telescope always needs a tripod and mount, so in effective terms you need to setup and deploy 3 major components , bino can be easily used handheld when the sky is good.

Hope this helps.

Regards
JUnwei

Hardwarezone wrote:The tabletop equatorial mount may be confusing to use. An alternative is altazimuth style mount that is more simple point up/down/left/right like a cannon.
Otherwise the other parts will show a basic moon view to impress your child although the parts are based on obsolete standard.

hi, thanks for your suggestion. basic moon view means the moon looking bigger and closer? i found that model in qoo10. found some others in carousell too. but sigh..

Dark Neptune wrote:

happymummy wrote:Hi All,

My 7yo boy has always been interested about the planets and outer space and recently, he requested for a telescope. Have tried to read up but all the information and technical terms are giving me a headache. Would really appreciate if any of you here can help advise me?

My budget is around $50-$60, just something good enough for him to have a clear/proper view (hopefully the moon perhaps). It more of getting him started and for the interest to grow before investing in something of more professional quality. I managed to find one that fits my budget so i'm hoping to get some advise on whether i should proceed. Am just worried about getting one that can't work and dampening his spirits. He has been really excited and looking forward after i agree to getting a telescope.

Features
Optical design: Refractor
Aperture: 50 mm
Focal length: 360 mm
Finder scope: 5 x 24
Max height: 38 cm
Eyepieces: 0.965", SR4mm, H20mm
Magnification: 90x, 18x
Mount type: Equatorial
Table-top Tripod: Aluminium
1.5x Barlow Lens

Looking forward to get some opinions! Oh if you guys have any recommendations please do let me know too! =)

With that amount of budget, a pair of 7x35 binoculars would be a lot better than a garbage telescope.

hi thanks, garbage telescope is a good way to describe.. haha. i have never known that binoculars can be use to 'see sky' too! so if i look for one that says 7x35 it can be used to 'see moon'??

antares2063 wrote:I agree with Dark Neptune. 50-60 cant get you much, stretch it abit more, get a good decent piar of binoculars.

A telescope always needs a tripod and mount, so in effective terms you need to setup and deploy 3 major components , bino can be easily used handheld when the sky is good.

Hope this helps.

Regards
JUnwei

hi junwei, thanks! ya binoculars is more easier to manage for kids. just that i've never known that it can be used for this purpose! i dont mind spending for quality, just that the telescopes i saw on this particular website that sells telescopes, are all priced over hundreds of dollars. thats abit too much to pay for a child to start an interest. thats why im hoping to get something 'small' to start off with.
dark neptune mentioned 7x35 for binoculars. so that is good enough to 'see moon'? for binoculars is it the higher the number the better it is??

It will be hard for a seven-year-old to use and appreciate the views through a bino. Would agree with MystiQ's suggestion of a basic beginner's scope from Celestron. Even better, see if you can get your child to save his pocket money for a table-top scope like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Orion-10012-SkySc ... +telescope

MystiQ wrote:Hi happymummy,

A 50-60mm starter telescope is an excellent option for a 7 year old who is just starting out. I owned 8 of these 50mm Celestron telescopes for my kids astronomy classes. It is a great scope for teaching and building basic fundamentals. This "garbage" telescope lets you see the surface of the moon clearly, Jupiter and her 4 moons, Saturn and her ring and M42 (Orion's nebula) nicely. The disadvantage about having a binoculars for kids is that after awhile, their arms get tired from holding it and neck gets tired from the back strain and the kid loose interest eventually. Moreover, the child needs to have steady arms to focus their object of interest in the field of view(FOV) or else, he will be seeing stars and moon running all over the place in its FOV which is tiring and frustrating to keep it still and to observe. Your best option would be a telescope where your minimal adjustments is only having to "track" your celestial object in FOV. The local costs of a 50mm Celestron telescope is $93. Importing it would be around $150 including shipping. Hope this helps.

Really??? So 50mm-60mm is good enough to see moon? Does the brand matters or it's just the specs? As long as can have a clear view of the moon I'm happy enough. I'm hoping that his reaction will be 'WOW" than 'i cant see anything'. The one that i found with the specs i posted, don't seem to have any brand. The picture shows a green box and it only says F36050 Telescope. My only worry is getting blur views... See, I really thought the how many x power is what i should look out for until i read this passage below. And the more i read the more confused i gotten. Type of lens also affects? And focal length and all the calculations and.... =(

'This means that a high-quality 4-inch (100-mm) scope should not be pushed beyond about 200x. To put this in perspective, even a small instrument that has good optics will show you Saturn's rings or the principal cloud belts on Jupiter, since these can be seen at a magnification of 75x. On the other hand, if you see a small, 60-mm department-store telescope scope labeled as delivering "300 power!!!", you'll know it's advertising hype and you should wisely look elsewhere. - See more at: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronom ... 4EUY9.dpuf'

acc wrote:It will be hard for a seven-year-old to use and appreciate the views through a bino. Would agree with MystiQ's suggestion of a basic beginner's scope from Celestron. Even better, see if you can get your child to save his pocket money for a table-top scope like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Orion-10012-SkySc ... +telescope

Hi, thanks! Well first, mummy must show support in his interest. Initially was helping by getting him books and reading to him about all these planets and stuffs when he first showed interest. Now that he request for a telescope, then will get him a 'starter' one that is 'affordable'. If his interest grows and he wants to learn more about the equipment, then that's when we have to work out a plan for him to save for a better quality/more professional one. The only problem now is this mother cannot understand all the chim technical terms or i might just be reading from wrong sources haha!