Kato wants to learn Telescopes! Teach me!

Kato

Wife and I were both huge astronomy fans as children. Been to planetariums and looked through the big telescopes and looked at stars. We both miss it. And we both agree that we want our kids to be interested in astronomy as well. What's a good way to do it? Buy a cool telescope!

We don't live in a big city. Our town is around 50k in population and we live on the very very edge of town. So driving 5 minutes to get a few miles outside of town is easy for us if we need to do so, but I think we will have good results in the back yard.

But I admit...I know next to nothing about telescopes. I have done some reading about them and tried to educate myself some. Been thinking about a purchase and we are considering this as a first time intro buy. But can anyone educate me on what type of lenses we need or want to see good color and just...really get the best out of it?

Orion SkyQuest XT4.5 Classic Dobsonian Telescope

I read the reviews and it seems like something we want. Our kids are 8 and 4 right now...and this appears to be easier for them to view and won't need a ladder or chair. But it also claims that it will give some really good views of the sky. Any experienced star gazers out there?

Jasconius

I am not an expert but a relative of mine is and here's a few tidbits of information that I've picked up from him.

In general, bigger aperture = better image, more zoom. A 4.5 is probably one of the smallest dobsonians you can get.

Dobsonians are a good model of telescope because you tend to be able to get a lot of aperture for a relatively low dollar amount, the trade-off is mobility. Anything bigger than 6 inches you'll have to take a lot of care to move around, especially if you are driving out of city limits.

If you shop around, you can probably find some better deals. I don't have any links for you at the moment, maybe I will find them, but telescopes don't really have short product lifecycles, so there's always great deals on overstock websites.

Outside of that, if you have a DSLR camera, see if you can find a model that has a Astrography attachment. Not all of em do.

Usagi

So you want to buy a telescope?

Phil Plait is an astronomer who has worked on the Hubble and has since branched out into astronomy education and writing, that is his old but still applicable guide to purchasing your first telescope. I'd also suggest checking out his blog over at Discovery Magazine: The Bad Astronomer where he updates very regularly with all sorts of interesting astronomy and general science related tidbits.

Awk

dont worry about the zoom. Light Gathering Power is generall the most important value when considering telescopes.

Kato

Well...there is some reading material at least. I called and emailed the people at Orion and they seem to be pretty on top of it. I am now considering the XT6 that they offer. The 6" aperture can get me a 300x magnification...which should provide some pretty stunning views from some of the reviews I have read. Also, the dobsonians are unique in that they are pretty easy to haul around. A little bulky, but they come apart and back together pretty easily from the reviews I have read. Several people have commented on how good they are for traveling around with. And also excellent for children to use as well. I will have to read up on that link for the bad astronomy guy...that one article is from 1998. I am sure the information is accurate but the telescopes may have changed some since then.

Awk

Like i said 300x means nothing, its the light gathering power that is important. I can build a 300x zoom lense with simple glass, but the image would be of terrible quaility because of the LGP. What good is seeing the moon at 300x if it looks like a blurry blurb?

Jasconius

But the aperture still correlates to LGP does it not?

Anyway, as far as portability, I remember reading specs and they aren't really that light. You've got a big tube full of mirrors in there, it's not exactly feather light, so you've got to use some care when moving it around so you don't jostle anything.

I fail to see the mobility argument in comparison to say, any sort of tripod scope.

Kato

Well...a 6 inch aperture is a lot bigger than a lot of other telescopes I have been looking at. And for the price, I have read that they are an amazing bang for the buck when it comes to stargazing and stuff. I have high hopes at least. We have looked at the stars through one of those cheap wal-mart retail type stuff that you can buy for $60-100...and they sucked. And they have a mere 2" aperture if I remember right and barely got 75x or 100x magnification. Am I remembering that wrong though?

Aridhol

This is pretty much what I followed when buying one.

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=2281

From the site:
Magnifying power?
Avoid any telescope box that touts magnification. Claims of 500x for telescopes are meaningless, and here's why: All you need to do to change the magnification of a telescope is change the eyepiece. So, if a low-quality, high-power eyepiece is included with the telescope, high (albeit empty) magnifications can be achieved. Normally, you calculate a telescope's maximum useful magnification by multiplying the size of the lens or mirror in inches by 50. So, a 4-inch telescope can be used with eyepieces that provide up to about 200x. An 8-inch telescope's highest useful magnification is 400x, and so on. Take it from a long-time observer — you'll use low magnifications in your telescope far more often than high ones.