Should I buy this telescope?

[bitter swan]

common consensus would be absolutely not

[exotic sleet]

Hobby killer

[austere fulcrum]

Keep in mind that powerseeker is a series of Telescopes, the Newton is the dirty one, flimsy mount and bad optics, even for the pricerange ... It probably isnt good but its 70 bucks so idk

[bitter swan]

i've heard the alt-az mounts are terrible on these, i have the powerseeker 60eq, so the optics aren't the worst imo, they're alright, but try see if you can get the eq mount.

[viscid relic]

It’s the one that Rory put as his recommendation in the comments of the best telescope under £100 video

[bitter swan]

Yeah I remember that, that’s why I got the 60 eq, I’ve seen videos about the alt az being really flimsy and unstable

[austere fulcrum]

The question is what do you want to do with it? (Knew someone with an newton on such a altaz, can aprove: the mount is trash)

[viscid relic]

I found a new one called Celestron – AstroMaster LT 70AZ Refractor Telescope

[turbid rapids]

Pretty much the same

Dont buy

[bitter swan]

though it has a better mount Han the first and larger aperture, it’s still considered hobby killer territory. It’ll still do fine though. Depends on how much you can get it for though

[austere fulcrum]

For the price get some binos ..

[true snow]

Nah bro please dont buy 70az, i own one from omegon And Its only good for moon, for other planets Its bad

[austere fulcrum]

Its shwack

[viscid relic]

I can get it for £120

It is the actually one that Rory had in the video and recommended

Except it was the 60mm

[true snow]

I mean Its ok but the mount Is very bad

[dense swallow]

Don’t buy it, instead buy a dob as your first telescope

[true snow]

Yeah, the 130p dob would be better

And Its £195

[mild swan]

To be fair I got this as my first one (well the 70AZ) and it was great for visual, loved seeing Jupiter, Saturn and the moon through it and it was crystal clear, as Rory found in his vid I dont think it can be rivalled for the price.

I'm not sure where al the naysayers get their views from on this tbh, It certainly kickstarted the hobby for me, not killed it

I do however agree the mount is terrible

[austere fulcrum]

BINOS!

[lean sundial]

Can we get some "binos" recommendations for 100 or under?

[turbid rapids]

10x50s are under 100 dollars

7x50s too

Both are good

[viscid relic]

Just saying, I mostly want to use this for planetary viewing/photographing. Not so much deep space.

Because I live in a bright city

[buoyant spruce]

If you want planets you need a decent aperture (at least 130mm, ideally >200mm)

Not sure what your budget is like you’d be looking at least a skywatcher heritage 130p, or ideally something like a skywatcher class 200p

The scopes you mentioned above have very small apertures by visual astronomy standards and planets would be small points lacking much detail

[steel portal]

I think you should get a large aperture what's your budget

[mild swan]

You don't need a large aperture to view the planets. Aside from the moon they are the brightest objects In the night sky. The telescope is fine and you can buy some nicer eye pieces or small Barlow's to improve it further. The mount will be the issue if anything. If you have a decent camera tripod you could use that

[exotic sleet]

If you want that type of telescope, the low budget ones, you can get the 76/700

Bigger ampleture

[turbid rapids]

what no

all of the 76mm reflectors are junk 99% of the time

[dense swallow]

get a dobsonian

[mild swan]

I assume you haven't watched the astrobiscuit video where he finds the best budget starter scope then? The cheap refractors all faired better than the cheap dobs. You have to spend a bit more money on a dob to get decent viewing

[buoyant spruce]

larger aperture is very much useful for planetary as the larger the aperture the greater the resolving power/magnification is, a 60mm or 70mm scope will in no way compare to the views given by a 130mm dob. unfortunately the matter of the fact is that if someone wants to buy a scope specifically for planetary then they're gonna have to spend more money on it than a 60 or 70mm scope for it to actually be useful for what they want

nicer eyepieces or barlows won't help when the telescopes resolving power is limited by the aperture, as is the case with the hobby killer scopes

[mild swan]

Yeah I agree thats what the physics says but on a budget scope it seems not to translate, take a look at this and see what you think? https://youtu.be/S9AjNOCv-4I

[buoyant spruce]

i've watched the vid before and iirc the very low end budget scopes were in fact modified as the mounts they come with aren't good enough

[mild swan]

I got the 70mm and a nice eyepiece and Jupiter was crsytal clear, could even see IO passing, but yeah the tripod is terrible I used my camera tripod

So agree I had to mod it with a nicer eyepiece and tripod but it was great for observing the moon and planets imho

[buoyant spruce]

ultimately the budget scopes are only gonna be good for looking at the moon and bright DSOs, maybe you'll be able to pick up jupiter's moons and unclear views of saturn's rings. i think it's fair to assume most people want better than that if buying specifically for planetary observations then they'll want better than that...

