Telescope / beginner astronomy recommendations?

[morkus64]

So I'm moving to rural New Mexico soon, and after being in and around big cities for the past 20 years or so, I'm looking forward to being able to see the night sky. While I'm out there I'd like to get a telescope and see what I can see.

Anyone have any recommendations on equipment and/or books for the aspiring amateur astronomer?

TIA!

 

[Arcadio]

Get the Orion XT8 telescope. Excellent quality, great views and not too expensive. Anything cheaper will not be worth the money. Also, check out the Cloudy Nights forums.

 

[Ban Bot]

What is your experience level?

The advice given to me over the years is

1) Go to a local meet up. The guys and gals there are more than happy to let you peak through their scope. Not only will they have much better equipment than you could afford but will also have it all setup and be spotting the better to view objects for the night. You can learn a lot from locals.

2) Get a good pair of binoculars. This was a regular theme when I was looking into this. It also seems to be mainstream advise, a lot of advise is out there on what to look for, and a list of things you can find, including Jupiter and its moons.

Btw, I am not an expert. I held off on a telescope because my kids are young and our old house didn't have very good viewing. Ironically my brother in law got us a cheap Celestron. It is OK for the moon but VERY difficult to find objects like Jupiter. We viewed it on Saturday night and it took me 10 minutes to site it in after getting it with the spotter and it was grainy and a poor experience.

 

[pontifex]

2nd cloudy nights forum. when i was looking into it several years ago dobsonians were best bang for the buck as you got a bigger telescope for a cheaper price. downside is they are big and bulky and don't have tracking, although I think you could make them track but it was expensive.

I have the Orion XT8 Intelliscope but haven't used it in years.

 

[Brainonska511]

You may find this link useful: http://neave.com/planetarium/

It's a sky map and you can throw your location and date into it to see what you're actually able to see.
http://neave.com/planetarium/

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I recently was in the same position. I ended up with a Celestron 130EQ-MD

http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-31051-AstroMaster-130EQ-Telescope/dp/B0013Z42AK

It's not as big - and therefore less powerful and probably not as "good" - as the Orion XT8.

OTOH, the equatorial mounts are supposed to be better for photography.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Laser to help you point out stuff to other people.

Just start hanging out at star parties and checking out other people's equipment in the dark. :sneaky:

 

[morkus64]

Just start hanging out at star parties and checking out other people's equipment in the dark. :sneaky:

HA!

 

[Brian Stirling]

I'd start by looking over the Cloudynights.com forum to familiarize yourself with terms and such and get a basic understanding. Then locate a local astonomy club or star party.

Basically you have telescopes or OTA's (Optical Tube Assemblies) that are mostly for visual only observation and then other OTA's that can be used to do astrophotography using DSLR's or dedicated astro cameras.

The other thing is a mount to hold the OTA and to track the sky. The most useful, particularly for newbies, is a GOTO mount that guides you with alignment and then lets you goto to targets of interest then tracks it to keep it in the field of view.


Brian

 

[morkus64]

So, I've seen some computerized models that have a "What am I looking at" feature - Is that pretty common on the computerized models?

 

[flexy]

Get a DOBSONIAN with a large opening, like one of the Skywatchers

http://www.skywatcher.com/product.php?cat=6&id=58

or the 8" version. ANY serious amateur astronomer will agree with me on that.

Reasons:

For astronomy, nothing is more important than the aperture ("size of the lens") or in this case the mirror diameter. The larger the diameter, the more light the scope can collect, the more details you can see. ("Magnification" is pretty much non important)

A DOBsonian telescope is where all investment is in the optics, and not with gimmicky stuff like a computerized "GoTo" mount. Say, if you were to spend $300-$500 on a fancy "Goto Scope", you will pay most of it for the computerized mount and remote and get some crappy or small optics thrown in.

IF you have a ton of money to spend, then get a 6" or 8" Celestron/Meade with a fancy GoTo mount...but if you're on a budget get a 6" or 8" Skywatcher (or Orion, GSO or whatever brands there are) where the optics will be on par - and this is what counts. (Skywatcher, Orion, GSO etc...are all manufactured in China and their optics may even be all the same, but astronomers agree that the quality of the optics is good for the money and differences between those brands are rather minimal.)

So..once you decided on your telescope (and I highly recommend a DObsonian like the above) you ALSO want some additional eyepieces. The included ones are often "mediocre" and most of the time it will only come with two or so. So get a set of eye pieces like a wide-angle one and a planetery eye piece and maybe a zoom eyepiece as well.

Some more reading:

http://www.universetoday.com/84285/...escopes-a-favorite-among-amateur-astronomers/

 

[Iron Woode]

I have an old cheap telescope from when I was a kid. Lens is 2" or so.

showed loads of features on the moon. I was able to see Saturn and its rings with it but the image was tiny.

I used to live in a suburb with almost no light pollution. At night you could see millions of stars and the Arm of Orion. Breathtaking would be the best way to describe it.

 

[umbrella39]

I have celestron sky prodigy. Just set it up outside, push the align button, and after a minute of calibration if you want to see lets say Saturn.. Jupiter... click a button and the telescope moves itself and locates it and tracks it. (if it is viewable at the time). The menu lets you know what you can or can't see that night. You can also use the laser view finder feature, point to an object in the sky and the read out will identify it for you. A great scope to get started with.

http://www.celestron.com/browse-shop/astronomy/telescopes/series/skyprodigy-computerized-telescopes

 

[soulcougher73]

Get the Orion XT8 telescope. Excellent quality, great views and not too expensive. Anything cheaper will not be worth the money. Also, check out the Cloudy Nights forums.

This was going to be my recommendation as well.