Please help me find a telescope for my 9 year old son

Wow, those are some numbers! I must have a check later this morning in the Tullamore shop and see what's left out of curiosity. Well done on the purchase!

Be careful seanie, before you know it you will be coming home with a few sets of binoculars and a spare scope

There is always that problem Trevor. I called into my local Lidl this evening and one of the sales staff recognised me and said "Not another telescope?!" I checked - as of earlier this evening there was 1 Messier 102, 6 ETX70s, 6 Skyluxes and quite a lot of spotter scopes and 10x50s left. To my slight surprise all the 8x56s, microscopes and night vision machines had gone - I had rated those as being either quite expensive or niche market items.

But I resisted the temptation to add a 4" refractor to my collection and bid the salesman a cheery "Maybe next year" as I head for the exit

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Best of luck with your new scope and I wish you and our son many enjoyable hours observating. If you haven't got them already I suggest you consider some binoculars also. I don't know what the quality of the Bresser 10X50s is like but if it is reasonable then at EUR18 they would be well worth having. Binoculars are a great way to "learn" the sky and are very immediate compared to using a telescope (no alignment and searching very narrow fields). In some cases, e.g. comets, they can even be better because of their wide field of view. They also have the advantage of being easy to lug around.

Declan

When i was 10 yrs old my parents bought me a pair of 7X50 bins. I wasnt even intrested in astronomy then but very soon after they gave me them..............I WAS HOOKED.

I still have the same bins 24 yrs later. I dont think i will ever get rid of them.

Dropped down to Lidls in Waterford during the week and was a bit tempted myself with the 102, however, I draaged myself away from that and grabbed the Bressier 10 x 50 binos instead.

Even though I have a set of "different brand" binos with the same "spec", the "lidl" versions totally out perform them in terms of sharpness and resolution.

Very Impressed for my 17. odds, yo yo's purchase!!!!!