Want to buy a Telescope, but dont know ANYTHING about them...Plz help...

[Relf Lauren]

I love space, and everything that has to do with it....

I want to buy a telescope for about $50...What can $50 buy me? I have been on E*Bay, and seen telescopes ranging from $50 all the way up to $1000....

I dont even know where to begin...

Does anyone have any experience in this sort of stuff?

Thanks!

Relf Lauren

 

[dennilfloss]

DO NOT buy a telescope for $50. It will be like AOL on a Mac Plus.

If you are going to spend so little (I'd suggest $100US), buy decent binoculars and learn your way around the night sky before making the jump to a telescope. The binocs will always be useful because some nebulae are just too extended to fit in most telescopes field of view. Make sure the binocs are fully multicoated, without flaws and aberrations. Buy them from an astronomy store, NOT from a camera store. Be sure to try them at night before deciding. Imperfections will not show well during the day. Make sure all is sharp to the edge of your field of view and that there is no ghosting. Get 50mm aperture and 7x magnification (10x can be rather heavy and have a narrower field of view). Avoid zoom binocs. They tend to have inferior optics.The Bausch & Lomb Legacy 7x50 are excellent for general astronomy.

Check the comments in the other thread.

Lucky Star (Madonna)

 

[SirFshAlot]

Dennilfloss knows his stuff about astronomy, but don't be afraid to just go get a pair of Bushnell 10x50s for $29.95.

I have a Meade 4" schmidt-cassegrain that has served me well; but I have no complaints from any of my cheap 10x50 binocs that we have floating around. I have viewed the Andromeda Galaxy quite pleasantly, and seen some nebulae in Sagitarius with them. I wouldn't worry too much about quality binocs unless you have $100 and upwards to spend.