I'm a beginner looking for a first telescope...

[Arctic Jack]

Hello,

I’m totally new to astronomy, but very interested in learning the skies and buying a telescope. I’d be mainly using it in the back garden and/or out of my large attic room window where I could leave it set up. Portability isn’t a huge issue. I’d like to look at all things in the sky, moon, planets and DSO. Would that be a problem when deciding which telescope? Are there specific scopes for specific objects/purposes? Also at some point I’d like to take photographs of the images I’m seeing.

I’ve been doing a little research on telescopes and will be continuing to do a lot more but could do with a helping hand. I have a budget of about £600 but would stretch that to £1000 if the extra money would give me significantly better equipment.

Lastly, any advice on just starting out and buying equipment in general would be great.

Thank you,

Jack.

[Doc]

Hi and welcome to SGL

Observing through an attic window is not really advised. warm air currents rising from your house will destroy your views, making them all hazy.

[pvaz]

If you only want to observe and don't plan to move to photography and want to locate objects by yourself I would recommend one of this:

Dobsonians - Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian

Dobsonians - Skywatcher Skyliner 250PX Dobsonian

If at some point you may want to go into astrophotography and would like a goto setup to help you find objects, then one of this:

Reflectors - Skywatcher Explorer 200P HEQ5 PRO

Advanced Series GOTO - Celestron C8-N GT (GOTO)

You should try and keep the telescope under 700, cause it's easy to find accessories for the extra 300 once you know what you want and need.

Wait for some more replies before making your mind. I'm a bit of a newbie so it's better to take some more experienced opinion before you spend your cash.

Edit: Doc is 100% right as always. Also I must add all the recommend telescopes I listed are about as tall as a person and all wight 20kg++ so wont be that easy to carry up and down the stairs. I keep mine in the garage or in the living room, right next to the front door, where it's easier to carry out.

[ashenlight]

Hi Jack and a very warm welcome to SGL

This is the telescope I would recommend for you

Reflectors - Skywatcher Explorer 200P HEQ5 Syntrek

The large aperture (the size of the main mirror in the telescope) of this scope will give you excellent views - the bigger the mirror, the more light it collects and so the more 'decent' the view you get through the eyepiece. It comes with

Eyepieces Supplied (1.25"): 10mm & 25mm

X2 Deluxe Barlow Lens 1.25" (with camera adaptor)

a good range of eyepieces - the 25mm will give you a wide field of view (what we call the size of the area you see through the scope - more mag decreases the field of view), whilst the 10mm will give more magnification and let you focus in on objects. The barlow doubles the mag (hence the x2) of the eyepiece you use it with.

You will get astounding views of DSOs and the planets. You will be blown away. Remember that you won't get 'photographic' views - you'll see galaxies and the like in varying shades of grey (perhaps with the odd hint of colour in nebulas and of course the jewel like appearance of stars, they come in alot of colours!) - but you will not be disappointed. The Moon will be a sight to behold. You will be able to spend hours just looking at the surface features.

The telescope has a motor which allows you to track objects across the sky, keeping them still in the eyepiece - crucial for photography. So this scope will do well for that too.

Alot of beginners start out with a modest sized telescope - say 5 or 6" - and quickly get frustrated. With the size of the telescope I have suggested, you'll have to climg a steep learning curve to get to grips with it, but once you do, you'll have a brilliant piece of equipment for many years to come.

You will find it useful to have a moon filter as a start-out piece of kit. It dulls the glare from the Moon when you are looking through the scope - it is shocking how bright it can get as it approaches full, can be quite painful! A red light torch is also necessary - when I was starting out I taped red cellophane over an old torch, that'll do for now until you can order one. A decent star map is essential. Astronomy mags such as Astronomy Now and BBC Sky At Night have pull out two page star maps, simple to use but with enough on there to challenge you.

Here's a few links for you to have a read of to get you on the right path

Sky Publishing - How to Start Right in Astronomy

http://stargazerslounge.com/primers-tutorials/63184-primer-understanding-choosing-eyepieces.html

http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/61004-top-10-useful-inexpensive-things.html

My biggest piece of advice for you would be to learn the sky. Get out there with a sunlounger, wrap up warm, a star map and a red light torch. Take some time to acquaint yourself with the sky all year round. Don't rush, set yourself maybe one or two targets per session - if you find more objects then that's brilliant but be prepared to be a bit frustrated when you are starting out (and maybe a few years down the line like some of us! ) You've got a lifetime for this hobby. Start out as you mean to go on - informed and patient

I hope that helps you out a bit.

