A telescope for a 5 year old

[Karl]

Hi!

I'm looking at getting a telescope for my boy for his fifth birthday, as he's expressed an interest in scientific concepts like evolution and astrology, and I'd like to encourage it.

What I don't want to do though is buy him a rubbish telescope from Argos that gives him no insight whatsoever, and ultimately discourages him.

Does anybody here have any experience of a decent telescope for him that is around the £100 mark? It doesn't have to be full-blown hobbyist, as I know you can pay what you want for most hobby items! It just has to be good enough to spark some interest and keep it there if he has it.

Cheers,

K

 

[cheesyboy]

My wife bought a Celestron Travel Scope 70 for xmas a few years ago. Ostensibly for me, but really because she wanted our son to use it. He was about 7.

Only really had one or two goes at it, wasn't impressed. But I find astronomy utterly dull and, as a result, failed to garner any interest from my son.

Regarding the scope, it didn't seem very good to my, uneducated and bored, eye. So wouldn't recommend.

 

[Scuzi]

My 5 year old lad was showing a similar interest in astronomy so I got him a Sky Watcher Infinity 76p to test the water before dropping significantly more on something that had a meaningful jump in performance. As suspected, he dabbled for a bit but soon became bored. I think you really need something with serious capability (and therefore £££)in order to keep such a young child interested.

 

[d_brennen]

expressed an interest in scientific concepts like evolution and astrology

Please beat this out of him!

My 8 year old expressed an interest and I was delighted, so got a well reviewed basic model from Amazon. A week later it's old news and we're stuck with a rubbish telescope that's frustrating for me to use. I loved using my telescope as a kid but I didn't live in London like we do now (sky glow) and there wasn't any internet/devices like now...

If it wasn't the covid era, I'd suggest finding a club to visit and see if it's the kid's thing or not. Personally always wanted to go to the "dark sky reserve" in Kerry, Ireland for a week or so. I think that's probably for next year now

 

[Joxeon]

My dad got me a 4inch refractor telescope when I was a similar age and I really enjoyed it, I would go out into the garden armed with that and my collins guide to the night sky book which would show monthly positions of the planets and constellations and see what I could pick out.

Most galaxies and nebula just looked like fuzzy blobs but planets like Saturn and its rings the moons of Jupiter and mars ice caps always came up quite well.

Maybe have a look for a table top dobsonian which seems like a good telescope to start out with these days with the largest main mirror your budget allows.

 

[danoliver1]

An interest in astrology should be discouraged.
Dont buy a cheap telescope expecting hubble type views. In a small telescope most dso will be faint smudges, plus finding anything other than the moon and planets is really hard and frustrating.
For science type stuff I got my son a small pair of binoculars and a cheap stereo micro scope. He finds it much more interesting finding bugs in the garden and viewing them through it.
I still have the 60mm refractor that my parents bought me 35 years ago mainly used it for viewing the moon jupiter and saturns rings. Ahhhh fond memories.

 

[Karl]

Thanks to all for pointing out that my child is not at all interested in astrology Oops!

Thanks very much guys, you've given me an insight in to the future there, what with "bought thing, kid lost interest, now wasted".

Binoculars and a microscope sound like an excellent alternative!

Thank you!