Jump to content

SkySurveyBanner.jpg.21855908fce40597655603b6c9af720d.jpg

A Newbie ....From the United States....

MarieTharpRocks

By MarieTharpRocks
in Welcome

Recommended Posts

Starpaw

Starpaw

Posted
Posted

I can recommend the Startravel 80 on a lightweight photo tripod.  If your budget would stretch, a lightweight AZ mount head would improve the setup markedly.  It's a good scope for widefield observation and scanning the constellations and will fit into a backpack to take on plane.  It's not so great for the planets owing to chromatic aberration.  If you are more interested in the planets and the moon, a small Mak might be the ticket, and would be even more portable than a refractor.

Welcome to the forum by the way.  Good luck with your new hobby and clear skies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 48
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Nyctimene

Nyctimene

Posted
Posted

Denali National Park, Alaska, is at 63°20' Northern latitude. Staying there in June, just a few degrees south of the Polar Circle means bright twilight even at midnight; our Scandinavian friends here know well about these enchanting, but astronomically unsatisfying nights (except you are going for the moon or planets). So there's no need to hurry up with your telescope decisions. I'd go for some 8x40 - 10x50 bins for the journey, on the long run a small frac or Mak with AltAz mount and carbon tripod might be a suitable solution for backpacking.

Welcome to this friendly forum!

Stephan

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Geoff_L

Geoff_L

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, Starpaw said:

I can recommend the Startravel 80 on a lightweight photo tripod.  If your budget would stretch, a lightweight AZ mount head would improve the setup markedly.  It's a good scope for widefield observation and scanning the constellations and will fit into a backpack to take on plane.  It's not so great for the planets owing to chromatic aberration.  If you are more interested in the planets and the moon, a small Mak might be the ticket, and would be even more portable than a refractor. [...]

ST 80s (whatever make) are great multipurpose telescopes. They're good for "grab 'n go". They're compact, and so readily portable. They're also good guidescopes -- so if you later want to take up guided astrophotography, you'll have one less item to buy.

ST 80s have a theoretical maximum magnification of 160x, which isn't that far off the maximum of 200x that I understand seeing conditions often impose. With 25mm, 10mm and 5mm eyepieces, together with a 2x barlow lense, the range of magnifications is 16x, 32x, 40x, 80x and 160x. (The Orion 80T ships with 25mm and 10mm eyepieces, so you'd only need to add a 5mm eyepiece and a barlow). Although you won't get the same light-gathering ability of a larger aperture instrument, you will get a versatile and portable one.

Registax and other software can re-align the RGB channels and remove some of the chromatic aberration -- the attached lunar shot was taken with my Orion ST 80 and a cheap Bresser webcam; and processed in Registax 6. Of course, you still notice the CA when visually observing, but we don't find it too objectionable.

HTH & Clear Skies, Geoff

20161112.thumb.jpg.e3020abf0ccf94832f44de3a5481959c.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Floater

Floater

Posted
Posted

Welcome from me, too.

You already have lots of good advice and I would only emphasise the thematic message that the hobby is all about having fun and enjoying doing what you're doing. Even bashing your leg while using your first scope will be something you will remember with fondness when you're old and have been immersed in the night sky for what seems like forever ... ??

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pondus

Pondus

Posted
Posted

Hello Marie and a warm welcome to SGL from me too, located in Norway  :).

Good Luck With choosing a telescope and Your trip to Alaska.

 

Important for Your trip (regarding nightsky astronomy):

Like @Nyctimene (Stephan) says : There is absolutely no reason bringing a telescope With you to Alaska in June.

The sky will be so Bright that you will not be able to see more than (tops) a handful of stars, if any at all, naked eye (and of course no Constellations).

 

Take care

 

Rune

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JamesM

JamesM

Posted
Posted

Hi Marie and welcome to the forum. The Alaskan sky sounds like a perfect observing location and the envy of many of us here in Britain who are forced to observe clouds. Any room in your backpack for a little fat englishman? :grin:

Clear skies for now and hope you enjoy the forum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

Posted
Posted

Used telescopes are also something to take into consideration. Us astro-folk tend to take scrupulous care of our gear, so 'Used' scopes can be a real bargain.

Here in the US, the best place to find such is Astromart. They want $15.00 for a membership (to keep only honest & real folks in their listings - crooks and spammers tend to be dissuaded from paying-out to do their deeds), which is re-newable yearly. The benefit of buying 'used' is that if you don't like what you bought, you can re-sell at the same price as you paid. A good deal! Here's a link:

https://www.astromart.com/

I've bought & sold there many times, and never had a problem at all.

Peace! :biggrin:

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pondus

Pondus

Posted
Posted

Alaska4.thumb.jpg.eb72130399f825de5193ec3e0c2eb8c3.jpg

Forgive me for repeating myself, but there is really no point of bringing a telescope (for nightsky astronomy) with you to Denali, Alaska in June.

At 63°N the sun wont even dip 4° below the horizon that time of year.

Trust me on this one, I`ve got decades of experience with bright summer nights :).

 

Rune

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Erla

Erla

Posted
Posted

Hi!

