Hi all,
My daughter wants a telescope for Christmas to look at the stars etc. She is only 5 years old and the stars and night sky is something she has recently got interested in. Could anyone help recommend a telescope for around $150? Is my criteria reasonable?
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks!
Might be better off starting with binoculars. Decent beginner telescopes are quite more expensive.
Here's some guides from reddit.
https://old.reddit.com/r/telescopes/comments/z9s352/beginner…
https://old.reddit.com/r/telescopes/comments/i0tzkw/an_absol…
Binoculars are the general recommendation. Cheap (ie less than $500) telescopes are regarded as junk.
Thanks for the reply, any recommendation on binoculars?
I'd suggest something not too bulky cause small arms are going to tire quickly.
That means missing out on magnification, but that can be achieved later.
Best to talk to someone in store at a camping/camera, (or ideally a telescope) store who might actually have some technical knowledge and advice (ie steer clear of big box stores where staff are just drones who will be reading the "features" off the side of the box as if you couldn't do that yourself).
Thank you, I have emailed OzScopes and Professor Plum, hopefully they can recommend something suitable
I find Astrodog great. They started to appear on Reddit feeds as adverts and I'm glad they did. They have a stock response to the "Best for kids" question in the below article.
Admittedly they seem to be the distributor for the particular brand the article is based on but they do go into articulating why they feel that this style of scope is good for beginners.
https://www.astrodog.com.au/advice/kson-tabletop-dobsonian-t…
No telescope in that price range will do anything but show the moon.
I second the recommendation for binoculars, as these are much easier to use.
Even more serious telescopes are not great for young kids - they take time to set up and the 5yro viewer goes "cool" then loses interest and you have to spend 10mins setting up another view.
With lightweight binoculars they can hold them themselves, and they are fun in daylight too.
Got one from kmart earlier this year.
Good enough to use about 3 times before kid had enuff and is now gathering dust
what star sign are they?
https://www.google.com.au/sky/ less than $150 :)
how about this https://www.ozscopes.com.au/skywatcher-sk607az2-refractor-te… ?