Need help In purchasing a telescope!

My wife has given me a budget of $300 to purchase a telescope. I was hoping ATS can help me with finding the most bang for my buck. I've seen some with the electonic tracking. Are these worth it? Would it be better to buy one without the electronics, and a bigger optical lense?

Congratulations, astronomy is a great subject to study.

what is your level of experience..? and have you used tracking on any systems in past finding North star by yourself, etc...if you can do these things then great. if not, no worries there are always universities close to most people with either students or TA that are willing to assist.

Ebay has some pretty good sellers, ive bought several scopes on there over the years, stick with sellers that have 99% or higher ratings...should be OK.

My personal view is that it would be better to buy a bigger 'scope rather than extra electronic gizmos. The budget seems fairly tight, and too much electronics would detract from the basic purpose of a telescope!

There are many free guides for finding things in the sky. Have a look at Stellarium to start with.

Regards,

I would be checking out the Skywatcher reflectors, the 130P would be a good buy for you and would probably give you a bit of change to add some basic kit to go along with it. If you can add a bit off cash yourself then look at getting a bigger model like the 150P. Just google skywatcher 130P and have a look they are good value and for about your price range you could get one with a synscan system. I would also recommend getting in touch with a local club or going to a star party.

You can always buy a bigger scope without the bells and whistles first and then see how it is working for you and then upgrade as you need to later.

www.telescopes.com... has some good deals for starter scopes.
Thats were I got one of mine from.

The Meade ETX-80AT-TC Astro Telescope with AutoStar is a nice deal IMHO

Also keep in mind the focal length
The longer the focal length, a smaller field of view: good for planets
Short focal length, a wider field of view: good deep sky objects
just my 2 cents

Originally posted by Darkstar2
My personal view is that it would be better to buy a bigger 'scope rather than extra electronic gizmos. The budget seems fairly tight, and too much electronics would detract from the basic purpose of a telescope!

I agree; for this price range, if what you're looking for is a good all-around first time telescope you're going to want to get as much aperture as possible. Here's a good dob if you can afford to spend an extra 30 bucks:
www.optcorp.com...
8" is plenty of aperture to work with and it will give you great views of lots of deep sky objects as well as the planets. If you absolutely must have tracking you're going to find that this is about as much aperture as your budget will allow you to have:
www.optcorp.com...
Barely more than half of what the first scope offers. You'll be sacrificing a lot of your telescope's capability by going that route at this price point. The alternative isn't fun but it's to simply save that money for a more capable scope later on. This is about the minimum telescope that comes with tracking and GOTO that I would recommend for use as your primary telescope:
www.optcorp.com...
It still has 2" less aperture than the dobsonian above, but a 6" newtonian can still show you plenty.

I would purchase a telescope without the electronic tracking to start. The main reason for this is because then you actually get to learn the night sky, which is much more rewarding and will give you more out of your purchase. Plus, if you take it out somewhere dark and don't have access to a reliable power source the tracking won't do you much good.

As for the type of telescope, I have a few - an 18" Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount, a 6" Newtonian on an equatorial mount and a 10" Schmidt-Cass on an equatorial mount. I would start with a 6-10" Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount. You won't have to dive right into the set up of an equatorial mount, something which can be daunting for a beginner.

Your best resource may be to find a local astronomy club (most universities have them) and just try out some of their equipment and see what fits you best.

I want a 7" apochromatic refractor with binoviewers. Nothing does planets like an apo. Nothing. And with the binoviewers you get a beautiful 3D view of the planet. But these scopes and their counterweights weigh hundreds of pounds and will set you back into the five figures. Reason: no mirrors, only extra-low dispersion glass.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I found a store in oceanside CA that sells over 100 types of telescopes. I'm going there Saturday to make a final purchase. I decided no electronics and to just get familiar with the stars.

Originally posted by Alchemst7
I decided no electronics and to just get familiar with the stars.

A very wise choice. You won't regret it; constellation familiarization and starhopping are essential skills that carry through to many aspects and applications of the hobby.

Not sure if this will help but I own a Meade and a Celestron. The Celestron has far superior optics than the Meade. The glass is of higher quality which translates into better clarity. Good luck with your new baby!

Thank you for making this post! I am new here so I cannot make one and I really want to get a telescope!!!

I have been researching and seems like having binoculars first its a good idea so you can get familiar and apperantly 10x50 are pretty good for a start. I think Im going for the bino first and see what happens. I know some of the constellations and stars but need to learn much more.

what do people recommend? Besides, Im not prepared to spend lots of money on a telescope that I probably wont know how to use and will probably put me off after the effort.

so binoculars are good choice?! I really want to start doing this every night!!!!

reply to post by Alchemst7


Hi, if you don't mind me asking, how are you planning to mount your telescope?

Are you using it outside or from indoors?

I ask because i would like to buy one too, but do not know much about where or how to site them.

Thanks.

CX.