re approx 18 questions back on astromony

[wendilla]

I have seen on Ebay newton 6 inch newtonian reflector telescope.Diameter 6 inches and focal Point 55 inches.There are quite a few at Buy Now. Would this be a good buy at �85. Thanks

[jake-the-peg]

This one?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-6-INCH-NEWTONIAN-REF LECTOR-TELESCOPE-BLACK_W0QQitemZ150128106259QQ ihZ005QQcategoryZ3636QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Looks pretty good for the money it's got an equatorial mount and 6" isn't too bat. There's a couple of eyepieces 6.5mm will give an effective magnification of 115x and the 25mm will give an effective magnification of 30x.

The main thing that I see is that there's a load of stuff about the optics specification but it doesn't say if the mirror is spherical or paraboloc but I guess you're not going to get a parabolic mirror for �85.

That's not a major drawback I'd say it looks like a pretty decent first telescope

[wendilla]

Thanks for your quick response.Yes that is the one .At the moment I have 12x50 binoculars field 5.5 which show up the moon craters but I guess the telescope would be a vast improvement on these would you say?

[Teddio]

I've looked on e-bay and the telescope looks like an F5 Newtonian Reflector. The minimum magnification will be 30X which will be great for deep sky objects such as star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. The images will be bright and the strain on your eyes will be low. With the Barlow lens the maximum magnification will be 230X which is ideal for planetary work providing the "seeing" conditions are good and there isn't too much telescope wobble in the wind.
At this price the quality will be average, for instance the equatorial mount won't be massive. Don't worry too much about the quality of the primary mirror, it is almost certain to be parabolic since an F5 spherical mirror would render the telescope virtually unusable due to extreme spherical aberration.(without a correcting plate).
For such a new telescope �85 is a bargain! Go for it. I promise not to outbid you!

[wendilla]

Thanks again Teddio second time you have advised me and I am getting a bit nearer to understanding might just take the plunge and send for one. Thanks again

[wendilla]

To Teddio and jake-the -peg just to let you know I won a bid on ebay for telescope I described.It should be here in a couple of days then the fun will start learning how to work it .Thanks again all for your help.