Posted on 04/30/2021 5:04:05 PM PDT by Loud Mime
I would suggest “binocular astronomy”.
Larger telescopes, for me, are a bit to lug, or have ‘the right spot’ in the yard.
A fold up lawn ‘recliner’, a set of nice binoculars, wide angle does so much, and your map and red light flashlight, and you are all set.
Some folks make up a binocular chair for the LARGE ones.
Yeah, right... do a little googling...
Then, tomorrow spend at least two hours purging out all the emails you got, the hits from Amazon will bug you for the rest of your natural life, a sudden Twitter Telescope group will try to convince you to join (and spend a FEW BUCKS...)
All that from a “little googling”.
I built an 8” Dobsonian years ago. Did the math, built the stand, polished the mirrors. Very rewarding. Down side is Dobs are big to transport and it doesn’t track automatically. There are some plans online if you are inclined - could be a fun project.
Ping & Bookmark
Seen Saving Private Ryan? Perhaps a telescope is looking for you.
I lived next door to a machinist for twenty years, who has a modern precision shop that makes all sorts of special stuff. He made a refractor telescope and now has an actual observatory building (sliding roof) in the desert.
I loved it, but I’m going to have to buy, as I don’t have the discipline for a job like that.
I’ll be working from my back yard, so the weight won’t matter much.
I’m also thinking of a larger Newtonian, since travel isn’t a factor.
Many years ago I had my 8 inch Newtonian set up in the front yard. Down the street was a party of teenagers. A couple were walking by and asked if I was looking through people’s windows. I told them it was a wonderful night for Saturn, as Titan was visible, along with the ring’s divisions. I asked if they would like to take a look.
When one of them saw the planet, his life changed. He kept looking through the telescope and then the “star” it was focused on. He went to the party and brought most of the kids back to see Saturn. A crowd gathered, stood in line and took their turn. Then the police showed up.
They got out of their cars with batons ready and gloves on, then they saw the telescope and wilted. It was so funny. They took their turns in line, equally impressed.
I’ll never forget that night.
At 72 years of age I believe my telescope will not go outside the back yard. There are no streetlights within five miles of here; it’s dark and beautiful at night.
Every time my brother talks about the stars, he tells me (probably a few hundred times by now) about a moonless night in the Indian Ocean (he was on an aircraft carrier) where the stars were incredible. He didn’t understand what he was actually seeing then, but was impressed. Darn. Imagine that.
Thanks. I’m looking into that one now.
A lot of good comments already.
Definitely check for an astronomical club in your area, see if they have any star parties. Colleges sometimes are heavily involved in astronomical clubs.
Schmidt Cassegrains are good but expensive. The best view is always with a refractor scope, but they are prohibitively expensive. Most people find about a 5 inch is all they can afford. I’ve used a 5 inch, it put the Orion 8 inch newtonian/dobson to shame.
Here’s an example, Meade 130mm / 6 inch refractor scope, over $10,000
The Orion ED80 is almost $1900, with a small 80mm objective lens, which is under 3 inches. That’s with go to tracking system.
I like the Orion newtonian scopes on Dobson mounts. Not easy to transport, bulky but not really heavy until you get into the 12 inch scopes, very stable and a great view of the sky. My 6 inch can pick out Jupiter and Saturn with no trouble, the stripes and red spot on Jupiter are quite visible. A friend has a 12 inch with electronics, he loves it, but a bit bulky and heavy to move around. He also has a pair of astronomical binoculars, they are very nice.
My 6 inch Orion has a handle on it you can use to pick it up and carry it, about 35 lbs, a bit bulky but not hard to move around short distances, like out in the back yard.
The problem with dobson mounts is as ar as I know, none have tracking capability, unless they’ve vastly improved since last time I looked at them. The upside though, they are very stable, bump it to move a bit and it stops shaking in one second, or less, quite easy to point at the object you want once you get your spotter scope aligned. My 6 inch can pick out things like the ring nebula, dumbbell nebula, most galaxies are just gray smudges though, being so far away.
Avoid anything under 8 inch, since you’ve already used one that size, smaller will not impress you. Unless it’s a refractor.
If you don’t plan to move, it may be worth building a small observatory. Not that hard to do, a friend built one in his back yard, just a 6 foot tall buoilding with a sliding top on rollers that just rolled oout of the way, plug in an extension cord and he was ready to go. He put a Shmidt Cassegrain 8 oinch on a metal post, left it there allt he time but since it was unpugged when he left, it had to be re-trained to “see” true north every time he used it.
Scopes with computeried tracking have to be trained on true north, and level too, then you focus on two specific stars to train it to “know” where everything else is. Once that is done, it can find and track anyting in the sky until you unplug it. I had to add several feet to his power cord because it would get wrapped around the post during use. His scope came with cigarette lighter plug he could use in a car, or a wall wart he could use at home with an extension cord. Either eay if you do a lot of moving around it will eventually wrap the cord around the mount post.
