Bushnell 78-9518 good?

[doat1]

i found this Bushnell 78-9518 Deep Space Telescope on craigslist and seems to be better than my telescope. I would like to get your opinions on it,thanks in advance. Sorry for making two threads but i figured if i made another thread i would get more replies.

[AWR]

I'm far from an expert but I would suggest that NO it's not good whatever the price.

The eyepieces supplied (4mm, 12mm, 20mm, 3x barlow) will give a range of magnifications which is totally unsuitable to a 4.5", 900mm scope and will only lead to frustration.

I'm sure there will be wiser words on here during the day (it's still early morning here) and maybe even some advice from stateside members on where to buy good scopes.

Good luck

Andrew

[Doc]

I agree with Andrew.

I know it's pretty cheap and there's an urgency to gey your first scope, but it's not a great scope and you will soon either be frustrated and want bigger or you will become disillusioned with the hobby and leave.

What sort of budget do you have.

[John]

I agree entirely with the other posters on this scope. It will bring much more frustration than enjoyment. At that budget you are much better advised to buy a good pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars and use those to develop your interest in astronomy while you save for a good introductory telescope. A 6" dobsonian telescope will cost you about $200 (less used) and will make a vastly better introductory scope in my opinion.

John

[doat1]

right now i have $100 to spare and $180 if i can sell my current telescope, i was searching last night for reviews on that telescope you all are right, it is not worth it and i read that the build quality is poor on Bushnells. I will save for the 6"+ dobsonians those seem to be the best telescopes to buy from what i see. Thanks for the input guys. Can anyone recommend a site to buy a telescope?

[John]

As you in the USA (I think) these people are worth considering:

Telescopes & Accessories at Factory-Direct Prices! - Telescope.com

They have a great reputation for service in the US and have a very wide range of equipment available.

John

[doat1]

I came across this telescope Celestron PowerSeeker 127 EQ Telescope - Telescopes at Telescopes seems to be a 5" aperture and comes with an eyepiece for max mag. Can someone give me a quick run down of the difference between reflector, refractor, and all the others? I don't have time to read pages of each right now because i am in school and revising my research paper.

Jahmanson, how is that Meade lightbridge working for you? i plan on buying the same thing but 10".

[John]

Have a look at this when you have time:

http://stargazerslounge.com/primers-tutorials/37999-primer-telescope-types.html

The 12" Lightbridge is a great scope but quite a beast to handle - I'm still learning my way about it but I've had some great views.

John

[doat1]

man just glancing at that page gives me an even bigger headache lol. I will look over it and i really need to learn everything about telescopes. I made stupid decision about buying that 2.5" but it did not hurt much.

[mdstuart]

I want to support the other comments, get the biggest dob you can afford if you want to go for visual astronomy or if you want to take pictures then the mount becomes key so you will be looking at a smaller aperture.

Mark

[doat1]

does anyone know where i can buy lenses? like 12-16" lenses, brother and i might build a telescope this summer we got all the info and just need to get the parts.

EDIT: My brother and i decided to start off with a 6" since we could only find a 6" convex lens and we are going to build a Dobsonian. Anyone have a guide we can use or advice would be greatly appreciated. I found two sites, Island Eyepieces and Telescope Ltd. and surplusshed.

[Doc]

Go on to the cloudynights website and look through the ATM section. Loads of articles on dob building.

[doat1]

thanks

[doat1]

I plan on buying this lens 150MM DIAMETER F/27 PCX LENS 4000MM FL - Surplus Shed says it is just shy of 6" but we can work with that. Anyone else know a website that sells larger lenses? something between 6"-12" 16" would be expensive and huge and we are also too inexperienced for that size.

[The Warthog]

TAKE A BREATH, EH? A 4000mm focal length means it needs a 13 foot long tube, and a monster tripod. You do not want to get into building something like that.

I would suggest you use your 60mm scope to get a flavour of astronomy, then buy either a 90 to 100mm refractor (a scope with a big lens at the front, and an eyepiece at the back) or a 127 to 150mm reflector (a scope with a mirror at the bottom and an eyepiece at the top) on an equatorial mount, or an 8" to 10" dobsonian (a reflector on a special type of mount,) and check for used scopes first, as you don't have a lot of money.

[doat1]

lol, i do plan on using the telescope i bought to learn the sky but with my bro also helping me out we can build a telescope. So that lens i posted up would require a 13ft long tube, so for example a 2000mm focal length would need a 6.5FT tube? Is that how it works?

[The Warthog]

1000mm = 39½", so keep that in mind. I would suggest you abandon the building project until you get your feet wet in astronomy. You would need an achromatic lens, which the surplus shed one isn't, with a focal ratio of f/8 to f/12. Surplus shed doesn't have any. Island eyepiece and other suppliers do, but they cost a LOT of money for real telescope lenses.

If you want to take on making a scope, get a scope first so you can get a decent look at the sky while you are building the scope, then get a mirror grinding kit (Google it!) of 6 to 8", and consider whether to make or buy other parts you will need.

[Doc]

"Don't run before you can walk" springs to mind....

[doat1]

yea like i said earlier i was going to use the scope i got to get a feel of it and learn the sky and later in the summer build one. I'll keep learning more in the meantime. Thanks for the help everyone.

[The Warthog]

OK. Get yourself a copy of the current Astronomy or Sky & Telescope, so yo have a star chart to use to help learn the sky. See if your dad has a pair of binoculars you can borrow, and use them as well as the scope to look for clusters, sweep the Milky Way, and do other interesting observing.

Come back if you have any new questions. Oh, you shoud read the 'sticky' threads in Beginner's, and pick up a book or two and get some knowledge of what's up there in terms of what nebulae, clusters, asteroids, etc are and do.

[doat1]

i found that site called heavens above in the beginners section but the problem is the skies are cloudy now because of the rain the past few days.

[doat1]

One thing i would like to know about eyepieces, how do i find out which eyepiece size is best for a certain focal length?

[doat1]

Well my brother bought the Bushnell before i could tell him the bad news about it and it does feel cheap. He got it cheap anyway, $40 and he found that $40 lol. Once the sky clears up i will see how well this scope performs and report back here. We will be saving up for a better quality telescope like a Meade or Celestron.

[doat1]

well we finally had some patches of clear sky so we took out the telescope and found the moon. It was amazing the moon filled the entire eyepiece with a F12mm piece and the F20mm was a bit further away allowing us to see the entire moon in great detail. We could see the craters and dark patches, and impact splashes. From what you guys have been telling me i expected worse but it turned out to be great. We would have stayed out longer but mosquitoes were tearing our legs apart.

[The Warthog]

Our mosquitoes are still hiding from the cold. Get yourself a Moon map, and learn what you're looking at. I really adds to the experience.