Advice for purchasing a good telescope

[prajdabre]

Greetings fellow Stargazers,

I wish to purchase a good telescope of 6-8 inches refractor (preferrably 8 inches).

My budget is around 90000 Indian Rupees.

I have been adviced a schmidt cassegrain.

The telescope has to be easily movable from place to place.

I must have the best deal.

Can anyone help me out please?

Thanks a bunch.

[crashtestdummy]

so your budget is approx £1050 which tbh isnt really enough for a decent 8" sct although this- http://www.firstlightoptics.com/advanced-series-goto/celestron-c8-sgt-xlt-goto.html is close on price,as is this- http://www.firstlightoptics.com/se-series/celestron-nexstar-8se.html .obviously this leaves no money for accessories although you dont state if this is your first scope or not.i would say you may be better getting something like this http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-200p-heq5-pro.html

[swag72]

90,000 rupees is about £1035 - I think I am safe to say that you will not get a decent 6-8 inch refractor for that price.

Do you want this scope for imaging or visual use? If it is soley for visual use then a dobsonian scope is the best value for money.

Are prices more expensive in India than the UK? There are a few guys on here from India, but their names escape me at the moment - THey may be able to say what you can and can't get in India as I understand that not all manufacturers are available out there.

[prajdabre]

Yes. This is my first scope.

I did have one about 10 years ago but it was my uncles. This im buying with my own money.

[Capricorn]

According to the tourist rates it is about 65 rupee to the pound so 90,000 = 1400 ish.

FLO have the Nexstar 8SE at £1198.

Making the assumption that the price comes out about the same in Bombay/Mumbai then the 8SE in within budget.

Also leave enough for a power pack to power the thing away for home.

Maybe even another eyepiece.

The 6SE would be well within budget.

[LukeSkywatcher]

According to the tourist rates it is about 65 rupee to the pound so 90,000 = 1400 ish.

FLO have the Nexstar 8SE at £1198.

Making the assumption that the price comes out about the same in Bombay/Mumbai then the 8SE in within budget.

Also leave enough for a power pack to power the thing away for home.

Maybe even another eyepiece.

The 6SE would be well within budget.

The 8SE from FLO comes within the budget (ish), but do FLO ship to India?

I dont think you will find a 6-8" refractor anywhere in the world for 90,000 rupees (£1000). You can almost double that to get one i would think

[crashtestdummy]

most 6" refractors tend to be £5k+ «gulp»

[Qualia]

I wish to purchase a good telescope of 6-8 inches refractor (preferrably 8 inches).

I'm really not sure if you'll be able to buy an 8" refractor for that price, but a basic achromatic 6" OTA from Skywatcher, for example, will cost somewhere between €500 to €550.

I have been adviced a schmidt cassegrain.

These are quite different instruments to a refractor and there is a lot of literature on the net expounding on their virtues and vices. I think this is a great introduction to thinking about buying your first scope and gives a very informed run down on the pros and cons of different design types.

Ultimately, I would suggest that if at all possible try to visit an astro-club near where you live and hopefully you'll be able to see and use what different folk have. If this isn't possible, don't stop asking questions here at SGL. This place is a minefield of information and many of the writers here are knowledgeable to the superlative.

The telescope has to be easily movable from place to place.

What you'll probably find is that the telescope itself is a relatively light piece of kit. Refractors will be heavier by design but up until about an 8" for a Newt or SCT, you're not talking about anything more than 10kgs to 12kgs - an 8" sct, for example, can be sort for just under 6kg, a decent 8" newt around 9kgs.

But what does start to be heavy is the OTA and then the mount and tripod and counter-weight to keep things balanced if you're using an GEM system, or the weight of a standard rocker box if you're using a dob. Again, as a rough guess, you're talking about 10kgs to 15kgs of more weight.

You can lighten your load and get a decent alt-azimuth mount but then you're compromising what size telescope you can use (about 8kg maximum, I'd say) and if you decide to up the telescope's aperture, you'll have to fork out even more money to buy an even better mount like a Sky Tee. Oh, and you can't just load a heavy telescope on a light-weight mount without seriously compromising your observation session. You're going to end up with too much wobble and too little stability.

It's also a good idea to take into account the other extra expenses which aren't neceassry at the beginning but give yourself time and they will start rolling in. New eyepieces, perhaps a case to store them in, cleaning material, something to carry and store your telescope and mount in, perhaps a star atlas of some kind, a Telrad to help finding objects, if you buy an SCT or Newt you'll need a special collimation tool etc.

Best of luck with your enquiry and welcome to SGL

[LukeSkywatcher]

most 6" refractors tend to be £5k+ «gulp»

My (f11) 90mm refractor cost me a few pennies short of 400 euros. That was a firstscope by Celestron in 2007.

Big aperture refracs..........cost BIG money.

I was being very conservative (apparently) by guessing £2K for one.

Reflectors (Newtonions) are so much cheaper and you get more aperture for your money.

[Marki]

Istar Perseus range start with 150mm f8 achromat OTAs around £1200 - these then need focussers/tube rings etc., but are supposedly pretty excellent. They do 200mm as well, but these start around £2000 for the OTA.

You can always get the Chinese built Skywatcher 150mm achromats at around £500 - pretty sure you can get something like that in India. Spacearcade.in do something similar at just under 100000rs with an equatorial mount. Maybe check the c-sky or Skywatcher-India.com website too?

[crashtestdummy]

i think the op meant reflector anyway

[LukeSkywatcher]

i think the op meant reflector anyway

That would tie in with the size of scope and the budget.

Maybe they did mean reflector.

If that is the case then YES, you can buy an 8" reflector scope for that price.

[prajdabre]

Im sorry guys.... I was misquoted... It is indeed a reflector i am looking for.

