Best advice

[Littleguy80]

28 minutes ago, cloudsweeper said:

# The principle of balancing mag against FOV to get good contrast to see faint objects.

I'm only now starting to appreciate the importance of this one. I jump from 25mm to 10mm in the eyepiece focal range. There's been more than one occasion that I've wished I'd had something in between when I've managed to find a galaxy or nebula. Like most beginners, I went for planets to start with and just wanted more magnification. It doesn't take long to figure out that more magnification isn't the answers with DSO's!

[Tomjo59]

If you are starting out and planning to buy a 'scope, don't waste time agonising over the type or size for ages, like I did!

Just buy one and get observing. If you get a good 4" refractor, or an 8" reflector, that will pretty much cover all bases, at least until you decide to specialise. The occasions when bigger apertures than this can be used to full potential are sadly very rare indeed, at least in the UK!

Go for quality over quantity.

 

[JohnSadlerAstro]

50 minutes ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

Nothing like a functional looking setup

Or two, of course!

EDIT>>Possibly even more.

Hint>>Stu<<Hint   (Before he sold it all)  

John

[Littleguy80]

6 minutes ago, Tomjo59 said:

 

If you are starting out and planning to buy a 'scope, don't waste time agonising over the type or size for ages, like I did!

 

Good one. I was the opposite, my wife was looking for something to get me for Christmas so I picked my first, and current, scope late at night after about 20 minutes research. It's been enough to build my interest in astronomy and I've learnt an awful lot with it. I'm sure I'll upgrade in the future but for right now I'm thoroughly enjoying my beginner's scope

[JohnSadlerAstro]

2 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Good one. I was the opposite, my wife was looking for something to get me for Christmas so I picked my first, and current, scope late at night after about 20 minutes research. It's been enough to build my interest in astronomy and I've learnt an awful lot with it. I'm sure I'll upgrade in the future but for right now I'm thoroughly enjoying my beginner's scope

Same scope as I got actually, I found that the research helped, but didn't have much influence on the scope I chose in the end. There was a shop in Frome, closed now, that I got it at. I never regretted it--130mm newts are where it's at in my opinion.

John

[BeerMe]

10 hours ago, estwing said:

Getting a dob...

Definitely this for me too.

I first seriously thought about purchasing a telescope when I seen one in LIDL for ~£65 and realised that they weren't quite as out of my budget as I'd imagined.  I passed on that 700/70 refractor thankfully, and started investigating what is out there which eventually led me to this place, and all the advice a budding astronomer could wish for.

With my limited budget, the Heritage was the only serious contender when it came to a dob and I've been grateful for that ever since.  It's been a great first foray in to this hobby, although aperture fever has made me think of upgrading for quite some time.  That time is now very close (a 10" Dob, of course) and I can hardly wait :-) 

[Littleguy80]

Last night's viewing accessories ?

[cloudsweeper]

No, no - you need a much warmer pirate hat than that!

Doug.

[Astro Imp]

11 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Last night's viewing accessories ?

You only need the parrot for the complete kit 

[Shibby]

Probably the best advice I've had is when somebody recommended a second-hand Vixen GP to me. Since then, I've tried to buy as much as I can second-hand. Most of us look after our equipment and it's a great way to either save money or get better kit!