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Hello from beverley , east yorkshire

Mad Dog

By Mad Dog
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Mad Dog

Mad Dog

Posted
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Hello all ,

I am totally new to astronomy , but i seem to have developed the bug for it ;) .

I dont have any astronomy equipment at present , but thats set to change. I am going to start by buying a pair of 7 x 50 binoculars , and then i intend to buy an orion skyquest xt8 telescope in a few months time ( self xmas present :o )

Could i get some advise on decent binoculars , sub £100 , and is the stated telescope a good buy. ( i read its a good starter scope )

Also does computerised pointing detract from the experience or is it better to discover things manually .

Thanks for any imput.

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MorningMajor

MorningMajor

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Hi Mad Dog and a warm welcome to SGL - bins are a great way to start, though I'm not confident to make recommendations, mine are 25 years old, but work really well.

If you haven't already done so, try downloading Stellarium - a great piece of free doftware to help navigate the skies - as for the goto option, it's totally up to you - there are tomes when it's a

Godsend, especially if you're short of time and have limited chances to "get out there" and remember, just bexause you've got it, it doesn't have to mean that you need to use it all the time, so you can still star hop the "old fashioned" way if you choose to - The important thing is to enjoy what you're doing, whichever way you want to!

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Mad Dog and welcome to the forum.

Purchasing some binoculars as your first bit of astro kit is a great idea and will certainly help you learn the skies and to also see some stuff too. 10x50 is a good size to use as it is sufficient to let plenty of light in but without being so heavy as to warrant a tripod of some type. You will very quickly appreciate the fact that as soon as you peer through any optics a load more stars come into view which is fine, until you're trying to find a specific object- but then that's half the fun.

Now I will lay my cards bare and tell you that I am a GOTO fan for so many reasons and the points that Sim above mentions are very true. I would add one other and that is when you are trying to view and there is a bit of cloud about. When manually trying to find an object under these conditions would be difficult as your reference points keep disappearing and the whole exercise will feel very frustrating. However with GOTO (once your have set the system up) you can dial in the chosen object and wait there for the clouds to clear to take a look. The thing is, we have some clear nights and we certainly have some cloudy nights but its those nights in between that can make the difference as to whether you get to do any observing so GOTO gets my vote. HOWEVER there is one exception. If you have a limited budget, it doesn't make sense to waste any of it on a system that can find you objects, if the cost of doing so has meant that you were forced to buy a smaller scope that will not be able to show you what the system located for you. You certainly don't need GOTO to find the Moon or planets like Jupiter or Saturn and you will need a pretty big scope to help show you any details of the other remaining planets. Its a great help, shows you stuff and reminds you were to look next time and in some circumstances, can show you the limitations of your scope or sky conditions which, if you didn't have it, would have had you believing that you were at fault in not finding an object (M51 in light polluted skies?)

Soory for the speech and hope it helps.

Clear skies

James

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brantuk

brantuk

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Hi Mad Dog and welcome to SGL ;)

Pop into Liddl's next time they have a sale on Rocktrail 10x50 binocs - only £15 (ish) and you can put the balance of your £100 towards a scope and/or accessories. They're very nice for the price - can't go wrong imho :o

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