Question for Star Gazers..Please Help.

I hope this is a good place to post this question. I need some advice and I couldn't think of any better folks to get it from, as I trust your opinions (most of the time)

I am in the market to buy a Telescope (its a gift) and I know absolutely nothing about them. What I'm looking for is a middle of the road model, for a beginner (grown person, not child), something that they can add on to, a little at a time.

I have been searching the net, but now I'm a little overwhelmed. Its just to much to look at when you don't know what your looking at.

Please reply if you have any opinions at all. All your input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Originally posted by delionqueen1
I hope this is a good place to post this question. I need some advice and I couldn't think of any better folks to get it from, as I trust your opinions (most of the time)

I am in the market to buy a Telescope (its a gift) and I know absolutely nothing about them. What I'm looking for is a middle of the road model, for a beginner (grown person, not child), something that they can add on to, a little at a time.

I have been searching the net, but now I'm a little overwhelmed. Its just to much to look at when you don't know what your looking at.

Please reply if you have any opinions at all. All your input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

First thing is to decide how much is in your budget to spend . If you have that done your doing great so far .

telescopebuying.com...

For a beginner I would suggest at least a 4 inch reflector...But that is just me. Check out some of these, do your research and read reviews most of all!
Telescopes

Thanks so much for those sites....I was just Googling "Telescopes" & it was very overwhelming.

The best beginner "scope" is actually a good pair of binoculars. Telescopes tend to have narrower fields of view, which makes it harder for a beginner to get to grips with finding their way about the night sky.

What is also important is the light gathering ability rather than the magnification, so you want to find an instrument that has as big a lens at the front end as possible. Stay away from anything that touts magnification as a feature.

The Cloudy nights forums would be a good place to look for more specific advice

bascisally look at your budget and get the biggest you can get for your money the bigger a telescope is, the more light can enter and the more and further you can see. my 1st scope was a 130mm refelector for about £150 (uk) and i could see the rings of saturn, jupiter and its moons and some nebule and some glaxies and was a great scope to start off and learn the basics but the important thing is that it allowed me to see a lot and got me interested in it even more where if you buy a small scope you will get pissed off and loose interest in it.

some telescopes come with computers that move the telescope allowing you to veiw anything in its database in my opuion they are they expensive and that money could be spent getting a bigger scope and it takes the fun and frustation of trying to find it yourself and then the accoplesment when you finally have found what you are looking for!!!! and there is even Google Sky Maps for android phones which would show someone the genral direction anyway!!

if you can get a moter drive added for a little extra deffintly do it this tracks the object in the sky so less correction is needed and a deffint must for scopes bigger than 150 id say personally

but this is one thing in life (like some others) where bigger is better lol

I got into 'skywatching' about 3 yrs ago and like you, I was just overwelmed with information on teloscopes.
My first one was a cheap 90mm refractor with a flimsy tripod($100.00). I was satisfied with the magnification but the tripod was worthlesss so I picked up a sturdier tripod with 'go to' features($200.00). This worked until I realized that now I wanted a better scope so I got another, a 100mm reflector(cassegrain) of better quality($150.00). I'm impressed over what a little bigger lense can do. Now I got what they call 'apenture fever'. So I got a 5" reflector (newtonian) with another tripod.It was bulkier and not really that comfortable using it. I perferred the 100mm over it. The problem I had now was the100mm was older and sized for `1 7/8" eyepieces while the 5" had a variety of eyepieces but 2". So I got a set of 'Super Polossi's with filters and an adapter. What a difference.
I'll use the bulkier newtonian reflector in the backyard but will take the "casse" on the road with me
So in conclusion, I think the best for starters would be a 4-6" cassegrain with a strudy go to tripod and with a very good set of eyepieces. Hope this helps.


Oh yeah. I'm presently looking for an 8" reflector(cassegrain) to replace the 5"'newt' in the yard. It's the fever.

