Any of you yahoos into Astronomy?

[Widescreen]

<cue the Astrology copycat thread>

Any recommendations on telescopes for less than $500?

[OklahomaTrombone]

I'll give you tree fiddy

[critical_phil]

i'm not really in to telescopes, but this pic makes me feel funny in my pants....

http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040726/images/extrasolar.jpg

[IB4OU2]

i'm not really in to telescopes, but this pic makes me feel funny in my pants....

http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040726/images/extrasolar.jpg

Pat was wondering if that was Uranus?

[Widescreen]

He wouldn't have to wonder.

[BeetDigger]

He wouldn't have to wonder.


You saying he knows it by sight?

[Ike]

500 bucks is really at the low-low end of quality telescope manufacturers.
most likely you can find some, but I have no idea how to quantify which ones are good ones versus which ones are ****.

a couple of things to keep in mind....
in that price range, telescopes that have sophisticated mounting equipment will drive the quality of the scope itself down pretty fast. now, you do want some amount of sophistication in the mounting equipment, and depending on how good you are at reading a star chart and aligning your scope to what you wish to see, you may want more or less. in this price range, this kind of stuff can easily eat up your entire buget. now, if you are just wanting to use it to look at your neighbors, you probably don't have to worry about it.

you can also just try to find good scopes by themselves in this range, with very rudimentary mounting equipment, and plan on buying better mounting equipment later.

I don't know much about individual telescopes though, so I can't really help you out much more than this.

[Ike]

for under 500, check out this link for what may be some decent scopes....I dont really know for sure, but this what a search came up with.

http://www.discovery-telescopes.com/celestron/c-starhop.html

these don't have too much in mounting gear, and as always, there are a ton of accessories you can buy later at your own discretion.

[Fugue]

500 bucks is really at the low-low end of quality telescope manufacturers.
most likely you can find some, but I have no idea how to quantify which ones are good ones versus which ones are ****.

a couple of things to keep in mind....
in that price range, telescopes that have sophisticated mounting equipment will drive the quality of the scope itself down pretty fast. now, you do want some amount of sophistication in the mounting equipment, and depending on how good you are at reading a star chart and aligning your scope to what you wish to see, you may want more or less. in this price range, this kind of stuff can easily eat up your entire buget. now, if you are just wanting to use it to look at your neighbors, you probably don't have to worry about it.

you can also just try to find good scopes by themselves in this range, with very rudimentary mounting equipment, and plan on buying better mounting equipment later.

I don't know much about individual telescopes though, so I can't really help you out much more than this.

This is good advice. $500 for everything is just gonna get you mediocre everything. Buy chunks at a time if possible. And if it is windy where you live, you'll have to get good mounting equipment and a good tripod or you will look like this, :mack: .

[Fugue]

good telescope story: (I understand the possible inherent lameness)

Bro in law shows up at my house after helping a lady clean her barn out. She tells him he can keep anything he wants to. Well, over in one corner is this tarped object. Turns out to be an 8 inch Celestron reflector. Makes the moon the size of a dinner plate. And if you haven't seen the moon through a decent telescope, it's almost blinding. Very cool.

[swardboy]

You'll probably be looking at a 3 1/2 inch refracting telescope in that range...but you can see some neat stuff: Rings, moons, and bands of Saturn.....bands, moons of Jupiter....nice moon views....and your hot neighbor when her curtains aren't shut....

[OUAndy1807]

I've got a friend who let me borrow his 8" celestron reflector for a year. It was one that was supposed to find the stuff automatically, but it was a pain to set up, so we never really took it out.

I was in the market before I realized that I wouldn't use it, and everything I have read says to invest in some really nice binoculars first. Also, I think Newtonian scopes may be a little cheaper than reflectors, but they're a lot bigger. (this is all from memory from about a year ago, so if anything is wrong, please correct it sf's.)

[Mixer!]

You might give these folks (http://www.astronomics.com/main/Telescopes_and_Telescope_Accessories.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/Home) a call - it's where I got my light bucket back in '83.

[Ike]

You'll probably be looking at a 3 1/2 inch refracting telescope in that range...but you can see some neat stuff: Rings, moons, and bands of Saturn.....bands, moons of Jupiter....nice moon views....and your hot neighbor when her curtains aren't shut....

just from cursory looks, you can probably get up to an 8 inch reflector if you go cheap on the tripod....

[Howzit]

Any recommendations on telescopes for less than $500?
If you low-ball you may not be able to have sex on it.

So don't.

Low-ball.

High-ball.

Whatever you do.

What was the question?

[SoonerObsession]

I spent about $200 on a 4.5 inch celestron last year. I was disappointed. You can see the moon's craters nicely. Saturn and Jupiter were visible, but very small. Even though all of the above is true, it was very cool the first few nights to actually see them with my own eyes. Jupiters moons just look like stars, but you can see the cloud belts and the red spot barely. My advice: Wait till you can spend at least a $1000.

This is what Saturn looks like through my scope...

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e72/tandkwelch/saturn.jpg

[Widescreen]

Thanks for the advice everyone. And in typical Widescreen fashion, I've chosen to ignore you all (except for Howzit's typical sage advice) and get this (http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/nx130slt.htm). I read a number of good reviews on the scope but we'll see. I'm not expecting a lot so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Now I just have to learn the art of collimation.

[Ike]

Thanks for the advice everyone. And in typical Widescreen fashion, I've chosen to ignore you all (except for Howzit's typical sage advice) and get this (http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/nx130slt.htm). I read a number of good reviews on the scope but we'll see. I'm not expecting a lot so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Now I just have to learn the art of collimation.


awesome widescreen. looks nice, keep me posted on how well things look.
make sure you read the instructions on calibrating the automatic motor thingy. enjoy your view of the heavens. :)

[SoonerObsession]

The automatic star finder is cool, but I think every newbie should learn how to find things the old fashioned way too. It's kind of fun.

[VeeJay]

My advice to you would be to drink heavily.

[Ike]

for finding and locating interesting objects by hand, you can probably get some good assistance from this program. looks kinda neato

http://www.stellarium.org/

[Widescreen]

for finding and locating interesting objects by hand, you can probably get some good assistance from this program. looks kinda neato

http://www.stellarium.org/
Interesting that you should say that. I downloaded that a few nights ago and played around with it. I think it could be helpful because you can put in any date and time and see where everything will be on that day. Plus you can increase the times scale and watch things spin around you - watching the sun rise, fly through the sky and set every few seconds is kinda fun.

[Howzit]

...except for Howzit's typical sage advice...

I'm here to help.

[Ike]

Interesting that you should say that. I downloaded that a few nights ago and played around with it. I think it could be helpful because you can put in any date and time and see where everything will be on that day. Plus you can increase the times scale and watch things spin around you - watching the sun rise, fly through the sky and set every few seconds is kinda fun.

thats kinda funny. I just saw it while searching for something completely different on sourceforge, and it reminded me of this thread...I think I'm gonna play with it for a while.


oh, and one other question, does the scope you bought have any kind of method for attaching a camera? A scope is one of the things I plan on buying in the future, and having a camera attachment is a must for me...just wondering.

[Widescreen]

oh, and one other question, does the scope you bought have any kind of method for attaching a camera? A scope is one of the things I plan on buying in the future, and having a camera attachment is a must for me...just wondering.
No, the only camera that would work is a CCD/webcam which I understand does a pretty good job for what it is. For serious astrophotography you need an EQ mount so you can get long-exposures. I'm typing this like I know what I'm talking about but I'm basically regurgitating what I've read elsewhere - I still know how to cram for tests!