[mild swan]

Yeah but you wont get better unless buying a £300-400 skywatcher dob from what I can tell

[buoyant spruce]

the skywatcher heritage 130p is £180, even less if you buy used

not gonna be as good as an 8" dob which costs £300-£400 sure, but it's far better than any astromaster or powerseeker scope

[exotic sleet]

I found heritage 150p for 220€ used

Or even less

[mild swan]

Well to be fair Rory didn't test that as he was going for ~£100 mark so maybe that is better but its double the price of the 70mm? All I can say is the 70mm refractor aside from the wobbly mount did an amazing job and was the opposite of a hobby killer for me, they seemed to get a bad rap when they aint that bad for the price

I imagine the experience of a dob mount is much less frustrating than a bad tripod to be fair!

[buoyant spruce]

in fairness i think most of the hobby killer rep comes from the bird jones reflectors (Powerseeker 127 EQ, Astromaster 114 EQ etc) which are genuinely completely unfit for purpose tbh. i agree that the refractors aren't that bad and shouldn't really be lumped in with the actual hobby killers, it's just for not too much more you could get something which doesn't have to be modded to provide stable views and has a much larger aperture

[exotic sleet]

Maybe the 76/700 with a camera tripod would be better, that has almost the same price

[buoyant spruce]

so IMO it's always better to advise someone to spend a little extra on a heritage 130p which will be better fit for purpose

[exotic sleet]

[buoyant spruce]

yeah that's the thing. they're stable and easy to use mounts which are capable of holding quite a lot of weight whilst maintaining ease of use which is why they're generally recommended as a good option for beginners

[exotic sleet]

Well, now @viscid relic got an answer

[fiery arch]

False

A heritage 130p is his best bet

[exotic sleet]

You own one?

[fiery arch]

Nope

[exotic sleet]

Then how do you know, HOW DO YOU KNOW?!

[fiery arch]

Which scope is he getting?

[fiery arch]

It has more aperture

[exotic sleet]

Yes

I uas jk

[viscid relic]

I have a 76/700 in another country rn, couldn’t bring it back

It’s only good on the moon

I tried to get Jupiter and it looked like a bright star

I can get a 76700 for £60

But I want a smaller and more portable one

Btw my budget is under £180

[viscid relic]

I can get a Celestron StarSense Explorer LT114AZ for £195 though

I can also get a 1000/114 reflector for £160

[fiery arch]

Get a heritage 130p

[buoyant spruce]

That’s gonna be a similar size as the heritage 130p or a similar 5 inch dob but worse because of the wobbly mount. So you gain no extra portability (in fact I think you’d lose some with the 114AZ) and get a smaller aperture for the same price as the 130p

Same goes for the 1000/114 tbh

[viscid relic]

It comes with an EQ mount

[buoyant spruce]

Which almost certainly will be wobbly and hard to use, EQ mounts aren’t good for visual astronomy and it won’t be up to the task of doing astrophotography

[viscid relic]

Idk if it an EQ mount or a tank mount

[buoyant spruce]

Is the heritage 130p not available where you live I’m or something?

[viscid relic]

*tal

[buoyant spruce]

Won’t be adequate either way

[viscid relic]

I don’t really like the way it slides out

[buoyant spruce]

Can you up your budget a bit? If so you can get a second hand 150p with a solid tube for ~£200 usually, maybe a bit more

[viscid relic]

Hmm

I’ll look for good dogs

Dobs

Autocorrect sucks

[buoyant spruce]

The way it slides out isn’t a massive issue though btw, you can make shrouds to block stray light and it just makes it more portable

[bitter swan]

the budget started at 70 usd and now its almost tripled haha

[buoyant spruce]

The 150 would have a larger aperture though so provides better views

[buoyant spruce]

That’s astro for you 😂

[bitter swan]

exactly

consider one thing and suddenly you've taken a 2nd mortgage on your parents house too

[buoyant spruce]

If it’s over 5” in aperture it will probably be fine tbh

[viscid relic]

Alr

So around 125mm

I might look for a reflector because they are really cheap

[buoyant spruce]

Usually they’ll be sold as 130mm, but ofc that 5mm is a tiny difference lol

[buoyant spruce]

Yeah - so dobs are Newtonian reflector telescopes and the dobsonian part actually refers to the way it’s mounted

[viscid relic]

Yeah

It’s just the mount thick is called the dob

[buoyant spruce]

The dobsonian style is basically the only way to mount them without spending a fortune

[viscid relic]

Yeah

Brand new they cost like $250

I mean the reflectors do

What about refractors?

