Goldfinger

10 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

I was thinking more of the pool. You can get waterproof eyepieces but I don't think a scope would do well 🙂

We may not have water in the pool this year due to covid-19 concerns. So that may save me yet 🥺

48 minutes ago, Orange Smartie said:

I've never been to St Louis, but you should be aware that if you live in a heavily light-polluted area, galaxies are going to be a tricky target.  If you haven't already, you might want to take a look at this thread so that you have reasonable expectations:

 

 

I'm fortunate enough to live in a semi-rural area where I can observe galaxies with my 6 inch Dobsonian telescope - however, even here, on a bad day (neighbour's lights on, any kind of moon up etc), it becomes quite a challenge.  I've not done much in the way of planetary viewing, but I suspect that they'll be less affected by light pollution.

 

That's what an article stated... Planetary viewing is less affected by light pollution since they are much closer than galaxy's.

Is there much difference in performance between telescopes with the same size lenses?  So far I've seen Dobsonian, Newtonian ,  Schmidt - Cassegrain and there's a couple others 

All of these can come in 6 inch lenses but does the performance vary from type to type?

- General Features

- 6" Schmidt-Casseg

- as

- 6" S

41 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

Best take care where you set up in the dark! One false step could be costly...

Don't worry. We have 5 ft high walls to keep all the party goers from falling 16 stories to the ground. Thanks for the concern.

Something else I was thinking about. Since I live and plan on using the telescope on the rooftop of my apartment building in the city, how difficult would it be to manually locate three objects with the celestron nextstar 6se? Can you actually manually locate three objects in the sky at night with the light pollution?

I have a rooftop on my apartment building complete with swimming pool and that's where I plan to spend the bulk of my time sky gazing.

It's fairly well lighted up at night and I'm wondering how much that will affect my viewing. Would I still be able to see the planets in good detail? That's mainly what I'm interested in and whatever stars and galaxies I can view will be a bonus.

Was thinking about a used Celestron - NexStar 6SE Telescope as that will fit my budget. Think that will suffice?

And by the way, I could always try to knock out the  power on my block for a couple hours if the light pollution was really bad.....

JUST KIDDING!!!! 😜

I have an apartment in downtown St Louis, Missouri with no opportunity to get out of the city limits where there's not as much light pollution.

So there's going to be an issue with night lights where I live. I mainly wanted it to view the planets with a few galaxy's thrown in as well. 

I had no idea you could view the planets with a pair of binoculars. I suspect you wouldn't get much detail with those so I ruled them out. My budget is around $1000.00 and it doesn't have to to be new. I'm perfectly willing to purchase a used telescope as I think it will offer more value and options than a new telescope with the same price.

Orion doesn't seem to offer as many options as Meade and Celestron so I'll probably go with them if I can find something suitable.

Hope to get some advice so I can narrow my choices.

Hello Stargazers 

I'm interested in astronomy and planet-stargazing. I don't have a telescope yet and am having a hard time deciding what to buy.

Meade and Celestron seem to have the market cornered so I'm going to start there.

Can some of you give me your opinions on which of those two offer the best value for the money if purchased new?

I know it's a difficult question with many factors to consider but it'll be start.

Thanks