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Orange Haze

By Orange Haze
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Orange Haze

Orange Haze

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Hi All. Brand new to SGL. Getting into astronomy after delaying it for years on end. The luxury of having the Normal Lockyer observatory on my doorstep is a big incentive as well!

Hoping to make the most of some of the clearer skies we get down here in Devon having put of with London haze for many years.

Currently on the look out for a new scope and trying to choose between the many recommendations of Dobsonian or Refractors. Plan to be up and running with my new scope within the week..... if I ever make the choice!

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. You can never put off a good thing and astronomy certainly fits the bill. The key question is what do you want to observe and what is your budget. The answer to the first is usually EVERYTHING ;) which would make a reflector the more promising choice as although no one scope can do everything, as a rule reflectors are general good performers on most subjects. The general rule is that aperture = resolution, which translates ultimately in to detail that you will be able to see. Dobsonian scopes represent best value for money as the price of the scope is mainly invested in the mirrors, leaving the remainder being spent on a simple alt-azimuth mount. The most popular size would be the Skywatcher 200P (8") donsonian, easy to store, transport and will show you plenty of detail on planets and deep sky objects (DSO's) like galaxies and nebulae. I personally would start from this size, as I believe the aperture is sufficient to make the process of finding an object and observing it worthwhile.

Refractors are of course more portable but of course you are going to need something to mount it on, thus spending here will mean less for the scope. Refractors need no collimation (optically tuning) or any cool down times, meaning where the glass needs to settle to be equal to ambient temperature to avoid any visual distortion and so assist focussing. 8" inches of thick dobsonian glass will take longer to cool than the average 4"-5" objective glass in a refractor. The image through the refractor has better contrast and so the night sky will be darker than through a dobsonian. For that reason, they tend to be better for the moon and planets. They will show you the brighter DSO's but of course aperture is aperture and although the beeter contrast of the refractor may help the galaxy etc to stand out better, you won't see as much detail or structure as with the reflecting dobsonian scope. Refractors come as achromatic doublets (two pieces of objective glass) which may or may not have special glass and coatings to reduce false colour on bright objects, or triplets (three pieces of objective glass) which are the more expensive refracting scopes, that show nearly no false colour, the preferred choice amongst imagers (possible future interest?). Although false colour can have the effect of resolving very fine detail on a bright objects (moon) a little tricky, if however you are observing some nebulosity or a galaxy which is very faint, false colour would not exist and present no discernible difficulty.

One important point, it's good practice for those who are starting out to try and attend a couple of observation evenings run by local astro clubs and groups to be able to see the kit up close and more importantly, to take a look though in order to establish if the view given will meet your own personal expectations. When you have done this a couple of times, you will then be able to establish your own benchmark from which to hang all the manufacturers specifications from to then be able to make a final decision.

In summary, the reflector and refractor are different beasts in that there are designed to perform well on different celestial objects, but of course their use is not exclusive to just these and can be used to observe many other types of objects too. The Skywatcher 200P is the cheapest out of the box performer in the uk at this time. The refractors vary in price but a mount will also need to be purchased. So your next decision really is, what is your budget? Hope that helps.

Clear skies

James

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Mr Q

Mr Q

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Hi Orange Haze and welcome to the SGL.

I agree with James, which his post explains the difference between the two scope types nicely. Another thing to consider is physical size for storing and set-up. Most people - experienced and beginners alike - end up with a reflector (a "Dob") which will give you the most bang for the buck (sorry..pound). Going to an outing will give you a good idea of what's available in size and performance.

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todd8137

todd8137

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like always every one ,will tell you this scope and that and where to buy it from....shop around all the shops in the UK first some offer discounts ,others feel they no need to and are greedy ,try all the shops and the most important thing try and meet up with a few who have scopes and get a look the so called starter scopes are almost sold with in months .if you thing you want model A .go for model B thats the only thing i can say

also check for discounts or price matching,remember you are the customer

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