Advice on a cheapish starter scope

[ollypenrice]

Can't agree that 300x is easily possible in any telescope of any size when viewing (as is likely to be the case!) through the atmosphere. But it doesn't matter, the 130-and-up reflectors do very well. Personally I don't go beyond 245x in anything, including some top end stuff, but opinion varies.

I think the Dob sounds like the best way to spend your money on the bit that does the looking, the optics. It does mean manual tracking which is fiddly at high powers but not at low and is soon mastered. 'Setup' means putting it on the ground.

I do think that the 'upgrade parts of it later' notion tends to seem okay on paper but in reality it rarely proves useful other than with regard to eyepieces. There it is natural to upgrade and expand your range.

Don't forget a decent legible star atlas (I use SkyAtlas 2000) though you can print paper charts from the free Stellarium. I don't use computers for visual observing and am not persuable to the view that to do so is okay with red sheets in front of the screen etc. Again, some disagree!

We're a funny lot!

Olly

[Rossco72]

Just stick to reputable name brands, in your budget most likely Skywatcher, Celestron and maybe Meade. Make sure to avoid some of the nameless and shameful ebay brands like Seben and don't be taken in by quotes of 600x magnification etc.

If you see one or two you fancy, by all means ask again what current and or previous owners think of them and you're bound to get some answers on here.

I'm sure we have all had some lemons as well as some great scopes in the past...

[great_bear]

Just stick to reputable name brands, in your budget most likely Skywatcher, Celeston and maybe Meade.

Yup Meade's a definate "maybe", since there are some dogs in their low-end range.

My view is that there's sufficient choice in the Sky-Watcher and Celestron ranges that there's no much point in wasting time looking elsewhere. The Sky-Watcher range drops to the lowest you can make reasonably acceptable scopes with - so you're not going to get anything cheaper unless its very poor.

[dmahon]

Thats what I'm doing at the minute just another 14 after this one.

Jonathon.

Tell a few people who have posted good pictures how good their pictures are in the imaging section. You'll be happy, they'll be happy! Everyone's a winner.

[barkis]

Tell a few people how good their pictures are in the imaging section. You'll be happy, they'll be happy! Everyone's a winner.

Anyone who spams their way to 50 posts by that method, is highly likely to be suspended, and their post count put back to zero.

We frown on it, and anyone who openly advocates it.

So be warned.

Ron.

[Asur84]

Anyone who spams their way to 50 posts by that method, is highly likely to be suspended, and their post count put back to zero.

We frown on it, and anyone who openly advocates it.

So be warned.

Ron.

Dont worry I am only posting legitamate comments, if I dont like something I wont comment similarly if I dont either have an opinion or know anything about the conversation, I am only here to learn and to pick the brains of the more seasoned and wiser astronomer

[ollypenrice]

Tell a few people how good their pictures are in the imaging section. You'll be happy, they'll be happy! Everyone's a winner.

No, do that and everyone's a loser. Imagers care deeply about what they do, witness the SGL group who earned an APOD yesterday with what will represent maybe a hundred or more hours of work.

Olly

[dmahon]

I've adjusted my original post for clarity.

I don't see why telling someone who has posted a good picture that they have posted a good picture (in a thread where lots of other people tell them they have posted agood picture) is any worse than saying hello to a new member in a thread where other people are saying hello to a new member. Am I somehow disturbed and have a different sense of reality to other people?

[pvaz]

If it's for visual use, I would recommend a dobsonian. It's the easiest design to setup, the most intuitive to find objects with and the cheapest way to get aperture.

Something like this scope would be ideal:

Dobsonians - Skywatcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian

As an alternative you could get a scope with a GOTO mount. That may be useful if you live on a light polluted area as it's very hard to find objects when you can only see a few stars naked eye. Just bare in mind the money you spend on the fancy goto mount will reduce your options in apperture, so you'll be getting a scope with the ability to find thousands of objects but it will only be capable of showing a very small subset of that list (a couple of hundred objects at most) as it won't grasp that much light. It will also require external power and a longer setup time, which may lead to less use.

I'm fortunate to have a nice dark sky at home and my dob takes me 1 or 2 minutes to setup. I have it at ambient temperature in the garage so I often go out for 30min and spend about 25 of those 30 min observing. From other members comments, I reckon I observe a lot more often then most and the main reason for that is the speed I can be ready to observe with my current gear.

[ollypenrice]

I've adjusted my original post for clarity.

I don't see why telling someone who has posted a good picture that they have posted a good picture (in a thread where lots of other people tell them they have posted agood picture) is any worse than saying hello to a new member in a thread where other people are saying hello to a new member. Am I somehow disturbed and have a different sense of reality to other people?

Nor do I and there is nothing at all offensive about the modified post.

Olly