SCOPE DOCTOR
Our equipment specialist cures your optical ailments and technical maladies
I’m buying my first telescope or set of binoculars. What can I get for around £500 if I want to look at the planets and perhaps some other celestial bodies? I also have a Nikon D5300 DSLR camera, can I use this for astrophotography?
KEITH WILSON
It would probably make most sense for you to start with an all-rounder system to get a feel for astronomy and then decide what aspect really interests you. Binoculars are a great idea, but a basic telescope would give you greater flexibility towards your aims. Within your £500 budget, a 200mm aperture Dobsonian telescope would be a great choice – and you’d still have £100 left to purchase a couple of good eyepieces to complement the two average ones supplied with the kit. A 200mm Dobsonian’s focal length is long enough to achieve reasonable views of the planets and the aperture is large enough to allow you to observe numerous deep-sky objects.
Though the Nikon D5300 is capable of capturing great images, deep-sky objects like galaxies and nebulae require a tracking mount and planetary imaging needs a longer focal length telescope. With a Dobsonian you would be limited to short exposures of large bright objects like the Moon and starscapes of the constellations.