• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

Anyone know anything about telescopes?

mfisher2112

mfisher2112

Figured I'd try! ;D

My wife wants a telescope for Christmas. I don't want to spend a fortune, but I want to make sure she can get one that she can actually SEE things through. (not neighbors, celestial things! ) She has one of those el-cheapo Toys-R-Us models, but you can't see squat.

Any suggestions?
 
C

Carlo

R U looking for a model with computer interface which makes finding things quite easy or would you rather have all the money going into better optics?

Matt do you have a ballpark price range?

Carlo
 
M

mladencovic

It all depends on how much do you want to spend, how often do you want to watch, what do you want to watch, and where do you want to watch. (or in other words how serious she is about that).

For medium quality and budget but not serious work, I would recommend Orion series both refractors and reflectors (would she know the difference and have a preference about that?). For higher budget you can go with Celestron and Meade.

That being said, I have a relatively serious piece of equipment (Celestron 9 1/4" CSG) that is pretty much useless where I live (Princeton/Trenton area). I would guess that anywhere in NJ east of Appalachians use of serious equipment is very seriously diminished because of high humidity of air and very high light pollution.

So, give us the price range you are intersted in : 0-200 - tourist, 200-400 beginner, 400-1,000 enthusiast on the budget, 1,000-3000 serious hiding from wife, 3,000- ... divorced or will never marry ;D

Also, what would she like to watch:
Moon and planets - tourist, 200$ is enough and will get fed up soon,
Messier objects - enthusiast, 400$ is enough, will need to go to to skywatching outings if you do not live in NW NJ,
comet-watch, asteroid hunting, variable star tracking -start with 1,000$ and reallocate to good-forsaken part of NW NJ

;)

p.s. The Astronomy hobby is VERY VERY similar to Reefing
 
M

mladencovic

p.p.s One more thing, just to clarify things. The most important thing in amateur astronomy is not the size of the equipment but the conditions under which you are observing. For most of the things that most of the people who are not fully dedicated to the hobby, would like to see, like Planets and Messier or most famous NGC objects, 60mm refractors that are sold in Walmarts and such, for 150$ are sufficeint. I don't know what ToysRUs thing she is using (what is the dia of the objective? and what is the tube made of? how high and sturdy is the mount/tripod) , but long, long time ago I was able to use really crappy piece of equipment for some serious work purely because of very pristine conditions (high in the mountains) and serious dedication - spending countless hours in preparing for observations, observations, and processing of observations. No wonder I had no girlfriend until I got into coledge ::)

p.p.p.s Whare are you located?
 
RichT

RichT

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
mladencovic said:
is not the size of the equipment but the conditions under which you are observing.
Click to expand...

That's why they make foggy beer goggles. ;)
 
J

jazzsam

mladencovic said:
p.p.s One more thing, just to clarify things. The most important thing in amateur astronomy is not the size of the equipment but the conditions under which you are observing. For most of the things that most of the people who are not fully dedicated to the hobby, would like to see, like Planets and Messier or most famous NGC objects, 60mm refractors that are sold in Walmarts and such, for 150$ are sufficeint. I don't know what ToysRUs thing she is using (what is the dia of the objective? and what is the tube made of? how high and sturdy is the mount/tripod) , but long, long time ago I was able to use really crappy piece of equipment for some serious work purely because of very pristine conditions (high in the mountains) and serious dedication - spending countless hours in preparing for observations, observations, and processing of observations. No wonder I had no girlfriend until I got into coledge ::)

p.p.p.s Whare are you located?
Click to expand...


That is one of the first things I noticed when I moved from FL to NJ. You can see so many more stars in FL! The sky is so much more clear there!
 
C

chase33

RichT said:
mladencovic said:
is not the size of the equipment but the conditions under which you are observing.
Click to expand...

That's why they make foggy beer goggles. ;)
Click to expand...
Funny

mladencovic, good information. Not my thread obviously but I have a question. What is a good model in the $400 to $1000 range and where can they be purchased?
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
The Lake George area in the Adirondacks is a GREAT place for star gazing. The sky is so dark up there the stars stand out.
 
GregW

GregW

chase33 said:
What is a good model in the $400 to $1000 range and where can they be purchased?
Click to expand...

Check Orion telescopes at telescope.com. Astronomy Magazine and Sky & Telescope Magazine has given their scopes good reviews. You can get a 12" Dobsonian for $900 that's powerful enough to see Uranus. What?
 
M

mladencovic

chase33 said:
RichT said:
mladencovic said:
is not the size of the equipment but the conditions under which you are observing.
Click to expand...

That's why they make foggy beer goggles. ;)
Click to expand...
Funny

mladencovic, good information. Not my thread obviously but I have a question. What is a good model in the $400 to $1000 range and where can they be purchased?
Click to expand...

At that price range, there are so MANY possibilities (virtually hundreds) you start looking for "real" features that are determined by what exactly you want to do. For example, are you interested in astrophotography or just viewing. If you are interested in astrophotography, then you have to go with equatorial mounts on a sturdy tripods, that add a bit to the price. On the other hand, if you are looking only to ocassionally view intersting objects, then you might want to invest and go for an altazymuth (simpler) mount combined with the computer drive and "star locator" for some refractor or Schmidt-Cassegrain type. If, on the other hand you are realy realy hooked on the astronomy, then you might try to push the limit of your aperture (the most important factor/dimension/parameter for telescopes) and go for simpler mount and newton type.

Unfortunatelly, I haven't been following the market for quite some time, to be able to give you the most precise guidance for the manufacturer, but as the brands go, Meade and Celestron are the two most well established and reputable companies with the widest market. That does not mean that they are the best, it means that for the particular money they provide more power and quality then the others. I also like Orion brand, though I wouldn't put them in the same basket, but they are more economical.

As to where to buy from, Adorama or B&H from NYC are authorised dealers for many brands, and good place to shop from. I buy all my optics from them. Of course there might be some other internet places that might give you a bettre deal, but I do trust these guys.

Se, here are a few examples from Adorama:

http://www.adorama.com/CNN80SLT.html - cool for watchng neighbours
http://www.adorama.com/CNN102SLT.html - better
http://www.adorama.com/CNN5SE.html - nice and simple
http://www.adorama.com/CNN130SLT.html - old school optics meats new school mounts, and it is inexpensive :)
http://www.adorama.com/MDLXD75N6AT.html - nice middle road.
http://www.adorama.com/MDLXD75AR5A.html and
http://www.adorama.com/CNC6SGTXLT.html and
http://www.adorama.com/MD75SN6AU.html - pump to 999$ for serious amateurs, but when you start adding eyepices, filters, converters and other gadgest ... :(
http://www.adorama.com/CNS12.html - only for extremly experienced and really hooked (read nuts since Dobsonians are very dificult to handle)
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

Wow, awesome stuff! Thanks!

She is a beginner, and I think she would like to see "beginner stuff". Planets, etc.

I'm going to check out the links you gave and see what comes of it.

Budget is DEFINITELY under $1,000. (especially since she wants so much remodeling done to the house and a new car in March! LOL!)

Thanks again! Good to know that I can turn to my reef club for information about nearly anything I can come up with! LOL! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top