What about Skywatcher Heritage 130p flextube? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

It's under your budget, has 130mm aperture and the design allows for easy storage and transportation. Also, it's a dob, so very beginner friendly and you won't need to worry about the mount. I think you could call it a decent telescope, appearently it comes with half decent eyepieces that are capable of bringing out detail on Jupiter and Saturn with a Barlow. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MarieTharpRocks

MarieTharpRocks

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Obviously I'm an occasional 

On 4/16/2017 at 22:55, Pondus said:

Alaska4.thumb.jpg.eb72130399f825de5193ec3e0c2eb8c3.jpg

Forgive me for repeating myself, but there is really no point of bringing a telescope (for nightsky astronomy) with you to Denali, Alaska in June.

At 63°N the sun wont even dip 4° below the horizon that time of year.

Trust me on this one, I`ve got decades of experience with bright summer nights :).

 

Rune

Obviously I'm an occasional dummkopf and completely forgot about the whole "midnight sun" in the summer Alaskan months. I should have known better after being in Scotland backpacking a few years back in late March only having a few hours of "night sky".....grrrrr Why are we going in June! Oh right, it's warmer then :) 

I'm going to Cape Breton in Canada in September though , so THERE I will be able to see some nice nightness. 

Thanks for the "should have been obvious" heads up....I'm actually surprised none of my friends mentioned this. But this is what happens with midwestern education....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MarieTharpRocks

MarieTharpRocks

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 4/17/2017 at 08:00, elliot said:

 

I love your intro. I totally get the gear lust for a proper scope, but don't forget even super cool primo astronomer Jodie Foster uses binoculars...

58f4ae10cbd7a_Screenshot2017-04-1712_58_06.thumb.png.b8a02901805ef0bb3b75050e866e8a4f.png

Well if I wasn't already convinced to get binos I am NOW! I forgot she used these in Contact :) I did find a really good pair of 8 x 56 ones at a great price and I have enough budget leftover to put in my "real as fu*k" scope I hope to eventually get.

All my "disposable income" ( if you can call it that ) goes towards hiking , geo studies , and equipment ( a good rock pick and crack hammer alone  ...are about $200...and I might have spent about $250 on my backpack...shhhhhh I know ). 

But, even with my crappiest of th crappy scopes I did get to understand a very basic amount of how ....f'ing hard it is to pinpoint celestial objects. Someone said that there are these local "star parties" ? Where people who are already good amateur astronomers help out with the learning curve. I think I want to check out one or two of those to get a feel for what people use and what I like and feel comfortable with. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
iPeace

iPeace

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, MarieTharpRocks said:

Obviously I'm an occasional 

Obviously I'm an occasional dummkopf and completely forgot about the whole "midnight sun" in the summer Alaskan months. I should have known better after being in Scotland backpacking a few years back in late March only having a few hours of "night sky".....grrrrr Why are we going in June! Oh right, it's warmer then :) 

I'm going to Cape Breton in Canada in September though , so THERE I will be able to see some nice nightness. 

Thanks for the "should have been obvious" heads up....I'm actually surprised none of my friends mentioned this. But this is what happens with midwestern education....

It's only that obvious to our Northerly friends. Certainly never occurred to me. Re-learning this has enriched my life.

I can relax, enjoy and not blame my formal education. Care to join?

:happy11:

P.S. Sorry, couldn't resist.  :happy9:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MarieTharpRocks

MarieTharpRocks

Posted
  • Author
Posted
5 minutes ago, iPeace said:

It's only that obvious to our Northerly friends. Certainly never occurred to me. Re-learning this has enriched my life.

I can relax, enjoy and not blame my formal education. Care to join?

:happy11:

P.S. Sorry, couldn't resist.  :happy9:

Ha! But if I don't blame my "in"formal early education I don't have some reason easy excuses! 

 Americans are really weird ....usually a good weird. Our sense of humor is far more self-deprecating than many others. 

Im not really "embarrassed" I don't know offhand the northern climes monthly rotations....I'm more laughing at the irony of how i'm normally a research freak , but also very oblivois about the obvious. My dad would say it's cause I'm blonde :) and then I tell him ....relax 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Nyctimene

Nyctimene

Posted
Posted

Hello, Marie,

glad, that you have - at least for the moment - steered away from the scope decision and got a good pair of bins for your Denali trip. I suppose, having read your CN post, the Celestron 8x56? Good bins will accompany you for many years and are, as wide field instruments, complementary to telescopes; so money will never be lost. I'm still using the Hertel+Reuss 8x30 bins, that got me into Astro 1968, and they are still in good condition!

As you mentioned above, it's for you, as for all starters, not easy to pinpoint the stars and constellations. You'll need a good star atlas; many on here use the Pocket Sky Atlas. You might, as a budget solution, also download for a printout one of these:

http://www.geocities.jp/toshimi_taki/atlas/atlas.htm

http://www.uv.es/jrtorres/triatlas.html

You can also get some apps, as Stellarium or SkySafari for your smartphone.

A good tripod (s/h) and an adjustable seat will add convenience. For image stabilization on the budget, you might even think about building this:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-equipment/image-stabilize-your-binoculars/

It's simple to build, cheap, and it really works well with my 10X50 Jenoptems.

Have fun with your bins, and keep reporting here!

Stephan

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.