[pvaz]

I second Amanda on the red light torch and every thing else.

I couldn't find a red torch, so I bought an inexpensive white led one and paint it's glass red with my wife's nail polisher. Worked better then expected.

It haves a magnet too, so I can use it on my head or remove the headband and stick it to the telescope tube with the magnet.

[ashenlight]

That is something else I forgot to mention, pvaz - red nail varnish works really well. It's what I turned to after the cellophane kept coming loose

I'm not sure, but I think that having a magnet near to the telescope, if you are using a compass to polar align, can cause the compass to go a bit 'crazy' - I think. Hopefully someone can give me a yay or nay on that one.

[pvaz]

That is something else I forgot to mention, pvaz - red nail varnish works really well. It's what I turned to after the cellophane kept coming loose

I'm not sure, but I think that having a magnet near to the telescope, if you are using a compass to polar align, can cause the compass to go a bit 'crazy' - I think. Hopefully someone can give me a yay or nay on that one.

Since I use a dobsodian I don't need to polar align, but I'm sure you're right. You would at least have to keep it far enough from the compass while you're aligning the scope.

[ashenlight]

I would love to have a dob Think that'll be my next purchase. Thanks for the 'yay'

[jgs001]

A slight change in direction, although it's a complimentary suggestion, and doesn't preclude anything else. Alongside taking your time and learning the sky, a reasonable pair of 10x50 or similar binoculars, light enough so you can lay back on the lounger and scan around without having to worry about mounting them. It's a superb way to learn the sky, the amount of extra light that they collect compared to your eyes is astonishing, and has to be seen to be believed, although they pale into significance next to a larger scope (I'm sure, but having never used one ...). They will allow you to get used to searching for objects, but with a wide enough FOV that you can easily locate the objects, and, given how quickly they can be setup and used, will still get used when any scope setup just can't be done.

Have a look at http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/72869-essential-reading-those-who-thinking-about-getting-into-astronomy.html which was posted up earlier today for some interesting reading.

As for that compass Amanda... even the metal of a tripod will upset it, so a magnet, yeah big time.

[themos]

I'll throw my bit of advice in: join an Astronomical Society and go to the meetings. It's a great way of getting advice and you might be able to try a few telescopes before you decide to buy.

[Arctic Jack]

Hi and welcome to SGL

Observing through an attic window is not really advised. warm air currents rising from your house will destroy your views, making them all hazy.

Outside it is then, thank you for the advise.

Thank you all for the welcome too. I'll be looking through all the

recommendations in depth when I get home and will be back with more questions. Is there anywhere where I can see images of what certain telescopes are capable of?

Are there any telescopes in my price range capable of getting views like these?

[pvaz]

Yes for Jupiter, though it looks about a quarter of that size at 240x.

As for the Andromeda galaxy you'll see a cloud with that shape but no dust lanes. That picture must have like a combined exposure of a few hours.

Other then that objects, except for planets, usually don't show any color when observing. Reason for that is that the human eye discards a part of the color if there is a higher frequency color with about the same intensity.

You won't see picture like images, most things are just gray or yellow and fuzzy. Only the cameras are able to process the light bands for reds and such. Those photos are the result of a post computer processing that stacks the light gathered in a huge amount of smaller exposure photos taken with diferent filter for each color band, sometimes over large sessions over different nights.

Seeing and finding objects yourself adds a lot to the experience and the fun of this hobby. But you wont see picture like images.

Take on themos advice and go to a local astronomy club so you can look through a few telescopes have a real idea of what you can expect.

[Doc]

You never see galaxies or nebulas like the ones published on this site or magazines. To get these imagaes takes hours of capturing and processing images. Through an eyepiece you will see the outline and maybe a few dust lanes but it will be basically a grey smudge.

If you are observing clusters they can sometimes resemble photo's, basically the bigger the aperture more they will resemble something.

[John]

I think you would have to spend £thousands on equipment to get views even approaching those and even then the details would be limited by atmospheric conditions (or the "seeing" as it's called).

