r/telescopes • u/stingreay99 • 1d ago
Purchasing Question Are any of these a good deal? Prices and descriptions below.
Found this listing near me. I've looked into and out of telescopes for years never justifying the cost. Are any of these worth it to get into the hobby?
Seller's description:
"I have multiple telescopes. Meade 10,meade6,Polaris ,celestron first scope,baytronics,national geo. Also have giant binoculars with tripod,nexstar 8 celestron.
Prices from 20 to 900. I need to clean these out, need to work on car. Call Joe, [hidden information] not after 10 pm. Thanks.
Prices…
Nat geo. 20,
Polaris Meade 40,
Celestron first scope, 60,
Bausch Lomb 4 in. 140,
Baytronics 90 mm. 40,
Meade 6 in. 100,
Meade 10 in. 300,
Giant binoculars 25 pr. 30,
Nexstar8. Celestron 800. "
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u/AngryT-Rex 1d ago
The meade 6 and 10, if functional and if you are going to have them setup in your backyard/driveway (they'll be heavy and very heavy, respectively), will be pretty much unbeatable in that very low price range.
The mounts won't be entirely beginner friendly but should be usable if you don't mind tinkering a bit.
The celestron nexstar 8 is also probably a good deal but that's starting to be quite a bit of money and if you don't know enough about them to test it thoroughly I'd be a bit nervous. Realistically just the telescope itself is worth most of that cost as long as it is in good shape, but if you get stuck with an unusable mount it might be hard to find a usable replacement under $500, which would suck.
If you're lucky and the owner gives you some halfway decent eyepieces and/or finderscopes, score! But at those prices I kinda expect nothing, or near-garbage packaged ones only. Maybe plan on ~$100 extra for a telrad finder plus a usable eyepiece or two.
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u/stingreay99 1d ago
Thank you so much! That's super helpful. Sounds like the mead 6 would be a pretty good option to start. Besides asking about eyepieces are there any telescope specific red flags to look for if I go check them out?
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u/Salt-Independent-760 1d ago
Rusty fasteners and scratched optics. The rest is pretty bulletproof. If this was closer, I'd want a 6" for myself
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u/AngryT-Rex 1d ago
Number 1 is the condition of the primary mirror. Dust is no big deal (and these have dust covers on), but significant corrosion or mold pretty much makes the scope worthless. And don't clean the mirror without doing research, they are very easy to scratch up and ruin, and it takes a surprisingly large amount of dust to cause a problem so the default answer to "should I clean this?" is "no".
If possible, ask the owner to help you aim it at some very distant treetop or similar and try to focus on that. If you can see and focus well then the optics are functional. And having the owner hook the mount up means you can double check that you're getting whatever power cable it needs (probably in what looks like a little black case hanging on the mount - but you sure don't want to end up with the wrong one) and see how it works.
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u/UmbralRaptor You probably want a dob 1d ago
Unless these are damaged, they look to be good deals, with the caveats that some aren't very beginner friendly. (a 10" newtonian on a pedestal EQ mount is going to be heavy)
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u/stingreay99 1d ago
Are there any that you think would be a little bit more friendly? I'm not a stranger to telescopes but it would be my first time owning one. I do live close to dark skies but live somewhere with moderate/low light pollution so would probably drive to use it.
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u/UmbralRaptor You probably want a dob 1d ago
The friendliest would be the giant binoculars (check that they're properly aligned), and I'd be tempted to get both them and one of the scopes simply because large binoculars are fun.
I'm struggling on which of the actual telescopes would be best, so will go with what /u/AngryT-Rex/ said instead. (The EQ mounted refractors are lighter, but also that's less telescope, so...)
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u/Evil_Bonsai 17h ago
no. I'd avoid. what's his number, so I can give him a piece of my mind for trying to sell such horrible things.
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u/BlackBirdCD 19h ago
I had one of those Celestron Firstscopes, got it used too. It’s got a very manual GEM mount that is perfect to teach you the base principles of polar alignment. It’s not perfect, but it’s fun. Also that long refractor, 80mm, provides great views of the stars and planets. The combination is a joy for viewing and casual camera phone images. Get a couple of quality eyepieces and it’ll be a blast for that price. The optics will give you chromatic aberration, halos of purple and yellow around bright objects like the moon and planets. Accept that it’s the nature of the optics and save up for a better setup later
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u/BlackBirdCD 19h ago
This is that black refractor in the photos. It was my fourth telescope in the lineup, at the time. If you take the time and learn how that mount operates, and how to use polar aligned equatorial mounts in general, it’ll teach you tons about the more expensive automated mounts further up the food chain. Same goes for that Meade (I think) 10” on a mount.
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u/skillpot01 1d ago
There's a good looking Meade 6" on an equatorial mount, second image., is that $100? That is a great price. Ask about eye pieces.