I just looked, goodwill site has nothing interesting right now, but keep checking, they get new stuff fairly often. All donated, most scopes will be pick up only. One in wackifornia now, onlylarge one there.
Meade, Celestron and Orion are the best brands out there, don’t even bother with the small 2 1/2 inch beginner crap, most of it not worth foolign with unless you’ve never used a scope and have no idea if it’s something you want to spend $300 on. Or more. As a purely beginner scope, you’ll know if it gets your interest. I started on a Meade 2 1/4 inch refractor. 2 months and I wanted a bigger scope.
Avoid the short tube newtonian scopes, they add extra lenses to shorten the tube length, and that degrades image quality. Each piece off glass mens more optical interference, image degradation.
I got my Orion as a christmas present, I think it came from ebay, under $200. The 1.25 inch eyepiece lenses in mine are nice, 2 inch eyepieces are great. I had a chance to see Jupiter through a 14 inch with 2 inch eyepieces, I wanted to throw my 6 inch away.
Take your time, check into some local astronomy groups and maybe a couple of star parties, you’ll get a chance to check out quite a few scope options that way. Id love to go to another star party or 3 but we have no astronomical club around here, not even at the college a half hour away.
You get the clearest skies on the coldest nights. I’ve used mine on nights when I had to pack it in because ice was forming on my eyelenses...28 degrees outside, 3AM and I’m standing around in a goose down long coat looking at Saturn...no, I’m not crazy...cops stopped and checked me out...ummm...what are you up to out here? 15 miles outside town parked in the driveway to somebody’s corn field...plowed of course, it was January...but I like it...
I had a night like that, the recent convergence of Jupiter and Saturn, I was at the Dunedin Causeway (FL) - where I had a good overhead dome. I went there about 4:30 p.m. and the place was already filled with people parking to view the conjunction. I set up my Stellarvue and once I could begin the alignment process (Polaris was visible) I focused it on the two planets.
The line of people asking to view was incredible. Lots of youngsters who sounded like some developed an interest in astronomy. It can be a great deal of fun sharing your excitement with others who have not yet discovered the beauty of creation. So many people today are looking down at their cell phones instead of looking up at the sky.
Thanks for the great information. One person I know downplayed the Orion telescopes, but you brought it right back up. I’ll take another look at them.
What do you think of the mac telescopes?
Your cold-weather stories are reminiscent of my living in Colorado. The part about the police was entertaining, did they take a look? Now I live in Lake Havasu city Arizona, which is quite a change of climate. I do wonder how well the seeing will be here.
Oh man, hahaha! Now THAT is a cool story!
The Orion Astroview 90 is just $309 at Amazon.
There is an 80mmED Sybony on ebay new just $400.
I paid about $320 about 5 years back for a Barska 80 triplet and views are great .
On the other hand a 12 inch Dobsonian will show so many stars you’ll get lost.Or go BIG and get a 16 inch Dob and computer guided .If it doesn’t need to be moved you’ll not regret a scope that gathers more light.
Don’t know a thing about mac telescpes, I’m assuming that means they will couple with a mac computer?
I’ve owned an Orion 6 inch for about 15 years. Love it. great optics. SkyQuest 6 inch, dobsonian mount. Two friends have bought the 8 inch versions, both liked them really well, the second graduated to a 12 inch later, also an Orion dobby, with electronic go to package. Their optics are excellent. I’ve seen several other Orion scopes at star parties, never heard a negative word about them. Heard very little negative about Meade or Celestron either, just avoid the el cheapo beginner scopes...garbage.
Meade makes good scopes, but the less expensive models usually are not the best quality optics. Ditto for Celestron, most of the beginner models are cheap for a reason. I haven’t seen the beginner orion models, but I suspect they would be the same.
One cop started to take a look, then said he better not, he’d be there all night. He had a 5 inch scope sitting at home. He was very tempted...The others just stopped to find out what I was up to out in the boonies on a freezing night, said OK and went on about their rounds.
Not much on ebay right now, or craigslist for your area. do some looking, don’t grab the first one you see. Find out about astronomical clubs in your area. Most people will tnd to recommend the brand they have, but the only negative comments I’ve heard about Orion, Meade and Celestron are the cheap builds of the beginner and “economy” models. Once you look around, you’ll be able to see the difference between standard and short tube Newtonians, the short tube models don’t have a great reputation due to extra glass to shorten the focal length, which in turn shortens the tube...My 6 inch is about 4 feet long. The 8 inch nearly 5 feet. If you see 6 inch newtonian with a 3 foot tube, walk away.
I’m sorry. I meant a Mak, as in Maksutov-Cassegrain.