I typed refractor in a haze of sleepiness.

Now is it within my budget to go for an 8 inch?

The information till now has been quite awesome.

Thanks to all.

[Qualia]

You'll probably know all of this, Prajdabre, so I apologise if I'm repeating what others have already said to you or what you already know.

The general precept is that aperture rules and so you'll find that if a new-comer asks 'what telescope should I buy?' 95% of those answers are always going to suggest the biggest Newtonian you can afford and carry about, and more than likely a Newt which is Dob mounted rather than Gem mounted, simply because the former mounts are probably easy to use, set up and cheaper.

Most stargazers want to see a little of everything and I imagine many deep space objetcs (DSOs) start getting interesting at around 8". If you are looking for faint DSOs, you need aperture and low magnification, the former to get as much light as possible and the latter to get as wide a view as possible. Most Newtonians excel at this. But lets suppose, for argument's sake, you want to get high detail of planets, the moon and want to split double stars. Well, now you don't need big fields of view, nor maximum light collection, but perhaps some really tasty crystal clear views at higher mags. That's when the refractors enter the story.

In a sense, and again, for the sake of argument, the width of the scope offers you aperture and if you divide the length of the scope by that aperture you get what is called a focal ratio. So, lets say I have a 100mm (4") aperture and the length of my scope is 1000mm (40"), then I will have a focal ratio of 10 (f/10). If I have an 200mm (8") aperture at 1000mm length, I end up with an f/5. In its most basic form, different f/ratios offer different views of the night sky and will also play an important role on the type and size of EPs you may want to purchase.

From my limited experience, high f/numbers (f/10, f/12) work well on planets, solar and lunar work, splitting and observing double stars, while low f/numbers work well on clusters, star fields and DSOs etc.

I really don't think you need to spend all your money to have a really great time with the night sky. You'll have to think seriously where you are going to do your observing and how you're going to get there, but if you have a garden or a car to carry you to a dark site then something like this will offer you many, many hours of pleasure.

If you need a lighter bit of gear, something a tad more portable, or looking at a decent quality, reasonable price range SCT, then it seems the C6 or C8 from Celestron get some great overall reviews.

If you're wanting to go down the refractor path - like myself - who was just spell-bound by the aesthetic quality of the stars when I first put my eye through one, then until you get seriously into ED glass or you're really not going to do better than the Tal 100rs.

Other than that, my most used 'book' for stargazing is Sky and Telescopes Pocket Star Atlas and I consider it to be absolutely indispensable. You may also want to check out a book called, Turn Left at Orion. Out in the field, I have never really used it but it is a most excellent and informative read and many, many observers here at SGL swear by it, which can only mean it is also another indispensable book to own.

You'll probably know this already, but the beautiful photos you see of planets and galaxies etc is not what you are going to see through an eyepiece. Indeed, from time to time, threads do crop up at SGL highlighting some enthusiast's very real disappointment. I feel that there ought to be a beginner's warning on every telescope box and advert and image which is selling the given telescope: Warning ** This Telescope Will Not Show You A View Like Those Images You Have Seen In Magazines or Photography Sections on Astronomy Forums **.

And it is precisely for this very concern that I stress to you to check out the sketches produced by patient astronomers. Sure, the sketches may not always be accurate, some will be using aperture that you just don't have, but at least they give the new comer a more realistic expectation of what to expect. Some personal favourites of mine are this and this and this and this.

I'd also suggest that you buy your first set up from a specialist telescope shop that can provide advice and ongoing maintenance – not from ebay or some supermarket or photographic store where the staff have no knowledge of what they are selling.

Finally, I have found that a pirate's eye patch is great for longish observing sessions

I hope that helps get the ball rolling, Prajdabre

[Marki]

If you are looking for reflectors, then again it would be worth checking the Skywatcher-India.com website. There are a lot of excellent scopes, either for use with eq mounts or on dobsonian mounts in the 8"/200mm band that would fit in your budget - not sure if it would strech to go-to though. Not sure how Skywatcher (or however the Synta scopes are branded in India) deistribute, but you can probably work it out from the Skywatcher-India site. Tejraj and co. are a skywatcher dealer

Alternatively, you could get a Celestron nextstar 8SE (200mm SCT type with goto) but this is a lot more expensive - Spacearcade.In have them for rs125000 plus tax, but the nexstar 6sSE (150mm) is about 70000 plus tax. There is a link via there web site to a store in Mumbai - if that's close to you it is probably worth having a look.

Just did a quick search (slow day at work:)) and I think there is a company called Tejraj and co that are skywatcher dealers, and they have a contact in Mumbai.

Hope some of that is helpful . Sure other can advise you better on the ins and outs of reflectors (I have an 8SE, but I'm really more of a refractor fan), but there shoudl be plenty of good choice in your budget range for a decent 8" scope. Good Luck!

[DiamondSmiles]

I have found the Celestron 8 or 6 SE SCT's to be great scopes and easy to set up and understand.

[prajdabre]

A final bit of advice needed.

I have decided on a SCG 8 inches relector.

All i need to know are the eye pieces that should be good for me.

[Qualia]

Prajdabre, what - if any - are the EPs included in your purchase of the C8 and what would be your budget for the time being on eyepieces?

[prajdabre]

My budget is 200 USD.

The SCG i am buying doesnt come with eyepieces.

So any advice?

[LukeSkywatcher]

These are MY favourite EP's:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen-eyepieces/vixen-npl-eyepieces.html

They perform brilliantly for the price of them.

But dont buy them just because i like them. There are similar ones and better ones out there.

[cantharis]

Lately I am into Baader Hyperion eyepieces. They have a wide angle of view and I like the way that the modular system using finetuning rings gives every eyepiece four focal lengths to choose from. Good value for money as well.