Newbie, advice wanted :-)

[paulcunny]

Hi all

i have had an interest in the stars for sometime now, but have little knowledge of telescopes, and am looking to buy one within the nect week or two!

i have been looking at the skywatcher heritage 114p virtuose and the skywatcher heritage 130p, and was wondering if anyone had one of these?

as a noob, i'm not looking to spend alot of money yet, maybe if i get really into it?

i also would like to get into astrophotography, i understand it takes time to master, but wondered if the 114p is any good to hook an SLR upto & track stars/planets/moon etc?

amy info would be greatly appreciated

Paul

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Hi Paul,

The Heritage 130P is a popular and capable telescope that will give you much satisfaction I am sure. The Virtuoso offers less aperture so the views will not be quite as impressive, but it does have the ability to track objects. The 130P is fully manual and would require you to know where to point it and to move it by hand to track.

Looking at the product description, you can attach a DSLR to the Virtuoso mount in place of the telescope. This should allow you to do some basic short exposure widefield photography. 'Proper' astrophotography is a whole different ball game though!

Is it possible to go to a meeting of your local astronomical society before you make a purchase? Most of these groups are very friendly and people will be happy to show you their telescopes and offer advice.

[Polar Bear]

Hi Paul and welcome to the forum.

I was in your position several years ago and my first 'proper' scope was a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ. This is in the same price range as the ones you mention but has the advantage of an EQ mount on a sturdy full size tripod. The site sponsor FLO has these for sale http://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/celestron-astromaster-130eq-telescope.html with one version having a motor drive for tracking objects. This scope will enable good views of the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars (at a push) and give you good wide field views of Galaxies and Star Clusters. It was certainly good enough to start my interest in the night sky and the first time I used it I was blown away with the views.

As Gareth says, proper astrophotography is a whole different ball game but the 130EQ will enable you to take simple shots of the Moon and basic short exposure widefield images.

The main thing is to get out there and start looking.

Paul

[Sirius Starwatcher]

Hello Paul and welcome I understand that the heritage 130 is a fine scope for starting out with. You get a lot of scope for your money and it is very easy to use. Point at the object and start observing you don't need to carry out any fancy alignments. Would recommend you buy a couple of books or an app for your phone to get you started. The two main books most members recommend are turn left at orion and the sky and telescope pocket sky atlas. I use an app for my phone iPad witch is very good for finding objects it's called sky safari. There is a free program for your computer called stellarium which a lot of members use as well. I understand that AP is a whole different ball game and can be very expensive. Any way best wishes and good luck in your choice

[paulcunny]

Thanks for the help :-)

i was just looking to take easy pictures at first! moon, jupiter etc, of course after practice, i was looking at the AstroMaster 130EQ earlier today, i think i might go with that for my first scope! seems to have good reviews!

maybe i'll stick to viewing first before AP!

[Astro Imp]

Hi Paul and welcome to this great forum

From what I have read you won't be disappointed with your choice of scope.

You have already been pointed at Stellarium a fine free planetarium program to help you around the sky:- http://www.stellarium.org/

Your comment about sticking to observing before getting involved with Ap is IMHO very wise.

Good luck, and come back with your thoughts after you have had a couple of observing sessions and any questions that you have.

[bingevader]

Hello Paul,

Two main differences that I can think of between the two 130s.

One is the mount.

The Heritage Newt is on a Dobsonian mount, no set up required, but you do then need to constantly nudge the 'scope to keep objects in view.

The Astromaster is on an Equatorial mount which will need setting up initially, but once done, will only require the tweaking of the control cables to keep the object in view.

The other main difference is that the Heritage is a flexibly tube design where as the Astromaster has a solid tube.

Both will need collimating at some time or another, but the Heritage may require this more regularly.

However, the Heritage will be easier to store and quicker to set up.

Cheers

[paulcunny]

thanks again everyone! i have purchased a AstroMaster 130EQ after reading up reviews, so I await it's delivery!

[bingevader]

Excellent news, very exciting I bet!

Best of luck, tell us how you get on with it.

[paulcunny]

had her out for the first time! managed to see jupiter & 2 of it's moons! then the clouds came back :-(

[paulcunny]

picture with phone held up to lens! bit tricky!

[paulcunny]

another one

[paulcunny]

another one