I have seen sprial arms in a galaxy clearly just once through a 12" scope at a really dark rural site - from my back garden it's much more difficult due to light pollution, heat rising from surrounding houses, etc ,etc

On the good nights, during brief periods of steady seeing, I have glimpsed some of the finer cloud details on Jupiter as per the photo you posted although the aparrant size of the planet in the exepiece is much smaller than that - again the seeing conditions in the UK rarely allow large scopes to operate at their full capability magnification-wise.

This is not to say that the visual views through a scope won't be rewarding, just not like the photos.

John

[Capricorn]

Being honest you will not see anything like the picture of Jupiter and the Galaxy.

Both will have been taken on bigger scopes then you can get, the galaxy will be either Hubble or Spitzer at a guess, so say $20Bn. I also suspect that the hubble site is where the image of Jupiter came from.

I was looking at Jupiter 5 nights ago through a 14 inch SCT, image was say 8mm dia.

[Astro_Baby]

If you want a rough idea of what stuff looks like through a scope take a look at this page

Eyepiece Simulator - Dobsonian Telescope Community MyDob.co.uk

Its hard to really convey what stuff looks like visually because planets and clusters are often brighter than you may believe but rather indistinct. Nebula and Galaxies (with a few exceptions) are usually hazy, smokey looking things.

or you could take a look at this thread which may give you some more ideas.

http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/86847-skywatcher.html

[Arctic Jack]

Right, after a few days of research I’m a little closer to deciding and have a little more knowledge of telescopes. I’m still lacking in accessories knowledge though, such as eye pieces and Barlow lenses etc. I’m going to get a copy of Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe by Terence Dickinson. This seems to be highly recommended to beginners along with ‘Turn Left at Orion’ which I could get later.

After reading the advice from this page and others I’m leaning towards a

Sky=Watcher/Skyliner 300p 12” Parabolic Dobsonian Telescope

http://www.cameracentre.co.uk/product_info.php?&products_id=360

At this point I’m a little uneasy about the truss Dobsonian Telescopes, as I’ve read you have to collimate them pretty regularly. Is the telescopic word for calibrating? I’m assuming with the solid body of the linked telescope you don’t have to do this as often? How often may I ask for either type of telescope? Is this telescope made by a reputable company? Now that you know what road I’m heading down is this telescope the best I could get in it’s field or are there others I should be considering?

I’m opting for the Dobsonian at the moment because I want to view and learn the universe first and foremost, photography was a secondary issue. A few worries about Dobsonian’s I have are; how fast do the objects pass through your field of view? Are we talking 5 seconds or 30 seconds or a minute? I know it’ll depend on your exact setup but a rough time frame would be good. How difficult is it to find and track an object with something this size? Would a ‘digital angle gauge’ help finding and tracking at all?

Well that’s it so far…

[jimhaleysscomet]

Finding your first few objects in a telescope (other than the moon and planets) is often very difficult. Telescope Observing has a very steep but mercifully very short learning curve. That is why it is better to have a knowledgeable friend. It will save you hours of frustration. Later you will be able to find dozens of objects with relative ease (a few minutes each).

The 12" is a big heavy scope. Just so you know how big it is, try to see one in person first (any 12" dob will do).

Truss tubes have to have the secondary and primary mirror collimated each time you set up. Flex tube and solid tubes usually only need the primary collimated (although you will often check the secondary as it is so easy) and it takes about 20 seconds once you know how.

[pvaz]

I'll break it by points:

- Collimate = To align the 2 mirrors to get a sharp image. On a truss tub, since you take it apart it's more usual to have to collimate.

- Speed of objects: Depends on the eyepiece you put in. If it gives a low magnification, you see more sky so the objects seam to move slower. At high magnification, say 240x, you have to adjust frequently. That said I can adjust while watching on my dob.

- Sky watcher is a reputable company.

- The scope: It's great but it's BIG! As in about 5/6 feet tall and probably weights 40kg+. Just make sure you know what you're buying.

- Accessories: The only one I can't live without is the telrad finder. The rest is nice but I could manage with the stock EPs that came with the scope just fine. So use what you'll get and then, when you know what you need, buy some.

Cheers,

Paulo