[buoyant spruce]

Not worth it as ones with a large enough aperture cost much more than the reflectors

[viscid relic]

Fair enough

The 1000/114 is actually 4.4? inches

Which in not bad

Is

[viscid relic]

I thought Rory really like the yoke mount

[fiery arch]

Sounds bad

Just get a dob

[viscid relic]

I couldn’t get one the same price with the same specs

[fiery arch]

130p

It's like 190£

Ur from america?

[viscid relic]

No

[fiery arch]

Oh alr good

[viscid relic]

I just need a portable cheap good telescope

[fiery arch]

Heritage 130p

Also define protable

[exotic sleet]

Yes, that would be the best choice

[turbid rapids]

Both are bad

[fiery arch]

Yeah just get the dob

[buoyant spruce]

depending on which 114/1000 it is i think that might be a bird jones scope which are horrendous

also you have to consider whether the mount can handle it - basically a dobsonian style mount is the only affordable one that will

[fiery arch]

Yeah and more portable too.

[viscid relic]

Not very cheap though. My original budget was £150

[buoyant spruce]

You can get a hertiage 130p for about that much second hand

[viscid relic]

Shipping on eBay cots so much for me

[buoyant spruce]

just gotta be patient and wait for it, facebook market place has them sometimes

[buoyant spruce]

if second hand isn't an option i'd strongly recommend waiting until you have an extra £40 and get a 130p new then

If not then maybe an Orion star blast 4.5?

[fiery arch]

Yes just save.

[viscid relic]

Where I live it costs £400

[fiery arch]

Heritage 130p

[viscid relic]

£300 + shipping and import fees

[fiery arch]

The heritage is 190£

Also i'm confused on where u live because you use both $ and £ but ur not from america

So are you from europe?

[cyan slate]

rubbish

[cyan slate]

wrong

[cyan slate]

try watching my video incredible telescope for under £100

[cyan slate]

i used it its good - the yoke mount is good

[cyan slate]

gosh I'm tempted to boot you out. Folks please don't listen to protostars

[mild swan]

Hmmm nothing says "hobby killer" like a bunch of so called experts on a forum telling a beginner not to buy the telescope they can afford, that would allow them to view the planets in excellent detail, having never looked through it, but rather not to buy anything and save instead

[fiery arch]

Wait wdym?

[austere fulcrum]

I said it so often, everybody just hears "powerseeker" and they assume that the whole series is utter trash ... the bird jones one really kicked it out

[mild swan]

Sorry, not really directed at you. There is nothing wrong with the advice to save a bit if you can for something better but a beginner asked if they should buy a reasonably decent beginner scope for planetary viewing and got a barrage of responses telling them not to even consider it under any circumstance, without having had any experience of it. They could have been just directed to Rory's video reviewing such a purchasing dilemma. It seems a common un educated response to the refractors. I think if I'd have been faced with the same advice when starting out I'd never have got into astrophotography as viewing the planets got me into it.

[cyan slate]

me too

[fiery arch]

I would still recomend the 130p but not without doing any research himself

He can decide on his own after researching
I think thats a fair answer

Especally if he CAN spend the money

And wants to

[tropic blade]

Why did someone tell me the astro master was a hobby killer as well when I first started out?

I watched the video and j wanted to buy it

But they said it was a hobby killer and I didn't get it

[shy bear]

No, don't buy the scope.

[buoyant spruce]

The powerseekers and astromasters have all got a bit of a hobby killer reputation because there’s a couple of them which are pretty much unusable (the 114eq and 127eq reflectors I think). There is some discussion on the reasonings behind the hobby killer name/idea further up in this channel, but ultimately the small refractors are completely different types of scope so it’s unfair to lump them in with the hobby killer scopes, but that’s what happened

Either way all of them aren’t brilliant, and whilst as AB’s video said they are useable and can often get pleasing results for a beginner, IMO it’s better to spend a little bit extra on a well designed and more capable scope and that’s something that a lot of people here will recommend doing, which is likely why the advice was given

[tropic blade]

Ah I see thanks for the explanation

Why the 114eq and 127eq? Ive heard extremely bad reviews about it

[mild swan]

As Jacob99 said some of thier reflectors were bad, so the brand got a bad name. So called experts on forums like to jump on this giving uneducated advice, Really you have to be wary of anyone telling to buy/ not to buy something on hearsay.
look for trusted sources or at least people who own or have had experience with what they are recommending or warning you off. I would say for under 100 the cheap refractors are brilliant for starting our visual viewing and talking pics of the moon.

I have no idea how good the reflector that everyone recommends (Heritage 130p) here but I would look to trusted sources of people who have experience of it before deciding whether its worth spending the extra dollar on it. Maybe Rory should do a video on the mid range budget starter scopes?

