telescopes, question for astronomers, pro or am

Has anyone ever cauhgt a UFO on a telescope before? That would probably make for some good pics. Anyway Ive been recently interested in maybe picking up a telescope. I havnt thought about how much Im willing to spend yet, but Im definatly willing to spend 200$ and preferebly something I can attatch a video or still camera too. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

I bought a telescope a little while back, i didn't do any research on them it was a very stupid move on my part, check out sky and telescope.com lots of info there,they even have a interactive sky chart.

thanks, and about the ufo question. I just answered it, I started reading the book "alien agenda", and there have been all kinds of anomolies on the moon caught by telescopes since the 1500's

Originally posted by Beyonddeath
Has anyone ever cauhgt a UFO on a telescope before? That would probably make for some good pics. Anyway Ive been recently interested in maybe picking up a telescope. I havnt thought about how much Im willing to spend yet, but Im definatly willing to spend 200$ and preferebly something I can attatch a video or still camera too. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hiya!

If you have the bread--go with a Mead--you'll never regret it. They are NOT cheap, but they are the best.

As to UFOs in a 'scope--no--10 x 50 sea-glasses--YES. I watched one for 10 minutes with a set of sea-glasses some years ago. This object was well outside the atmosphere, and I mistook it originally for an orbiter--same relative speed, same degree of atmospheric interference, etc, all denoting an orbiting object. When it stopped moving at all--"parking itself" -- I got suspicious, and when it "split" (Einsteinean Reflection) perpendicular to it's track and vanished at high speed--I kind of knew what I was looking at. The news the next morning was that this object had obviously been seen all over the East coast of the US by the more than 230,000--the ones who phoned it in. The weirdest part of that is that this mass sighting took place at around 2 am EST on a Sunday morning. What has puzzled me about that occurrance isn't that "I" saw a UFO--not the first time, nor the last-- but the puzzle of why more than 230K People were looking UP, and at the same speck of sky, at a very dim moving light at 2 AM in the morning! I've never figured that on out----

Mead is definitely a good make. I've seen a few UFO's (85% sure they were satellites or other space crap though)

$200 won't get you a good telescope most likely, but it can get you a good pair of astronomy binoculars, celestron has these 15x70's for like$84.. awesome when viewing the moon. Can't ssay much about adding any cams to it though. No UFO's yet but satellites are quite common

Originally posted by Schizoflux
$200 won't get you a good telescope most likely, but it can get you a good pair of astronomy binoculars, celestron has these 15x70's for like$84.. awesome when viewing the moon. Can't ssay much about adding any cams to it though. No UFO's yet but satellites are quite common

I agree with this dont ever buy a cheap telescope as it will put you off for life.
It would be pretty hard to see a UFO in one though as it's surprising how hard it is to follow the path of a planet through the sky.
Go with Binoculars.

Originally posted by Ed Littlefox
If you have the bread--go with a Mead--you'll never regret it. They are NOT cheap, but they are the best.

Hardly.
The best includes: Obsession and Starmaster for reflectors and Takahashi + Astro Physics for refracting telescopes.
There are many other niche high end companies.

But Meade, Celstron, and Orion are all mass market. Their optics are made in China.
They make decent schmidt cassegrains and aren't exactly junk like Bushnell,
but they are far from "the best".

You'll need an equatorial mount if you want to attach a camera.
For UFO hunting, I'd look for something with as wide of FOV as possible.
$200 will get you a so-so beginner scope (6" dobsonian reflector/4"equatorial mounted reflector/70-80mm refractor)
but forget about video or photography unless you've got a lot more to spend.

Meade is the way to go - excellent prices on used ones on eBay. Go fo an ETX with UHTC, 90 or 125 mm. Get a setup with several eyepieces. If you can afford it, get the electronic eyepiece attachment that lets you view (and better yet, capture) images directly to a laptop. (UHTC= ultrahigh transmission coating).

This rig will set you back several hundred dollars but is well worth it. Whatever you do - don't get a cheapo refractor from a toy store or some such (careful: even Meade has those).

Just go to eBay and search on "Meade ETX" you'll get a tons of hits. Some new scopes too, but lots of folls get nice ones for Christmas, etc and never used it - can get big buck$ off by taking it off their hands. Also remember that anything bigger than, say, ~70mm, with tripod is going to be heavy (that's good) - but be rady to haul some equipment or set up in an area where you can do viewing regularly. If your going to be mobile - get the carry case and a special cable that hoks to your car battery and powers the clock drive - otherwise you'll burn through batteries quickly and hunting-and-pecking for celestial objects is a pain.

Good luck...

I appreciate all the responses!!! Thanks to everyone for there help. I got more inspired after reading in Marrs' "alien agenda" how often there are anomalies on the surface of the moon.