Thank You everyone who replied...There was alot of great info. for me to read. I've waited until just about the last minute to place an order (shipping & all).

Id like you'r opinions about this----4.5" Reflector Telescope F 4.4 W Tripod (Twin Star)

You think thats a good choice? There are a couple more that Ive looked at, if this isnt a good name brand etc....

Let me know-I value your opinions. Thanks

reply to post by delionqueen1

Is there any way you could give a link to the scope. Because with a reflector there is on thing that I didnt see mentioned was culminating it (aligning the mirrors). If its a cheeper scope its hard to get one to hold true.
IMHO not to be nit picky but for a beginner a refracting scope works the best less things to go wrong. Where I order from

I prefer a casegrain but thats a beast of another scope

Personally, I'd stick with a well known manufacturer like Meade, Clestron, Orion, etc.. As mentioned aboved, the collimation(mirror alignment) is a hassle and like it was also stated a 'cassy' was their choice also. Check ebay because the majority of the used scopes are in like new condition just because someone thought it would be cool to look at the moon real close and found out that the world is spinning to fast for them to keep the object in view. Now they have to learn about correctly setting up the scope, alzuth and decline, objective power, filters, magnitudes and on and on and decide it's not worth the hassle. All they wanted to do was look at the moon!

It doesn't sound like it but if all you want to do is look at the moon, call a stargazers club. Great people.....

Duh...

All this time that your thread has been open the best and easiest way IS to get a hold of a club and visit. They love showing off their equipment. It's almost funny to see the "mine is bigger than his" to the "his may be bigger but I bet it can't do this" to the "haha,mine's automatic.Tell me what you want it to do." These 'get togethers' don't cost anything and are something where you can bring the family or friends and check out the scopes before you buy.

Enjoy!!

Great Input guys....How bout' this....^ hrs left on auction.

www.ebay.com... 4310wt_698

or this...

www.ebay.com... 5#ht_522wt_932

Originally posted by delionqueen1
Great Input guys....How bout' this....^ hrs left on auction.

www.ebay.com... 4310wt_698

I'm a little leary of this one, don't reconize the name but I didn't research it either.

Originally posted by delionqueen1
or this...

www.ebay.com... 5#ht_522wt_932

Now this Meade, I've always liked their ETX line. I've read good reviews. Their smaller lens are suppose to gather more light than other brands of the same size.
Still personally, I wouldn't want to go any less than a four inch apenture.(Still looking foe an eight!)

I was going to buy an 18 inch glass porthole from a ship once and have it ground to a lens, but when I started studying up on all the how to's of building my own scope I got intimidated and gave up on the idea. I've always heard building your own scope was hard to do, but man it would have been nice to have an 18 inch scope.

Edit:
If I were a rich man...
www.ebay.com...

reply to post by twitchy


You know what they say, "Bigger is better"? ...well that my friend would definitely make me feel very puny and inadequent

The easier it is to use your telescope, the more often you will use it. Do you live in a rural area where you can observe easily from your back yard, or do you live in an urban environment where you will need to drive some distance in order to find dark skies? If the former, a large telescope that you only need to carry a few feet is great; if the latter, you might need something smaller and more portable.

When it comes to telescopes bigger is not always better. As has been mentioned. The bigger it is the less likely you are going to lug it outside and really use it.

Second there is the topic of "seeing".
It refers to atmospheric conditions. The more turbulent the atmosphere is the more it disturbs your views of celestial objects. It looks like heat waves crossing in front of the object you are trying to see. It affects larger scopes more than it does smaller ones. On a night of light turbulence, you might not even notice it in a small diameter scope.

Pick your scope based on what you will be using it for. And how often you are likely to use it.

reply to post by DJW001


reply to post by samkent

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Very valid points.

I'm fortunate enough to live in a very rural area at around 7000 ft. Stepping outside and actually being able to see the Milky Way with the naked eye is all too common for me, so atmospheric conditions aren't a major concern as it is for most others.