Astronomy/Telescope help?

[El_Brio]

My dad wants to buy a telescpoe soon. I am trying to help him find some good info online about them. Can't seem to find a good message board for this. I know one of our many members can help me.
Thanks in advance,

El_Brio

[jeana]

Try these sites for starters: www.skyandtelescope.com (http://www.skyandtelescope.com)
www.astromart.com (http://www.astromart.com)

We began with a Meade ETX two years and we've enjoyed it a lot. You can sometimes find good prices in the Astromart classifieds... we got most of our accessories through there.

Happy skygazing to your dad!

Jeana

[Richard_Cranium72]

Hi Jean. El_Brio, what's the price range that you are interested in? Are you gonna do any astrophotography? I get a catalog for telescopes and drool on it at a regular basis. I want a Nikon scope attached to my Pentax 35mm http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif . Ooh das goo,d ooh das nize.. DrVette

[thekingofpain]

Try this also, they have a large links section: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~ptitze/aa/index2.html I use a motordriven Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain and am looking forward to trying to see the Perseid meteor shower this weekend, unfortunately its a full moon also, so it dims my chance...

[BFlurie]

Alwrite! Fellow amateur astronomers! Sky & Telescope magazine is numero uno.

[narayan]

A reflector telescope is going to give you a better overall picture. This is because the light passes through no lens, which will dim the intensity of the light. Magnification is not as important as aperture. The aperture is the diameter of the end of the telescope. It is the light gathering ability which will give you the best results. I stronly recommend www.telescope.com (http://www.telescope.com) .

Do some good research, a poorly built telescope can ruin a perfect night of skywatching.

Have fun! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[SysOpt]

How much is he looking to spend, and what does he want to look at? Refracting telescopes are best for looking at planets because the image is not reversed and is sharp/crisp, and reflecting telescopes are best for looking at galaxies/far away stuff. There's a kind called Schmidt-cassegrain (sp?) that is good for both.

I want to get the Meade LX200 if and when I move someplace where light pollution isn't a big issue:
http://www.skypub.com/resources/testreports/telescopes/lx200.html

[BFlurie]

Here's one of my favorites -- M33 in Triangulum.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=663499&a=7136499&p=26106109&Sequence=0



[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 08-18-2000).]

[bkehoe]

Try asking in news://sci.astro.amateur

I myself have a Celestron Celestar8 deluxe computerised and an 8inch Meade LX200 f6.3, which basically gives wider and brighter fields of view for imaging. Basically I do visual observing with the Celestron while I control the LX200 and CCD camera from my laptop.

An 8inch LX200 f10 will give excellent allround viewing for $2295. Press a button on the hand controller and the scope goes to the object, one of 65k. Can connect up to your computer and control from there too.

The ETX90 with Autostar basically gives you a scope with computer control like the LX200 but in a Maksutuv-Cassegrain design. Maks (not the computers) are probably the best scopes for planetary viewing. Flourite refractors have a hard time matching them. The ETX90 is a bit on the small side if you want to advance some, so the ETX125 may suit better, depending on how much you want to spend. The ETX125 is 5 inches. Mak design too. Celestron Nexstar5 is a competitor to this scope and is a Schmidt Cassegrain design, which will give better views of clusters, galaxies, e.t.c., but not as good for planets.

Scott, refractors tend to be used by beginners. The lens in a refractor tends to cause false colour, especially in cheaper ones. Flourite is the only one virtually colour free I think.

If you want size for your money check out the Meade Starfinder dobsonians. Note that these don't track the stars. http://meade.com/catalog/meade_se_dr/index.htm

If you don't want to spend much, get a Celestron firstscope refractor. These tend to be of good quality for the price, and don't have the rubbish optics typically found on department stores, e.t.c. Sometimes a bad first scope can ruin the potential hobby.

Later,
Brendan


[This message has been edited by bkehoe (edited 08-12-2000).]

[Richard_Cranium72]

A couple of years ago, I was very excited by the low price of CCD Imaging. This allows more light gathering than conventional silver-emulsion film. I guess the popularity of CCD Imaging has driven up the price because I can't find any as low as some were.
This reminds me of another popular item that was cheap on introduction but went sky high as demand increased. LCD projectors, 4 years ago these were rated in Watts. I could buy one with a 130 watt projection lamp for $800. Now they are rated in Lumens, a similar unit is $4000.
People buying first telescopes need to give the salespeople as much info as possible, for example, light pollution in many areas makes a scope in excess of X" unusable. Many other factors escape me right now..
A set of night vision binoculars really expand the night sky, try one if ya can.. DrVette

[lynchmob]

Planetary and lunar observation is easier to do in light polluted areas than looking for gray fuzzies and comets. For the latter I would find a dark site,and use a large dobsonian(some get so big they have to ship it to you freight)or a large set of binoculars.
For the planets, at least out to Saturn, a refractor is best,thought I have glimpsed Neptune and Uranus with 20x80 binocs and an
8 in. schmidt/cassegrain at a dark site on one of those rare nights when the air turbulence is favorable.For myself, I make do with 20x80 and 10x50 binocs and a basic Celestar 8.
lynch

[Richard_Cranium72]

Speaking of "dark sky" , I was coming back from snow skiing in Colorado and while driving bout 85 through middle Kansas we found DARK SKY.

It got where you could see some little town on the distant horizon, then just a far away farmers light.

Then all that went away and it was TOTAL darkness, rather spooky.

To those who've been there this will make sense. There is a hundred or so miles in Kansas on I-70 where the farmhouses were abandoned. I mean cars, farm equipment, home belongings all the stuff, rusting away.

There are no steel mills for hundreds of miles so all the ironware just slowly rusts away.

I know this has little to do with astronomy, but I just had to share. To me it's weird to see undamaged homes standing vacant amidst miles of nothing.

DrVette

[BFlurie]

For you astronomy freaks, here's one of my favorites:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

click on the "archive" button on the bottom for the whole list.

[[hd580]]

As was said earlier, a Cassegrain telescope (mak or Schmidt) is the best way to go. I've had too many refractors w/ poor light gathering and very unsteady. My fork-mounted Schmidt-Cassegrain is so much better.

If you're not going to spend at least 500 dollars, just get binoculars (they work REALLY well for the beginner) b/c usually a cheap *** refractor is as good as nothing. And even if you get a good telescope later, the binoculars still come in real handy.

[Missing the point]

I personally have a old, like 7 years old, telescope, that was probably about $150 new. It works for seeing the moon, and thats about it. I want to go with my dad one day, just for a drive up to this place, called Manning Provincial Park.

In it, there is this logging road, that one day while we were camping there, just drove up, to see whats up there. Turns out, it is a lookout area, on top of a mountain, where there is NO light whatsoever to distract you, and I could actually see Seattle, from about 200KM noth of Vancouver! It was an incredible view. I want to go there at night, and look at the stars, maybe go there at 6PM, during daylight, and look at the view, and then stay til nightfall http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

That would be sweet.

I am gonna ask my Dad tomorrow http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[BFlurie]

Astronomy freaks -- this is a fascinating article -- the eventual collision of the Milky Way & Andromeda galaxies!
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/97/34/af1.html