I'm thinking of getting either binoculars on a tripot or a telescope for my son and his family...kinda something they can all enjoy together.
They live on a lake in a 2-story house.  There is a loft upstair with a wall of huge windows.  I'm thinking that would be a good spot for it.

Question is:  I know NOTHING about what to get.  I'd like for them to be able to check out stuff on the lake as well as some star gazing.
Is that possible?  I've seen those little short telescopes.  Don't know crap about them but they look cool.  

Thanks,
Jackie

For birding I use 8x40 binoculars.

             Potter

How far can you see with those, Potter?

Jackie wrote on Dec 11^th, 2008 at 7:58pm:


Binoculars come much stronger than the 7X or 8X used by birdwatchers and naturalists, which generally makes them too strong for what we use them for. (And far too bloody heavy.)

Mind you, 10X50s on a tripod in the loft may well be the way to go.

As a birdwatcher and naturalist who spends his time on foot, I carry 8X40 binoculars along with a 15-60 zoom spotting scope on a collapsing tripod.  All very nice for someone moving around but you obviously want night sky as well so here's my honest opinion.

You want the cheapest scope that you can afford with the greatest range of powers (strengths).  Being able to change eye-pieces allows you to zoom down to 15X to watch ducks on the pond, or go up thousands to examine the planets of our solar system or follow stars and comets far beyond.

An astrological refractor is currently looking best, especially if you can get one that comes down to really low powers.

The reason I say straight out to start with the cheapest is that telescopes are like cars (and lovers) and you have try a few before you know for sure what type you really want. Explain as you give the gift that this merely the 'starter kit' and next year you'll help with buying the scope they need most and want.

It may be they've become mad-keen birders and need a spotting scope, or they've come to realise what's really up in that night sky and ultra-astrological is the only way to go.

It's such a shame that the rings of Saturn won't be visible for another couple of years (now there's the wow-factor for the first-time astologer) but I well remember the first time I saw inside the horse-head nebula.

Let me know how you're getting on. Happy to help.

Great info, ASG, and thanks for jumping in. Given the family are brand new to this stuff, any links you can find to easy-to-use gear would be welcomed.

Of probably greater importance is back-up. "How do I get the greatest use and enjoyment out of this?"

I can deal with many things earth-bound, if you wouldn't mind doing the space bit.

Cheers always,

Brian.

Brew got a telescope as a "Twenty Years of Service" gift at his company in September.  It's very similar to the one Aussie Brian posted.

It's fabulous for seeing detail on the moon.  Stars are just white blobs of light that are hard to keep in the viewfinder. Either this old lady shakes too much or the ground really does move about a bit. . . . .  Tasco includes a nice map of the moon and a CD about stargazing with the telescope.

I can see my neighbor's house just fine (but generally don't like to admit that).

Good luck Jackie - it's fun to gaze at the heavens and ponder . . .

For years I has a Meade 12" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope.  You can get the same scope in a consumer version up to 8" (mine is generally used at universities).

The things I liked about the Meade...
- could automatically position the scope to anything in the sky as long as it was setup properly (not easy)
- could easily attach my CCD camera and color filter wheel for long exposues of deep space objects
- could be operated over bluetooth so I could do my stargazing from the cozy house instead of freezing my ass off outside
- Once I had a proper set of eye pieces, any magnification I wanted was possible


Things I hated:
- seting it up took a long time to get right, at least 1-2 hours.  By then, the kids lose interest, plus Dad is futzing with too much to be 'interactive' during that time
- Operating it out in the wild was not simple... a lot of powered things (scope, dew shield, rotater (compensates for earth's rotation, not need if you have an equatorial mount)...
- size... this thing was way too big, even for a S-C.

One of the coolest things I ever bought for this hobby that *wasn't* a scope was a star spotting device from Celestron called a Sky Scout.  You can point it at any celestial object in the sky and it will tell you what it is.  You can even tell it to find an object, and it will guide you to it through the viewfinder.  Amazing...  They run about $400, but I have had 10x the fun with the kids and that than I did with the scopes.

-Shawn

I found a Burris 20-60x80 with a hard case and tripod for $300.00 in Cabela's catalog....

The tripod is actually a mini-tripod and not much use at all. (Waste of money if bought serarately.) The full-size job is required to get the real joy out of these things.

In the link I put up, look at the Bushnell in the first line and note that it's waterproof and rubber armoured - this means it can be taken outside without fear.

There's others a bit cheaper but at that price it looks ideal for a family that age.

Quote:


You sure you're talking about telescopes?

Marc wrote on Dec 12^th, 2008 at 4:31pm:


talk about 'framing' the shot.

I guess (as usual) I had know idea what I was talking about