Telescopes

[Alex]

Does anyone know anything about telescopes  ?   I want to buy one for my grandson, but don't understand what I should be looking for with mm and zooms etc

[klondike]

What sort of telescope? Land or astronomy? With either a budget would be good as would the age/expectations of your grandson. The other thing is does he know anything about them and is he interested.

I think you'd probably get better answers from google if nobody here is an expert in the type you are thinking about.

[Alex]

He is 4 and three quarters   very interested in the moon and the stars, I wouldn't pay more than £40/50 as kids go off stuff so quickly don't they

[klondike]

They do. Well you can hardly ask him for the specs then. 

I don't like to be negative but TBH I think a telescope would end up a disappointment. You won't get good binoculars at that price point but they would be a whole lot better than any telescope if only for the fact that they sell in far bigger quantities so there is more competition.

Actually binoculars are pretty good for astronomy and will show many more stars than the naked eye. Another plus point is how many months of the year do you reckon a 5 year old can spend star gazing at all?  You can use binoculars far easier than a telescope but for a 5 year old I'd suggest that a monocular would be easier still and either can be used in the summer and daytime as well. Better value too - half the optics needed and no nasty problems should they be dropped which can mess up binoculars by making them misaligned (I forget the proper word as I'm no expert).

I did try to see if I could refresh my memory but didn't...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=misaligned+binoculars&hl=en

AI Overview
Learn more
How to Fix Double Vision in Binoculars: 14 Steps (with Pictures)
Binoculars are out of alignment when the optical components, especially the prisms, are no longer aligned with each other. This can happen if the binoculars are dropped or shaken roughly.
Here are some signs that your binoculars are out of alignment:
Double vision: You see two separate, round images instead of one.
Horizontal line: When looking at a horizontal line, it steps up or down between the two circles.
Object appears to jump: When looking through the binoculars alternately with each eye, the object appears to jump back and forth.

Found it further on - Collimation

Whether you chose that route or stick with a telescope the more important thing for astronomy at that price point is the size of the objective lens which with telescopes will just be given as the size along with the focal length which will impact on magnification possible (there will be various objective lenses that determine it overall). With monoculars and binoculars it is the second number. 10x50 binoculars are 10 times magnification with 50mm objective lenses.

[Alex]

Thanks Klondy 

[klondike]

I think my main point is that a child that age would need a lot of supervision with an astronomical telescope and still probably not see much. People see all those fancy pictures of planets and galaxies and expect to see something like that. You can't with what would be little more than a toy. Just keeping the thing still enough would be a problem and tracking a bigger one - the sky moves. Any magnification means it moves more and any shaking of the mount means a juddery image you can't see anything in.

Actually the Andromeda galaxy or at least the central region of it would be visible with binoculars but you'd need a clear sky preferably out of town and obviously know where to look. Plenty of phone apps to help with that.

This is a simulated picture of what the Andromeda galaxy would look like near the moon if it was a lot brighter. It's huge and barely visible to the naked eye