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To Infinity, and Beyond! Or maybe just to Saturn.. Telescopes?
Khepra
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Good ambiguous time of day/night fair folks!
I have a conundrum before me, which at its core is quite simple. I have had a long held interest in escaping earth's gravity. However, in light of the fact that that is a rather, ehh, lofty goal for an individual, it is my intention to settle for a nice telescope through which I can take a closer peek at some of the heavenly bodies. To put it plain, I love the night sky and the wonders found therein, but I am hopelessly clueless about what constitutes a decent piece of equipment to peer though, or even a good book to start my adventures in star-gazing. I've attempted to read up on the various forms of telescopic equipment, reflective and refractive telescopes, etc, but I get lost in the jargon rather quickly. It is then at this time, I turn to the knowledge of the collective, for assistance!
Basically I don't know squat about stargazing! I would love it if someone could perhaps recommend a decent telescope, even possibly explaining why they feel it to be a superior choice. My price range is negotiable, but I'm willing to shell out the dollars on a decent piece; I would do this myself but I'm worried that I would buy something weak and have subsequently wasted my money, owing to a complete lack of experience in the field. I'd like something that could give me a reasonably clear sight of the closer planets, out to Jupiter and Saturn would be totally sweet. It would be ideal to be able to order something online, with the caveat that it needs to be shippable to non-EU Europe. Any advice or suggestion would be most welcome!
Thanks for your time :]
I have a conundrum before me, which at its core is quite simple. I have had a long held interest in escaping earth's gravity. However, in light of the fact that that is a rather, ehh, lofty goal for an individual, it is my intention to settle for a nice telescope through which I can take a closer peek at some of the heavenly bodies. To put it plain, I love the night sky and the wonders found therein, but I am hopelessly clueless about what constitutes a decent piece of equipment to peer though, or even a good book to start my adventures in star-gazing. I've attempted to read up on the various forms of telescopic equipment, reflective and refractive telescopes, etc, but I get lost in the jargon rather quickly. It is then at this time, I turn to the knowledge of the collective, for assistance!
Basically I don't know squat about stargazing! I would love it if someone could perhaps recommend a decent telescope, even possibly explaining why they feel it to be a superior choice. My price range is negotiable, but I'm willing to shell out the dollars on a decent piece; I would do this myself but I'm worried that I would buy something weak and have subsequently wasted my money, owing to a complete lack of experience in the field. I'd like something that could give me a reasonably clear sight of the closer planets, out to Jupiter and Saturn would be totally sweet. It would be ideal to be able to order something online, with the caveat that it needs to be shippable to non-EU Europe. Any advice or suggestion would be most welcome!
Thanks for your time :]
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What I CAN tell you with certainty is that you want to invest in a Dobsonian mount and not one of the tripod telescopes that stores try to sell you at Christmas. I just did a quick google search to provide you with a link at the bottom of this post so you can see the range of types and sizes but I didn't check to see if they ship to the EU. The reason that you want a Dobsonian is stability. They don't vibrate in the wind which prevents blurryness and they are much more stable so if you bump into it you won't completely lose your aim. I wouldn't worry too much about the diameter of the mirror; the university in town has a telescope that is several metres long but the same diameter as mine so I don't think that really does much for you. Ultimately you will want to think about storage space and depending on where you live whether you will need to transport it anywhere.
I would also invest in a compass of some kind. It was really fun setting up the telescope in the same spot once a week at the same time, facing in the same direction and tracking how far planets had moved. You should see if you have a local astronomer's society that you can get in touch with. They might have a meetup where you can talk to some people about their telescopes or try some out.
http://www.canadiantelescopes.com/Shop-By-Type/Dobsonians_2/
Do you live in a city where you'd want to travel out of town with your equipment for viewing? Or do you live in a sparsely populated enough area that would allow you to set up a permanent structure in your back yard? Or do you nit have a yard and will only have space on a patio or roof? Basically, where will your gazing take place?
Oh, and you'll want to get a filter for viewing the moon. It can be way brighter than you would think, and you will see more detail when the glare is cut.
Vis a vis Davids; I'm open to the notion of spending up to $3-400 as a sweet spot, although lower would be cool, and higher could be a possibility given the right incentive. Hard to throw too much money at things that fascinate you! :] I do indeed live in the city, but being vehicular there are a number of spots within a 20 minute drive where the light pollution is remarkably low, so mostly I would be taking my telescope with me and setting up somewhere in the great outdoors for viewing. Nowhere developed, if that's what you mean, not flat man-made surfaces around, just rocks and such.
Thanks for the input fellows! As ever any assistance is most welcome :]
Khepra, a flat surface does help but isn't absolutely necessary so long as you can find a relatively flat space where it won't wobble too much. I used to just drag a big piece of plywood out onto the grass - got it for a few bucks at the hardware store. You're not mounting it on anything so much as just sitting it down. Depending on what size the actual tube is as well as the stand itself they can get pretty heavy.
I ended up just using the lenses that came with it and getting a barlow as a Christmas gift at some point to up the magnification. To be honest, if you're in it from a "anything that hammers home the point that we're stuck to the surface of an orb hurtling through space and time" angle then any magnification is great. The 100x I had was amazing for looking at the moon and you will be surprised at what you are able to see (for example, that really bright star you want to zoom in on is actually three smaller stars). I am by no means an expert in telescopes and can only speak from experience but with 100x I had some really enjoyable nights with my telescope. Lenses are interchangeable so if you want more than what comes with the telescope it's really easy to swap out without having to change your telescope. I would agree with Djeet that if you're shelling out the money for a good telescope, the lenses that come with it will be more than adequate for awhile and you can decide to buy additional lenses later.
The tripod it comes with is solid as a rock, and it's simple and easy to setup and use. There's an inexpensive camera adapter so Amy can mount her DSLR camera body to it and take some nice pictures of space stuff.
It also comes in an 8 inch model, but I didn't have the cash to stretch that far for a first scope. If she goes really crazy with this I'll save up for a few years and get her something ridiculous on an equatorial mount...
Remember that you can always buy more lenses later. It might sound like a little thing, but you want your investment to be in the telescope itself - so buy as much telescope as you can afford. For your price range, I'd probably recommend an 8" Dobsonian. It's a good compromise between ease of use and portability, and you get a lot of telescope for the cost.
The diameter of the telescope is really the most important thing, since the diameter is how much light you can collect. You can throw a high power lens on there, but ultimately the amount of light that's collected and focused on your eyepiece determines what you can see and the diameter of your telescope is the limiting factor. You can always add a filter if the moon is too bright.
Don't spend too much money on your first telescope / right off the bat, because it's not a hobby for everyone. Before you buy, you may want to find a local astronomy club which will almost certainly be welcoming. This will let you get some real world experience and advice, and see what you like before you go and spend money on it.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
I might just have to look into this, then. Yet another thing to blow my money on. >_<
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
The expense comes from needing a SLR/other removable lens type camera. But, if you already have one of those cameras for other purposes its not a big deal then. I just use my SLR I've had for about 5 years and it does well, basically based on the quality of your scope + mount + motor drives if you are planning on doing long term exposures.
Moon pictures are awesome no matter what though.