Re: Starter scope for 9 year old: StarBlast or SkyQuest?

On 13 Dec 2006 13:01:01 -0800, flonesaw@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

I've got to weigh in on this.

I had an alt-azim 4.5 inch reflector when I was about that age.
Altazimuth mounts can suck big time. If I got an interesting item
centered, by the time I got somebody else to the eyepiece, it often
drifted out of view. Positioning an altazimuth scope on an object is
difficult for a kid that age, even a nerd like I was. The scope, even
though I could handle it, didn't get used often because it was so much
work getting an item in the eyepiece. Knowing the sky didn't help,
either.

If this nerdy kid is anything like I was at that age, the best gift of
all would be to take him to the store and let him help pick it out.
You can educate him about the plusses and minuses of the various
optical systems and he can help you understand what kind of scope might
suit him the best. It could be that the 8" light bucket Dob will be
the one, or he may want to go with an equatorial mounted 100mm
achromat.

This issue I'm trying to relate here is that many of these choices are
very personal ones. If he is sharp and understands the issues, maybe
he could provide the best input, rather than us astro freaks on this
forum.

Give him a card with some pictures of some scopes and enclose a
certificate good for a telescope purchased at your nearby Orion store.
I'm sure that he'll be totally blown away at your trust in him to help
pick it out.

My latest thinking, since I am close to the Orion store, is to talk to
the store about exchanges (trade ups). If they are reasonable, Im
thinking about buying the StartBlast to put under the tree. I'll then
tell him that we can go to the store and look at better scopes if he
wants to. I figure the store will be a lot more interested in trading
up than down.

Thanks for the thoughts.

--
.

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