[buoyant spruce]

The 114eq and 127eq are a style of reflector telescope known as a bird-jones telescope. These scopes use spherical mirrors (as opposed to parabolic mirrors which most good quality Newtonian reflectors use), which if used without a further correcting lens will lead to horrible spherical abbreviations when you look through the eyepiece. The original bird-jones design used a high quality corrector lens which did correct for spherical aberrations, however in the name of profit and cutting production costs the 114EQ and 127EQ do not use a proper corrector lens, and instead just stick a 2x Barlow in the focuser. To make matters worse, the focuser is often mounted in correctly, meaning the scope can’t reach focus properly and also is very hard to collimate, often requiring a complete disassembly of the focuser. As I’m sure you can imagine, that’s not something most beginners would be comfortable doing, which along with everything else leads to the hobby killer reputation.

I wish those were the only issues, but they’re not. The mirror quality, the actual build quality and design, the mount quality and the accessories which come with it are pretty much the worst you can expect. This review - https://telescopicwatch.com/celestron-127-eq-powerseeker-telescope-review/ - is a really good source of information on them if you want to learn more about them more

[turbid rapids]

the 114EQ isnt unusable, the optics are way better than the 127, the astromaster 114 is the one with bad optics

[austere fulcrum]

Its the foul apple in the basket

[buoyant spruce]

Optically it’s exactly the same as the 127EQ. It’s still a bird jones which isn’t corrected properly, using a 2x Barlow instead of an actually corrector, and it’s near on impossible to collimate.

The main advantage it would have over the 127EQ is that the smaller size and aperture allows it to be more stable on its mount. However, it can’t reach proper balance on the declination as the astromaster logo is in the way, so this oversight from celestron manages to destabilise it

Plus it costs close to £200 - you can get a second hand 8” dobsonian with a bit of searching for around that much, or a new heritage 130p for less

[turbid rapids]

Yea 114 and 127 are the same pretty much, thought you meant the powerseeker 114eq was the one with bad optics

[buoyant spruce]

Ah! I swear they need to have a better naming system for these scopes 😂

Yeah, optically the power seeker 114EQ is a bit better as it’s not a bird jones. Still has spherical mirrors unfortunately though

[turbid rapids]

the scope is f/8 though so the spherical is acceptable

[buoyant spruce]

Yeah, not ideal but workable

[turbid rapids]

yea

[buoyant spruce]

Plus the thing is, since it’s not horrific optically you can always stick it on a dobsonian style mount too if the mount is wobbly. You can DIY them quite cheap from what I understand

[turbid rapids]

yea, if you get stuck with one you could replace the eps, finder and mount, and build a dob mount and it should be a pretty good scope, theres a 114/900 scope at my astronomical society and thats what theyve done with that

[cyan slate]

oh god

[cyan slate]

because they probably were stupid... or just parroted what everyone else says despite never having used one.

[tropic blade]

i could've saved alotta money

[fiery arch]

Which scope are you talking abiut

[shy bear]

It is going to have a small objective lens. At least it is at f12, so you have the long focal length to cope with CA. Maybe the moon would be a good target if you got that?

The mount also may not be promising, given that other cheap scopes are known to come with unstable mounts. After all, every vibration will be magnified.

[cyan slate]

the small long refractors are just amazing value for money aren't they. I mean £69 and you can see jupiters red spot...AMAZING

[cyan slate]

ok so the mount may be wobbly - yolk mounts are actually completely fine as i mention here: https://astrobiscuit.com/best-budget-telescope/

[fiery arch]

Might just be me but i can't really see the red spot with a 90mm achro. Might be the eyepieces or the sky quality but idk

[shy bear]

And this is a 60mm scope, not a 90.

[shy bear]

It depends on what someone wants to use a scope for and if they understand that.

[rotund coral]

I used a yoke mount 70mm skywatcher frac. It’s not terrible but I think I would have preferred a little dob. That red tube dob you had in the video would have probably suited me best. More aperture so better views of deep space stuff.

I would like to see comparisons between them on a more stable target. Something not as effected by changing seeing

I was extremely surprised when the powerseeker beat the small dob. Having seen results from my 114mm f7 newt and my 70mm f10 skywatcher frac the difference is quite a lot.

[viscid relic]

I bought one

It’s a Astromaster 90EQ

[fiery arch]

Oof

[mild swan]

I started with the 70EQ and was great for planets. The 90mm may not have as decent glass but it should do you well for starting out viewing the planets. if you're in the northern hemisphere you should be able to get a bumper crop with Jupiter, Venus and Mars being visible for a while

[tropic blade]

congrats on your first telescope!

[viscid relic]

Thanks