Hello from a newbie

[dogduck]

Hi from a total newbie liveing in disley a small village in Cheshire uk . Looking to buy a scope to star gaze  been looking at stars for yrs and just thinking wots out there and the beauty of them so now getting to 55 in Nov have decided to look at scopes for about 500/700 £ but so many out there and different people saying but this buy that heads beginning to hurt would like a go-to one and maybe to try a bit of photography in the near future .just found out my sky is a 5 on a scale of dark sky's so does that help me would like to just set it up in garden and maybe take it away on hoilday to the lakes. Thanks for letting me join this site

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome. If you are looking portable then you need to decide if its just for observation or astrophotography.

Peter

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Welcome to SGL.

Must be something about the mid fifties that's when I got my first scope ever and never looked back.

That was just over a couple of years ago so as a relative newbie I am maybe not the best member to give advice. However, as my aspirations were very similar to yours with wanting to progress to some astro photography I can tell you my path on this amazing hobby obsession.

I too had a similar budget maybe pushing the £1K at most. Best advice I would have is to spend wisely as you often just want to get into it and when you look on these websites there seems a load of scope / mount bargains out there but all may not suit your needs.

The AP side of also leads to other questions as planetary and DSO's really require different scope and camera setup. What is constant between these though is that for imaging you really need a really sturdy mount capable of tracking the object and so you need to be spending probably a larger part of the budget on the mount than the scope. Even 2nd hand you will be spending around £500 on the mount (ideally - not saying people do not manage images from mounts for less but it does add to the difficulty).

After getting some great advice from members on SGL I initially snapped up a 2nd hand Dobsonian for about £120. Then bought a couple of extra eye pieces and that did me for several months whilst I gave a lot of thought to what I wanted to do on the AP side of it and my future equipment buys and saved up a bit more capital. The Dobsonian was great and gave some great views of the stars, a few galaxies and because it was not a goto but very manual also in my opinion really helped me get used to where some of the objects were in the sky.

My plan was to get rid of the Dobsonian when I went onto imaging but still have it for observing, maybe I will part with it someday but doubt it. Whilst in this initial stage I kept saving and by looking at other peoples images and threads on here decided I preferred the DSO side of things and then bought a 2nd hand HEQ5 mount which is a real good start for imaging mounts, bought a smallish refractor, guidescope and a 2nd hand DSLR and started on the imaging. 

Be warned though it is really addictive and soon have several scopes and now a dedicated astro camera and bigger mount so well exceeded my £1000 budget (but that really is up to you but honestly very easily done).

Anyway enough from me for now, but money wise if you buy good equipment, even 2nd hand, look after it, then you will be able to sell it on if you want better which really helps you progress and save on the cash. Even from new if looked after can often recuperate 2/3's of the initial cost and if originally bought 2nd hand you lose very little.

Good luck with the journey 🙂 

Steve

Edited July 27, 2020 by teoria_del_big_bang

[dogduck]

14 minutes ago, PeterCPC said:

Hello and welcome. If you are looking portable then you need to decide if its just for observation or astrophotography.

Peter

Hi for the time being just observation

[dogduck]

Thanks Steve you right on how many scopes are out there new and 2nd hand may just leave the photos out for now and just use it for visual would lov a singing dancing scope as reading trying to move a mount to follow the stars as there move around can and does put people off  seen a few that do it all for you like the nexstar GS scopes and thought about one of them but going take my time over this as so many and so different thoughts

[PeterCPC]

10 minutes ago, dogduck said:

Hi for the time being just observation

Think about this carefully because you can get a fairly large Dob which will be great for observation but virtually useless for AP.

Peter

[dogduck]

1 minute ago, PeterCPC said:

Think about this carefully because you can get a fairly large Dob which will be great for observation but virtually useless for AP.

Peter

Going go down the line of observation just looking at forums on here and different scopes can I put a dob on a go-to mount 

[johninderby]

A dobsonian is just a Newtonian  on a dobsonian mount. So you can of course fit a Newtonian onto a regular GOTO mount.

You can get GOTO dobs such as the Skywatcher Flex-Tube GOTO.

Edited July 27, 2020 by johninderby

[banjaxed]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

[Mr Spock]

Hi, welcome to SGL

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi and welcome. 

[sloz1664]

Hi and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Steve

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Colossal Plossl]

Hi.  Not too far from me.  Lymm in Cheshire.  Just started myself.  Enjoy!

[Tenor Viol]

Hi, welcome.

I work in mid-Cheshire, used to live in south Cheshire, but now live over the border in Shropshire

[JeremyS]

Welcome!

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you have lots of fun. 🙂

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Peter in Bedfordshire 🙂