Posted on 12/14/2003 4:58:16 PM PST by baseballfanjm
OK ya'll, I'm planning on getting a telescope for home astronomy and I need some help. Does anyone here have tips for buying a home telescope?
I know that there are some dealers just waiting to rip me off, so what, if any, kind of telescope can I get for a few hundred dollars? What would it be good for observing? (star gazing, planets, comets, galaxies, etc.)
Please, keep the thread serious. This is a Christmas present and I need tips. Thanks.
Get the 10-inch dob if you can. I wish I had. It only costs an extra hundred bucks. Here's the Yahoo! discussion group that's dedicated to Orion dobs and their clones: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skyquest-telescopes/. It's a high-volume astronomy discussion group. Go there and hang out for a while (and check their archives, too). Tons of extremely knowledgeable people hang out there and there is tons of great info to be had with a little searching on your part. Good luck and Merry Christmas!
P.S. If you want to keep those pinpoint images, you're going to have to learn how to collimate a telescope very quickly after getting it. It's kind of a pain at first, but don't let that discourage you. It's a snap once you get used to it. Many purists collimate their scopes every time they take them out.
Celestia: Celestia is a free real-time space simulation that lets you experience our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy. All travel in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit.
Sky Screen Saver: The Sky Screen Saver shows the sky above any location on Earth, including stars (from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue of more than 9000 stars to the 7th magnitude), the Moon in its correct phase and position in the sky, and the position of the Sun and all the planets in the sky.
Outlines, boundaries, and names of constellations can be displayed, as well as names and Bayer/Flamsteed designations of stars brighter than a given threshold. A database of more than 500 deep-sky objects, including all the Messier objects and bright NGC objects can be plotted to a given magnitude. The ecliptic and celestial equator can be plotted, complete with co-ordinates.
To fulfill its mission as a screen saver, the sky map shifts position on the display every 10 minutes to avoid burning in those few components of the display which do not move as the Earth revolves.
The Sky Screen Saver is in the public domain. You can do anything you like with it.
Orion Telescopes . . . You want a metal optical tube assembly (OTA) and Orion and its clones make them. Lots of telescope makers will stick you with a cheap cardboard OTA or a cardboard focuser assembly. Meade is one of those manufacturers that uses cardboard in the focuser assembly.
FAQ about Collimating a Newtonian telescope . . . You can see the problem in the diagrams: A telescope needs collimating when the two principle axes (the one defined by the primary mirror and the one defined by the eyepiece and focuser) become misaligned.
The Collimation . . . Recommended
HOWIE GLATTER’S LASER COLLIMATOR INFORMATION PAGE . . . Laser collimators seem to be the preferred tool for amateurs and professionals alike. Haven't bought one myself yet.
Finding an astronomy club near you . . . Go to some star parties and look at (and look through) some of the telescopes there to help you decide what kind of telescope you want. Also, people at these clubs can be a great help if you need someone to show you how to collimate a telescope.
Todd Gross reviews 70 telescopes
The Heretic's Guide to Choosing and Buying Your First Telescope
How To Collimate Your Newtonian Reflector
Offsetting Your Secondary Mirror
Yahoo! Talking Telescopes Another very nice Yahoo! group, they talk about lots of different kinds of scopes, not just dobs.
The Use of Filters . . . Salesmen will often try to sell beginners way more filters than they actually need, at least for a beginner.
Don't forget the new "Browse All" option.
I can now find interesting threads wherever they are.
PS...Nice dob.
If you (or the intended recipient) haven't done some astronomy before, DON'T BUY A SCOPE YET. If you do, there's a good chance you'll end up with something you'll be unhappy with in the long run.
Instead, buy a good set of astronomical binoculars and some star charts; you'll need these anyway, even after you do buy a scope, and by getting familiar with the night sky with binocs (much easier to use than a scope), you'll buy yourself time to research what type of scope is really best suited to your needs. It will also afford you the chance to find a local astro club where you can smooze and peek thru other people's scopes and grill them for the pro's and con's.
Last comment: the biggest scope in the world goes to waste if it just sits in your garage and never gets used. THe classic mistake is to buy too big, and too heavy, and too complex a scope when just starting out -- and then you find out it's too much of a hassle to drag it out and set it up. Think small, and you won';t get burned. You can always upgrade later....
They sell a 4.5" Dobsonian for $99! That comes with one high quality eyepiece and 3 other standard eyepieces.
excellent advice - dont forget a nice tripod to hold em steady
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