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Hello from Ireland

altendalton

By altendalton
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altendalton

altendalton

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Hello all,

I'm a newbie to astronomy, but I've always had a strong interest in the stars and planets...

I've recently been given a pair of Celestron 15x70 bins as a gift and I have to say that the bug has well and truly bitten! I've also gotten my hands on Turn Left at Orion and I've been outside every night learning the sky (I've been lucky with relatively clear skies most of the time over the last few weeks.). I'm planning to buy a telescope in the next couple of months, and I keep hearing the Skymaster Heritage 130 being mentioned. Looking forward to getting lots of good advice here! Nice to meet you all... :)

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. Yes the Skywatcher Heritage 130 is popular with members here with good reports on the views it generates with its obvious portability. For what it's worth, I personally would always aim for as much aperture as possible, remembering that more aperture means more light, that in turn means better resolution (detail) on a chosen target. For a little bit extra you might want to consider the Skywatcher 150P which naturally has a larger aperture but also comes with a much improved focuser and offers greater magnification for observing solar system objects (moon and planets) etc than the 130. Now I know it's all very well me sitting here spending your money :grin: but I'm thinking ahead here because when you start to see the views that any scope can generate, it is very natural for you to want to upgrade quite quickly and of course the money spent of any earlier scope will represent a cost that you might not necessarily get back. Taking this concept further, it probably explains why the Skywatcher 200P is the U.K's best selling scope because not only does it have a larger aperture at a great price, but that this combination and its inevitable popularity will secure a potentially higher resale value than other scopes thereby helping you to reduce in real terms the cost of its initial investment should you decide later on to upgrade or decide that astronomy is not for you. If you can save for a little longer this would be my chosen route into astronomy as it will provide the greatest savings and so avoid the inevitable costs associated with upgrading, or what we sometimes call 'aperture fever'.  :grin:  :grin: 

Given the above considerations, I would further recommend to anyone like yourself starting out to put off buying any kit until you have had at least a chance of looking through some of the scopes that are typically available at many public observation events during this time of the year. These events are typically organised by local astronomy clubs and observing groups and will give you a better idea of the size of some of this kit along with some idea of the setup and cool down times that many scopes need to get them running at their best. These events also allow you to ask a lot of questions and to witness the difference between the many different eyepieces that astronomers use and which can have a dramatic effect on the view the telescope generates.  Looking through many different scopes is vital if you want to get your head around what each of the scope's specifications actually mean at the eyepiece and it will also provide you with a better understanding of the real differences between the different designs and sizes of scopes that are out there. The ultimate objective is for you to construct your own 'datum' line that will establish which type and size of scope will best meet your own expectations of what you want to see and how much that chosen view will cost. Hope my comments take you further on your journey.

Clear skies and hope you enjoy the forum

James 

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altendalton

altendalton

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Hi all, thanks for the kind welcome. I'm looking forward to getting started here... :smiley:

JamesM, I really appreciate the pointers and I'll definitely look into what you've suggested. There's a public star party near where I live in the next couple of weeks so I'll head along to that for some hands-on advice.

Cheers :smiley:

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