Any suggestions on telescopes?

I was wondering if anyone can recommend or suggest what I should look into buying. I want to buy a telescope (nothing too fancy) and have been doing some research. There's too many out there and i'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I obviously don't expect to get high quality Hubble images but something that could help me look at nebulae and deep space objects.

Any suggestions fellow ATS'ers?

It really depends on your price range. Go to:
www.telescope.com...

and pick something there. Dobsonians get you the most aperture for your dollar, and they have their 8 inch dob on sale for $450 right now. You will have to learn how to collimate it, but that's not a big deal. Your first upgrade to this scope would be some better eyepieces, since the Plossl eyepieces that come with it are a little basic. Around 100 to 150 magnification you can see other planets like Jupiter. You can figure out what magnification you will get using a certain telescope and certain eyepiece using a formula which is explained here:

www.telescope.com...

If you are looking for something much cheaper you can get a nice pair of astro-binoculars for about $100. I have a pair of Celestron 25x70 astro binoculars that are really nice - 25 magnification is high power for binoculars. I need to mount it on a stand to do any serious viewing with it. Holding it in my hands is just too shaky. You can see the Moon much better and maybe some deep-sky objects like Andromeda with good binoculars. You won't see the other planets - not enough magnification.

Whatever you do don't buy a department store telescope from a place like Wal-Mart or wherever. They will be cheap but completely unusable for any serious astronomy.

well my limited experience was with the Celestron NexStar 4, pretty great to use, but it will set you back 500 dollars more or less, so it all depends on your price range, so it might help if we determine what falls under the "fancy" category

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

I used to have one like that i bought at a pawn shop for a little more then 100$

a reply to: peskyhumans

Thanks. I'll have to check that website out. I've been checking out the Orion telescopes and those seem pretty good too. There's just so many brands out there, that I'm getting confused what to buy. I want something that will give me a good view for the right price. I'll check out the reviews for the 8 in you suggested.

a reply to: blackmetalmist

You just motivated me to also buy one, I have been struggling to find something I enjoy to do. I can really see myself doing this. Thank you

a reply to: Shepard64

I think it's a great hobby. I live in the city so I am not sure how many objects I will get to see but here's hoping I get to see quite a few. Otherwise, I may have take a trip up the desert or mountains to get better viewing.

a reply to: blackmetalmist

Ya same here, I will have to drive about half hour north to really see some stuff.

I have a celestron nexstar 114, computerized, with the size 10 and 25 eye pieces, it's great for viewing the moon. But when I try to look at other planets like Mars, basically all you see is a red ball and you can make out the ice caps on the North Pole, but that's about it. Also I can make out the rings of Saturn but not much detail past that. So if your trying to view deep space objects I'd go with something considerably bigger, btw I found mine at a garage sale for $100, I just couldn't resist that lol.

Here's an earlier thread on the same topic.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And another one:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Some more info about telescopes:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And Finally my search results:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Great subject by the way. "One of these days" I keep telling myself.