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Telescopes

Meade ETX70AT 70mm f/5 Achromatic Refractor

This will obviously be your first major expense. I began observing with a Meade ETX70AT. This little package offers a number of benefits to the absolute beginner. Firstly, it's small and lightweight which means you're more likely to get it out and use it! This point should never be overlooked. A large scope may be tempting but if it's too much effort to cart out and erect you simply won't use it very often and if there's one thing you need to do as a beginner it's to get lots of experience.

The ETX's other benefits are that it doesn't use a complicated equatorial mount and it has a computer goto system built in. Equatorial mounts are a must for serious astrophotography and make life much simpler for general observing once you've got used to them but for a beginner they can be something of a challenge. The ETX's goto facility worked very well and enabled me to find bright deepsky objects and planets without the frustration of endless searching through the vast expanse of sky that suddenly confronts the beginner.

I'll always remember my first view of The Pleiades and Jupiter through the ETX. The Pleiades really were like diamonds glittering on a black cushion. And I couldn't believe that it was possible to see not just Jupiter and its main belts but also its largest moons. This wonder is what drove me on to greater things.

However, the ETX is not all sweetness and light and I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a beginners scope now. The optics are pretty poor quality and Saturn appeared as little more than an oval yellow blob. Most deepsky objects were beyond the little scope and the goto system made me lazy. If the goto didn't plop the target object in the eyepiece I was pretty lost.

Intes Micro MN66 152mm f/6 Maksutov Newtonian

For the reasons above, I soon decided that I needed a 'proper' telescope. I decided that a high quality 6" scope would offer the best combination of size, aperture, haulability and cost. I wanted the best optics I could afford and a good balance between magnification and field of view. After some investigation I bought an Intes Micro MN66. This is a 6" f6 Maksutov Newtonian with a small central obstruction and a fast optical system. It's relatively large and weighs about 18lb but the optics are excellent and it's wieldy enough to be taken out every night. I was stretching my budget and so I could only afford a low cost mount. I settled on the EQ5 mount that's mass produced in China and is sold by several different companies. The EQ5 is a reasonably priced german equatorial mount and tripod with manual controls to move the scope about.

The MN66 was a huge leap up from the ETX. The views of the moon on its first night were magical, lots of detail and great contrast. I was very excited about seeing my first real deepsky objects, but... I couldn't find any! Using a manual equatorial mount meant learning the sky, star fields and how to star hop. This proved much more challenging than I expected. Partly this was because, as a beginner, one has no expectation as to how bright, large or colourful deepsky objects might be. It took three months of concerted effort and an inspired purchase to make headway...

The MN66 came with a rather poor quality finder scope that I soon lost patience with. I did some more research and found the Rigel Quickfinder. This little device may be the single most useful piece of equipment I have in my arsenal. The Quickfinder sits on top of the scope tube and projects two concentric red circles 'on the sky'. There is no magnification available but with these red circles I found I could star hop with relative ease. Soon I was finding such gems as M13, M15, M27, M57 and many more. And at the same time I found I could suddenly reel off the names of bright stars, understand their positions in the constellations and even swing the scope round to within a short distance of many of my favourite objects.

The MN66 continued to offer great results until I began experimenting with astrophotography. At first I used eyepiece projection to take shots of planets using a Canon A20 compact digital camera. I mounted the camera to the eyepiece of choice with a Scopetronix adaptor which worked extremely well. The little Canon was capable of some great planetary shots but nothing requiring longer exposure times. Recognising the limitations of the EQ5 mount, which wobbled a lot when focusing or in any sort of breeze, I bought a Losmandy GM8 to provide a more rigid platform for astrophotography.

It was at this time that I decided to buy a digital SLR for both astrophotography and general use. I plumped for a Fuji S2 Pro because of its superior daylight photopgraphy quality to the Canon D60 though I recognised that the D60 may offer less sensor noise in dark conditions. I've never regretted the choice since the S2 offers superb results both for astrophotography and general use. However, it became clear that the MN66's focuser was not up to the task of supporting a heavy SLR camera and I could never get the camera to really work effectively with the scope.

I continued with the MN66 for some time as it was still a great scope for visual work but I did find that the pains of collimation and general issues with condensation marking the primary mirror were becoming more and more of an irritant. Eventually I began to consider the purchase of a high quality refractor to last me for a long time, see below.

Ylena 85mm f/14 Maksutov Cassegrain

Some time after I bought the MN66 I realised I needed a travel scope for our frequent trips to The English Lake District. The Lake District is a favourite haunt for mountain biking and walking and also offers dark skies. I contacted Ninian at Venturescope and decided to buy an Ylena 85. This little scope is an excellent travelling companion as it is very compact, very solidly constructed and doesn't seem to lose its collimation however it's handled.

The f/14 optical system is slow and isn't much good for astrophotography of anything other than planets and the field of view is limited. The scope's focal length of 1200mm means that my range of eyepieces aren't ideally matched, being chosen for use with a scope with a focal length of 910mm. But placed on a Mini-EQ table-top mount with motor drive it's a great device for holiday observing. Images are dim but reasonably sharp and the brighter Messier objects and planets are all in range.

APM/TMB 130mm f/7 Super Apochromatic Refractor

An apochromatic refractor has several advantages over a compound scope like the MN66. It's virtually maintenance free which means you're always getting the best from it, it's sealed so you don't get issues with condensation, it's easy to attach a range of instruments using a standard 2" fitment and most importantly the optics are superb and, at least with the APM/TMB 130, there's no false colour around bright objects.

Unfortunately, apos, as they're known, are very expensive for a given aperture. And TMB apos are among the most expensive due to their excellent optical systems and heavy CNCed tubes and accessories. However, you do get pretty much what you pay for. The tube assembly is very rigid which is ideal for astrophotography and there's no slop in any of the controls. The feeling of pleasure this imparts is almost enough to justify the cost alone.

The APM/TMB provides a big step up from the MN66 in terms of image sharpness and consistency. The moon is suddenly a mass of sharp and interesting features that even the MN66 didn't readily resolve. Stars are sharp points on a black background. Contrast on deepsky objects is excellent meaning more can be discerned in faint galaxies. Obviously there are limitations - 130mm is not a huge aperture and the scope does not gather enough light to allow access to really faint objects - but within those limitations the results are amazing.

Recommendations

It's difficult recommending a first scope since most beginners must balance the needs for decent image quality, aperture and portability with the costs of equipment that they may not use! From my own experience I would recommend buying a low-cost 5-6" Maksutov-Cassegrain or Schmidt Cassegrain scope. The Maksutovs generally have smaller central obstructions and so offer better contrast but they have slow optical systems and limited fields of view which means they're not much good for astrophotography or for enjoyable views of the milky way and larger nebulae and galaxies. The Scmidt Cassegrains are generally a little faster though still quite slow but are usually cheaper.

If you want a starter scope specifically for deepsky objects then a second hand achromatic refractor may be a better bet. Achromats do not bring all colours to focus at a single point which leads to bright colours around bright objects. This can be extremely off-putting on planets and the moon but is less of a problem of deepsky objects and it's possible to get a second hand 80mm-100mm achromatic refractor for £300-£400 and there's no maintenance once you've got it.

If you can justify an apochromatic refractor of 80mm-130mm then I'd recommend it unhesitatingly. You may not get the aperture to view the deepest of deepsky objects but the scope will require no maintenance and will provide the most pleasing views of the heavens possible. And a small refractor will be eminently transportable, providing both a home and holiday scope all in one.