Equipment Help For A Beginner

[Colin Smith]

Hello,

    I have been wanting to get into Astronomy for quite a while now, and I need some advice for buying a telescope. I want something that I can look at nebula's(my personal favorite thing to look at), as well as planets, at a high resolution. I also need something that is decently portable, something that could easily fit into a truck. Do you have any suggestions for a good high resolution telescope?

P.S. Sorry if I say anything stupid, kind of new to this.

[Knighty2112]

What kind of budget are you looking at spending? 

[johnfosteruk]

If you want to keep your kit simple, dobsonians are nice, cost effective light hoovers, and often easily transportable. But as Gus says, it's going to be easier for everyone if you can let us know your budget.

oh, and welcome by the way. Why not say hello properly over in the welcome board.

 

[rockystar]

yep, sounds like you're looking at a 150 or 200 dob, plenty of aperture for DSOs  not too expensive and will easily fit in a truck.

welcome

 

[ronin]

The "high resolution" part throws me. Generally good sharp images you are talking a good refractor, at least ED. Problem is a good large ED refractor costs large amounts of money.

A Newtonian will give a bigger aperture, which is what you want for DSO observing, but for "high resolution" the spider and secondary mount at the front tends to reduce that. Again mirrors from Orion Optics are very good however again cost is the factor.

People say that Mak's and SCT's are sharp, my experience so far is they are not up to refractor level. It may have been the limited number of those variety I have used, and they may have been poorly set up, but as said none have matched a refractor.

DSO obsering is very dependant on location - where in UK as IK is of little use , Soho Gardens is one option, a bothy in Scotland is another.

Is there an intention to take images? Again high resolutuion would seem to imply imaging at some time. Ask as Visual and Imaging tend to have different requirements and so little interchangability.

How much do you want to pay for a setup = Scope + Mount, is there a bit of money on one side for eyepieces?

If it is Nebulas you want then it will likely have to be a newtonian and the least costly form of that is a Dobsonian versioon - the mount is the Dobsonian bit. Be aware just about everything is a sort of dull grey. Rich red glowing Rosette Nebulas are not going to happen.

[Floater]

1 hour ago, ronin said:

 ... where in UK as UK is of little use , Soho Gardens is one option, a bothy in Scotland is another.

Well said, Ronin, I do wish people would take that on board.

Yes, Colin. More info on budget and how/where you intend to use the scope will help a lot. And don't worry about 'stupid' - asking questions is never stupid.

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. The reason for asking where you hope to observe from is that local conditions and the sky darkness are most of the limiting factors in achieving good resolution. Also your budget lets us know the type of telescope to recommend. The fact you mention a truck probably means you are willing to travel to find better skies and that is a very good idea. So please give us a little more information and the recommendations will come pouring in.

[Cosmic Geoff]

Yes, let us know your budget and any particular interests.   Be aware that telescope and mount designs tend to be quite specialised, so that what works well for one observing task may be a liability for another. We can advise you, but if you have no experience of telescopes or observing, you may be well advised to start with something of good quality but smallish and easy to handle and use, that will introduce you to various kinds of observing. Manual? Hi-tech? Large? Compact? Astro-photography? Buy a large 'lifetime scope' as your first instrument and you may soon be looking for an early divorce. 

I suspect that many newbies under-estimate the sheer difficulty of finding fainter objects with a 'manual' telescope, and that's why I urge newbies to try a telescope kit with 'GoTo' that makes the task of finding non-obvious objects (like galaxies ) so much easier. One suspects that a lot of newbies go away after finding the easily accessed objects less impressive than they thought, and that new telescope too awkward to use. 

And if you can't afford a large instrument, there are plenty of interesting objects within the reach of smaller ones (not so many galaxies, though). 

Opinions do differ in the amateur astronomy community about telescopes, and what amateur astronomy is about, and you'll find plenty of diverging opinions here. 

[Louis D]

10 hours ago, Colin Smith said:

Hello,

    I have been wanting to get into Astronomy for quite a while now, and I need some advice for buying a telescope. I want something that I can look at nebula's(my personal favorite thing to look at), as well as planets, at a high resolution. I also need something that is decently portable, something that could easily fit into a truck. Do you have any suggestions for a good high resolution telescope?

