Telescope - help!

[Bubnomore]

Hello,

I am looking to purchase a telescope for DS for Christmas. I have researched them over the years and end up more confused than clear on what would be a good purchase. Looking for something he will not outgrow (DS is 10) and decent quality, that can be enjoyed by the whole family. DH is a bit of a geek so if it’s a bit technical I’m not too worried. I brought a basic one many years ago When he was much younger and It was a total waste of money - could not see anything out of it!

Budget ideally between £100-200 but would go up a bit if meant it was more digital or automated. Surely I can get something he can see good detail of the various plants and some stars through for that. Any models or brands you would recommend please let me know, thanks.

TIA

I don't think there's anything in that budget range that would fit your brief, particularly not the outgrowing part. It would be more like your previous disappointing experience. Likely the tripod would not be up to much.

Something like this would be much longer lasting:

www.firstlightoptics.com/slt-series/celestron-nexstar-102-slt-maksutov.html

Have realistic expectations. Even my 8 inch reflector circa £1K doesn't show much detail on planets... you might make out the red spot and a couple of bands on Jupiter, rings of Saturn, moons as dots. No colour. Nothing remotely like Hubble pictures.

However there's lots to see, galaxies, nebulae etc, (quite faint unless you get into long exposure photography. ) It's a great hobby though if you have the patience to find stuff :)

The Moon will look absolutely brilliant!

Personally I use a spotting scope instead. It depends how you would use it but in an area with some light pollution you won’t see more with a telescope.

A spotting scope can be used for other hobbies too, is more versatile and smaller, easier to have in the boot of the car. Mount on a tripod and it does the job as well as most telescopes. The zoom isn’t as good but that won’t matter for most objects you can see with light pollution.