Reddit reviews The Observer's Sky Atlas: With 50 Star Charts Covering the Entire Sky

I have an 11 year old son and he is good with the telescope. So maybe I can help you figure out how to get your son into astronomy.

Around six years ago, I got Celestron 114EQ reflector. It was for me to play with. From suburban skies, had some success. Jupiter and Saturn looked nice, and I found the Ring Nebula and Hercules cluster. Couldn't really see much of them, just was able to say "Oh, look! it's a fuzzy!" This sort of viewing experience is boring for kids. Very quickly the very low quality of the mount got to be a huge problem. Spent most of my time arguing with the mount and not looking for other objects.

So a few years later, I stepped it up a level and got a 6in reflector with a study mount. This is a nice compromise between many design choices. At 6in, gathers a nice amount of light. It is f/5, making it good for finding and seeing nebulas and clusters and galaxies, oh my! The mount is up to the task to holding the telescope steady and tracks well. And here is the key point, it is light enough that by removing the telescope and counter-weight from the mount, in three trips from the study to the backyard, my son can set up for observing in our backyard with no help from me. Which is to say, he can take complete ownership of doing astronomy. And as I am sure you know, our sons are at the age where this is a big deal. (My only complaint with the scope is the finder scope. Replaced it with a 9x50 and my son started having so much more success finding targets.)

But here is the thing: what to do once the telescope is set up and ready to go? Turns out, without a GoTo computer-controlled mount, finding anything other than the moon or the bright planets is no easy thing. Do you know what star-hopping is? I spend six months of occasional observing sessions teaching him how to go from seeing the target in question on a starchart to having it in view in the telescope. Turns out, this is not the easiest of skills to master. Of course, the time spend with these lessons was wonderful. But without showing him how to pick targets, find them on the starchart and then translate that into a view through the telescope, using a telescope gets boring very fast.

But now he has mastered the skill. We got him a star atlas last spring and I don't think it will survive the year. He spends the days pouring over it, selecting targets and clear evenings finding them. When he is not doing that, he is researching astronomy on the computer. He tells us how he is happy he is an astronomer and not like his classmates, who spend all their time playing video games. And when he volunteers this to me, I feel like maybe I am not completely fucking up this parenting thing.

My point: $130 is only going to be enough to learn whether backyard astronomy is something your son is interested in. It will not be enough money for him to have the type of success that will pull him deeper into it. As others have said, plan to spend a bit more should he take to it and in the meantime, visit your local star party.

And now that my son can do as much observing as he wants on his own, his 8 year sister wants in on the act. So, onto another round of basis telescope use and observing lessons. Are you sure you kids just don't want to play video games? Dad is tired...

I also got my first telescope when I was 11. The best thing to do to get into the hobby is going to your local amateur astronomers group and start observing with them. They will know what object you can see, and you will learn a lot from their experience. I started like that and a few years later build my own telescope (with the help of one of the members of the astronomers group).

I would also recommend not to use the "go-to" function on the telescope if it has one, so that you learn to know the sky and to search by yourself (it's a really good feeling when you finally find the object you're looking for).

A really great book I use almost every time I get my telescope out is the Observer's Sky Atlas written by Erich Karkoschka (http://www.amazon.com/Observers-Sky-Atlas-Charts-Covering/dp/0387485376/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418284218&sr=8-1&keywords=the+observer%27s+sky+atlas)