Aaaah...
Ok I don’t know much about that type, supposed to be pretty good but I’m not too familiar with them. A friend had a 8 inch Schmidt Cassegrain, mounted on a steel post in his backyard observatory, it was very little different from the 8 inch Newtonian. But I’ve never been able to use a Maksutov so I’m not familar with them, except what you read in the sales blurbs. Supposed to be good scopes, but I have no personal experience to back that up.
I might have looked through a few briefly at star parties, don’t really know, but just for a quick look. At star parties just about everybody will let you look at whatever they are pointed at, so you get to see what a bunch of scopes can do. I attended star parties in North Louisiana where we had as many as 40 scopes of different sizes, brands and types. That’s why I recommend trying to find a few and attend. Start looking for astronomical clubs. Nothing like pulling into a place the size of a football field and seeing 3 dozen scopes being set up...
Get a red filter for a flashlight. If you go to a star party, get there before dark, or shut the lights OFF before you actually pull into the lot, parking lights only. Bright lights kill your night vision, it takes 10 minutes o more to get it back. Red light will not kill night vision. The military style L shaped flashlights usually have red filters, the Mag Light 2 AA LED flashlights have them too.
That is important, if you go to a star party, do not turn on a regular flashlight unless it has a red filter already on it. If you light a cigarette lighter, turn away from them with it. Put your body between the lighter and other people.
Find some star chart software and you cann use it to learn what should be visible in your area at any particular time. the Linux KStars was my favorite, but I haven’t seen it in ages. Dpon’t have my laptop handy and don’t remember what others are available. Often you can print out a chart of what is visible that night, yu can read it well enough with a red light to see what you want to try and look at next.
Obvious targets - Orion nebula, you can see it with cheap binoculars and maybe in town. first time I spotted it I thopought I had a smudge on my eyelens. Cleaned the lens and it was still there...so I looked at the star chart.
Moon and planets. Get a moon filter for the moon, once it’s larger than half moon, it will leave spots you’l see for 20 minutes. I have a 87% moon filter, which means it cuts 87% of the light. On full moon it’s excellent. The moon is actully best at about half moon, so you get more shadows and therefore detail. By then a moon filter is useful.
Jupiter and saturn are visible even with the 2 1/2 inch beginner scopes, the detail is better with 6 inch or better. Venus is visible a ;lot, but I’ve never been able to get a clear view, always fuzzy. Mars is visible but pretty much a small orange ish disc unless it’s at close approach. Other planets can be seen, but pretty much just a bright dot. I’ve seen all but Pluto. Neptune and Uranus were just bright dots, and I would have never seen them except we had a go to scope running.
Ring nebula - Looks like a donut.
Dumbbell nebula - looks like its namesake.
both pretty small.
Hercules Cluster - Galaxy cluster in the Hercules constellation, just small dots, but that’s a group of galaxies...I thought it was stars until I looked it up.
Double Cluster - one of the largest star clusters, just below Cassiopeia.
Andromeda Galaxy - our next door neighbor, visible on a clear night with good binoculars. Yoiu can see it if you don’t look directly at it with the naked eye on a nice clear night. I find it by finding the upper triangle of Cassiopeia, then looking in the direction it points, to the next constellation over.
DO NOT ever look directly at the sunn through a scope. You can get solar filters, last time I checked about $125 for a 6 inch. Just don’t do it.
But you can uise a scope, a sheet of paper on a clip[board, and a little trick of light. Point the scope by looking at its shadow, you can tell when it is pointed near directly at the sun. Hold the clipboard about a foot from the eyelens, it should project a bright circle onto the paper. The clipboard holds it flat, any wind is not a problem. Once it is focused, you can look all you want to. I counted sunspots this way 10 years ago. Cool way to watch a solar eclipse too.
Since the sun is really close, this works with a small spotter scope too. Just make sure you never EVER look through the eyepiece, it WILL blind you.
I also take pictures, a welding lens makes a great solar filter held in front of the camera lens. Makes it a bit discolored, but still a good enough picture to count sunspots. Good pictures of an eclipse too. Just make sure the camera lens is entirely covered by the welding lens. Easy with most point & shoot digitals, a bit more difficult with my DSLR and 135mm lens but doable.
Don’t get me started on photography...I’ve been at it over 30 years. So far I have over 180,000 pictures since going digital. Hundreds of film shots...
If you have the right scope you may see this....
Airplane 2: The Sequel - Irony Can Be Pretty Ironic Sometimes
https://youtu.be/OE8Tc1cvSYM?t=82
Get a small scope like this guy. Easy to transport too.... : )
New Home for the World’s Largest Amateur Telescope
https://cosmoquest.org/x/2017/04/new-home-for-the-worlds-largest-amateur-telescope/
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