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Stargazing or optics watching

MartinB

By MartinB
in The Astro Lounge

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MartinB

MartinB

Posted
Posted

15 years ago I bought a new hi-fi and spent quite a bit of time choosing. I then made sure never to look at another hi-fi mag until my system was worn out (the CD player has just packed in :p) Just had another look at a hi-fi mag and remember why I kept away from them. They are designed to make you unhappy with the kit you have. Hi-fi buffs seem to spend all their time listening to the audio quality of their kit rather than being truly into the music. The brain is brilliant at filling in the gaps left by the kit so it all seems OTT for proper listening pleasure.

All this has made me think about telescopes and associated kit. At our astro soc last week there was a guy with a new Tak fs102. The EP was a Televue 20mm and then an 8mm Nagler. The views of Saturn were good, Cassini was very sharp and I could make out some banding on and off. the focusser was a lovely piece of kit with fine and coarse knobs. There was no CA. the proud new owner was talking about how it blew this and that out of the water and the importance of fine optical quality.

The combined cost of his optics was over £2000 so I refrained from telling him that I thought the views through my Tal1 were nearly as good :lol: I am sure if I had them both side by side and looked I would see differences such as contrast and sharpness but the point is, I would have to be looking for them.

I guess that as the eye becomes more trained these things become more evident and people may need to continually invest to get the same wow factor as I got the 1st time I looked through the Tal1. However inexperienced or guillible stargazers could be taken in by the reporters of high end gear exagerrating the improvements obtained and then feel dissatified with perfectly good equipment. There seems to be a danger of people spending their time looking at the optics rather than the stars.

Stargazing is an expensive enough pass time without us spending more than we really need to ....IMHO :(

Martin

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OXO

OXO

Posted
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Personally the more toys to play with the better and if any of them Aid our love of Astronomy great! There's a feeling of collecting gear too that comes with the Hobby i feel.

You have a good point though Martin and i can see were your coming from, thing that get's me about some people with Hobbies not just Astronomy they buy say the dog dangles gear but never use it now that does pizz me off.

James :lol:

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Martin 2

Martin 2

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Its the same with computers, as soon as you buy a top end computer its out of date, if you buy the mags you would never make a decision as something better is just around the corner, you have to just buy something that will serve your needs and forget about whats coming next.

Martin 2

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The Warthog

The Warthog

Posted
Posted

There are innocent people walking into high-end stereo stores, and being sold wooden knobs for their amplifiers, because it will make them sound better. Of course, we've got people being sold brass focuser knobs. For what you are going to see, are UHTC coatings worth the extra $300? Do you really need a GPS in your mount?

That article that was posted here yesterday made some good points about spending the money on things that are really imprtant, and leaving the frills. Mind, I did think £800 for an 8" mirror was a bit excessive...

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Naz

Naz

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Having sat on the side lines watching all the opinions about what type of scope / eyepieces / mounting systems etc. I was beginning to wonder whether or not we should have two different forums, one for those who want to observe, seek advice and increase their knowledge, and the other for those who are only interested in the performance / specifications / prestige value of the gear?

All eqipment will perform a function, how well it does it is another matter, as Martin B said about Hi.Fi. I have been there and got the T Shirt, with the Hi.Fi., photo gear, computors, fishing tackle, etc. Hours and hours reading reviews, checking prices. Boring everyone to death.

We all can become dissatisfied with our lot, be it home, family, equipment and life! But we learn to live with what we have or can achieve. We all have regrets, but we all get by within our limits.

After all a Rolls Royce would be very nice, but a Ford Ka will still get you there, in not as much style or comfort, but get you there and a darned sight cheaper. Also some cars go very fast and are very uncomfortable, as the suspension has to be stiffer to keep the car on the road, Slower cars are more comfortable, but will not handle bends or speed as well. Each car has a specific market, so it is unfair and difficult to compare, unless you specify the limits. Reviews usually are about 75% measurable and 25% the reviewers opinion, but the way it is presented, the opinion could become 75%!!!!!!

Yes it is good to have reports and reviews, also experiences, thats how we all learn. After all, all but the cheapest / worst engineered equipment is of some value. Mind you some of the cheap gear make a very good door stop!

We each have choice and must decide where our main interests lie, be it Planetary / DSO / Solar, and choose then the type of scope / ep's to suit. If imageing / high power viewing, then some form of driven mount is sensible, DSO visual / wide field then a Dobsonian or Alt / Az mount may suffice.

We should remember we all have access to a great selection of suberb equipment, from scopes on a GEM mount from under a hundred pounds to the skies the limit if your wallet can stand it.

Our modern gear beats hands down a lot of the professional equipment from not to long ago.

Just be thankfull you have a choice. Make your choice and be Happy :(:p:lol::p :p :D

nabban

PS, just remember in the Far East where most of our gear comes from, every day is a FRIDAY AFTERNOON :(

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MartinB

MartinB

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I love gear and have a very long wishlist but I can tell that my poor chap with the Tak is already niggled by the fact that it is a doublet i.e 1 element short of a full stack. Someone on Cloudy Nights will soon print a review of their triplet saying how it "blows away the FS102" (if they haven't done already :lol:). My man will be off again to raid the family holiday fund :(

Martin

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petermartin5

petermartin5

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Well argued Martin. Taking into account the " essence" of your points, at the risk of seeming provocative, (dont mean to be ) why do some people feel it necessary to list all their gear every time they make a post to the forum? Seems a little pointless to me, but I guess mine is a minority view.

Pete

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Ambermile

Ambermile

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Well argued Martin. Taking into account the " essence" of your points, at the risk of seeming provocative, (dont mean to be ) why do some people feel it necessary to list all their gear every time they make a post to the forum? Seems a little pointless to me, but I guess mine is a minority view.

Pete

Well, I think it saves listing equipment used when posting pics Pete.

Arthur

PS - I like nice scopes too. When I got the WO FD cell I could clearly see the difference between it and the SD I had as well. Visually I think "that last 5%" means less of the imagination of the viewer having to fill in the spaces. Photographically, it means less work post-processing.

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