What telescope should I buy?

[Guy Lalonde]

I happened to find this site looking for a telescope.  I am a newbie to telescopes.  I had a cheap department store telescope about 30 years ago.

I am looking for a telescope  I can connect to a PC and displays on the screen for the purpose of making it easier for me and my 6 and 7 year old granddaughters to see and have fun so that they would become enthused about Science and the diversity of the world around them, including the normally unseen parts. 

So I'm looking for a telescope,  that can easily be connected to a laptop for viewing if there aren't serious shortcomings to that. I would like it to have a fairly clear view of at least some details for Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn and at least a glimmer of sights like Andromeda. I doubt I can achieve all of this for less than $300 but I'd prefer not to spend more than $700-1000.

So, is it possible with some considerable convenience in mind (I don't want to start off making it a job to learn the skies just yet so Go To seems a must) to fulfill this quest.  Considering my budget and what accessories I will likely need right away I had considered http://www.highpointscientific.com/...n-nexstar-90-slt-computerized-telescope-22087 this one as an example of what I suppose would just barely fulfill my/our minimal requirements. Am I on the right track?

Or would a Celestron Nexstar 6SE” GoTo Schmidt-cassegrain be better.

After buying a telescope there will be no upgrading later. I am retiring in November and will be on a tight budget from there on.

[Dave In Vermont]

Greetings, and welcome to SGL Guy - nice of you to join us!

I'll let others help you with your initial quest for a good scope. But I will ask you a question here: You speak/type of 'connected to a laptop' to facilitate. Have you given any thought to which software-program to run on the laptop for this? Some can be quite costly in and of themselves. But there is one you should take a good look at for this - which is totally free of charge to download and use. And is considered to be one of the very best - at any price. This being Stellarium.

So my question to you is - have you heard of Stellarium before? And do you have it yet? If not I'll be happy to give you more information and links to download it from. Utterly free of any cost - ever.

I'll be checking back,

Dave

[Putaendo Patrick]

What you want to do is quite possible, but cheaper options may not really be satisfactory and better options may be quite expensive. First you will need a telescope with go-to and secondly you need a video camera system to take the images you want to see on your computer screen.

A Maksutov-design telescope would work well for planets and quite a range of deep sky objects - personally I would go for more aperture than 90mm, the Nexstar 127 for example would be significantly better in my opinion. For video, however, Maks have a slow focal ratio which might make them less than ideal?

Be aware that go-tos will drain batteries fast, so you will probably want a rechargeable power supply or an DC adapter from the mains depending where you will use the telescope. There are a variety of programs which will interface between your computer and the telescope allowing you to see where your scope is pointing and move it remotely. As Dave says, Stellarium is a very versatile resource. Again you will need to determine how to connect your scope and computer, with cables, bluetooth, wi-fi etc.

There is a wide selection of video cameras available which range from very inexpensive modified web-cams if you have DIY skills, to purpose-designed astronomy cameras such as the Lodestar X2 at about US$650. Again you need to think where the telescope and the computer will be located so as to best achieve the connection between the two.

Personally I enjoy looking through the eyepiece of a telescope - it seems a more direct and personal experience - so I would think twice about linking your telescope to video. Remember too that go-tos make up quite a large part of the cost of a telescope package. Going manual would free more money to spend on a better optical system. I wonder too how important your two grandchildren are in the equation, for children of 6 and 7 perhaps a much cheaper manual refractor or a table-top Dobsonian reflector which could be "theirs" might stimulate greater interest than more complicated electronics?

 

[wimvb]

I am sure there are plenty of members here who can advise you on a setup. But in my opinion, you should also try to locate a local astronomy club and talk to people there. If you can visit a meeting and look through and at various scopes, you will get a much better understanding of what you want and what you can afford.

When I read your request, my first thoughts were a (Dobsonian?) reflecting telescope with an electronic eyepiece or video-camera for viewing.

Do you want to control the telescope from a laptop, or just use the laptop to show a view of what is in the eyepiece?

[Guy Lalonde]

Thanks everyone, a lot of good info.

Proto Star, to answer your question, I only want to use the lap-top to show what is in the eyepiece. Are there eyepieces which would be easier to look through?

[wimvb]

It seems to me that what you are after is called EAA (Electronically Assisted Astronomy), or video astronomy.

Unfortunately, I know very little about this; but you may head over to the video astronomy section here:

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/123-video-astronomy/

or the EAA section on Cloudy Nights:

http://www.cloudynights.com/forum/73-electronically-assisted-astronomy/

Maybe this thread is of interest:

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/540494-light-weight-portable-low-cost-eaa-setup/

Sorry I can't be of more assistance. (But maybe somebody else can take it from here??)

Good luck!

[Putaendo Patrick]

5 hours ago, Guy Lalonde said:

Are there eyepieces which would be easier to look through?

For the grandchildren you might consider an 8-24 zoom eyepiece which would give them quite a range of magnifications without the need to keep changing EPs. There is one branded by Celestron, Zhumell and maybe others which is reasonably good and not expensive. Although currently out of stock at telescopes.com, a link for reference:  https://www.telescopes.com/collections/telescope-eyepieces/products/zhumell-1-25-inch-8-24mm-zoom-telescope-eyepiece

[Alan64]

http://agenaastro.com/celestron-nexstar-6-se-telescope.html

http://agenaastro.com/revolution-imager-r2-live-view-video-camera-system-for-telescope.html

There will be the learning curve for the go-to, however.  In addition, the SE mount does not have release clutches, so if the batteries, electronics and/or motors fail, the telescope will be dead in the water with no way to move it.

Rather, this would be the go-to kit I'd recommend...

http://shop.opticsplanet.com/bresser-exos-2gt-goto-computerized-german-equatorial-telescope-mount.html?_iv_code=1W7-TA-BR-EXOS2GT&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=plusbox-beta&gclid=CjwKEAjw26C9BRCOrKeYgJH17kcSJACb-HNAjcdS01WaJ5FBDUj_eczOEPtz-0MxERKnq2Yc9Joc7hoCHBTw_wcB

...and with this telescope, you'd have a wider field-of-view for observing the galaxy in Andromeda, and with magnifications ranging from 23x, to 200x and beyond...

http://www.highpointscientific.com/celestron-omni-xlt-150-newtonian-reflector-optical-tube-assembly-ota-31057ota?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=CEL-31057-OTA&gclid=Cj0KEQjw_qW9BRCcv-Xc5Jn-26gBEiQAM-iJhb1fESIWh_FdCr3iBTGZGKRTYHfT8GgUVQo6u-Yb3McaAs4S8P8HAQ

The go-to system can be removed and the mount can then be used manually with slow-motion cables or with a single or dual motor drive.