P.S. Sorry if I say anything stupid, kind of new to this.

When you say that nebulae are you favorite thing to look at, have you ever looked at one through a telescope?  Aside from the Orion nebula and a very few others, what you will mostly see is a faint glow or fuzzy patch of light through most telescopes.  Even giant dobs don't reveal the level of detail seen in long exposure photographs.  Your best bet if you have a few grand lying around is to get a Gen-3 light intensifier tube (assuming they're available in the UK).  Even the California and Horsehead nebula become easy objects with them and the right narrow band filters.

[Colin Smith]

Oh, sorry, forgot to add a budget. I would like anything below $500.

13 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Yes, let us know your budget and any particular interests.   Be aware that telescope and mount designs tend to be quite specialised, so that what works well for one observing task may be a liability for another. We can advise you, but if you have no experience of telescopes or observing, you may be well advised to start with something of good quality but smallish and easy to handle and use, that will introduce you to various kinds of observing. Manual? Hi-tech? Large? Compact? Astro-photography? Buy a large 'lifetime scope' as your first instrument and you may soon be looking for an early divorce. 

I suspect that many newbies under-estimate the sheer difficulty of finding fainter objects with a 'manual' telescope, and that's why I urge newbies to try a telescope kit with 'GoTo' that makes the task of finding non-obvious objects (like galaxies ) so much easier. One suspects that a lot of newbies go away after finding the easily accessed objects less impressive than they thought, and that new telescope too awkward to use. 

And if you can't afford a large instrument, there are plenty of interesting objects within the reach of smaller ones (not so many galaxies, though). 

Opinions do differ in the amateur astronomy community about telescopes, and what amateur astronomy is about, and you'll find plenty of diverging opinions here. 

I did look into  GoTo mounts and found this one(https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=370208&gclid=Cj0KEQiA56_FBRDYpqGa2p_e1MgBEiQAVEZ6-wsJ6wBN65ReOcQuaEt0fJg4jnIwWQbXFIIrkFK6zXcaAisk8P8HAQ&is=REG&ap=y&m=Y&c3api=1876%2C92051677442%2C&A=details&Q=). So far this one seems great. Although, would a 130mm be big enough?

[alanjgreen]

With a budget of $500, then the best scope for nebulas will be an 10" dobsonian. The 130mm is a bit small for nebulas for sure. You are paying for the motors & goto with the mount.

8" is the minimum aperture size to the next level of objects, but many nebulas will be out of reach.

You also need to factor is the price of good quality nebula filters (UHC & O3 types), you get what you pay for with filters so cheapest will not do.

 

These are all manual mounts. the 10" will give you the best shot at nebulas but is slightly over budget. You put $ and that made me think you were US, changing the links to UK...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-250px-dobsonian.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-250px-flextube-dobsonian.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-flextube-goto.html

Of course, what you really need is dark skies. So I put in a couple of collapsible dobs as you can throw these in the car and drive out into the country.

And there is also second hand. http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/ & of course here on SGL too...

Alan

[Colin Smith]

7 minutes ago, alanjgreen said:

With a budget of $500, then the best scope for nebulas will be an 10" dobsonian. The 130mm is a bit small for nebulas for sure. You are paying for the motors & goto with the mount.

8" is the minimum aperture size to the next level of objects, but many nebulas will be out of reach.

You also need to factor is the price of good quality nebula filters (UHC & O3 types), you get what you pay for with filters so cheapest will not do.

 

These are all manual mounts. the 10" will give you the best shot at nebulas but is slightly over budget.

https://www.optcorp.com/skywatcher-8inch-f6-traditional-dobsonian-s11610.html

https://www.optcorp.com/skywatcher-8inch-collapsible-dobsonian-telescope.html

https://www.optcorp.com/skywatcher-10inch-collapsible-dobsonian-telescope-s11720.html

Of course, what you really need is dark skies. So I put in a couple of collapsible dobs as you can throw these in the car and drive out into the country.

Alan

Thank you! I will definitely look into these!