Stargazing

I've been wanting to get into a bit of amateur astronomy for a while now that I'm living in the sticks I think I should have good conditions to make it worthwhile.
There is an amateur astronomy group fairly near to me (15 miles away) that it might be good to drop along to and get some advice but I think I'd rather do a little exploring by myself first.

Are there any enthusiastics on here? As I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good starters telescope that I could buy to get a feel for it by myself. Not even sure what questions to ask, let alone how to choose decent starter equipment.

Appreciate some help if possible.
GG

 

Cheers fellas.

Woo - I'm going to investigate the option that FC pointed out and I'll keep you posted on things.

GG

 

Best bang-for-buck is a Dobsonian. Pretty much zero-money spent on the mount, and 99% of your money spent on the tube and optics If you have something that needs a tripod then you need to spend as much on the tripod as the scope - otherwise the viewing will be jittery. I'd recommend a minimum of 6" diameter primary. I have a 6" Orion, which is great for "grab and go" - doesn't take much/any time to cool down and no hassle to get into a car / take outside. I also have a 12" Dob (Brand X cheap & cheerful Chinese) which is a fantastic light grabbing bucket

I've spent a fair bit on eyepieces too. Some Nagler ones, which is very expensive, but incredible viewing. You'll probably get a "set of 3" thrown in the with scope, or dirt-cheap bought at the same time. That's fine for get-you-going but expect to buy some more, better quality, ones.

Learn to adjust it accurately too (so called "collimation") and get a gadget to help you do that accurately (it fits in the eyepiece and when you have everything adjusted right it all "lines up")

Suggest you have an Ask on www.cloudynights.com - I got all the starter-for-ten information I could possible want on there before taking the plunge.

Worth looking at a "red dot" finder - I found that much easier than using the little miniature scope bolted onto the side of my telescope. (The one I have is "Telrad")

 

This is the one I bought (or something similar to it - it was 10 years ago ...), you obviously don't have to spend 500 quid at the get-go - but I challenge you to find a 12" telescope for 500 quid elsewhere

They were very helpful, so if they have what you want at a price that you like then (apart from the 10 years elapsed) I reckon they would be OK to deal with

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acata...5-M-CRF-Premium-Dobsonian--White-.html#aTE210

Here's their 6" one:

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Skyliner-150P-153mm-6inch-Parabolic-Dobsonian-Telescope.html

and their list of Dobsonians (they seem to concentrate on things quite a big bigger than 6" though, so down around that size you might find more choice elsewhere)

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Dobsonian_Telescopes_and_Accessories.html

 

Hi GG,

Ive been into Astronomy for years. It was one of my first ever hobbies.

Before going out and spending quite a lot of money on a telescope, I would definitely advise going along to your local Astronomy group and seeing if anyone will let you have a look through theirs. When looking through even a large telescope, the images can be very disappointing if you don't know what to expect. A lot of of newbies to astronomy expect to see the dazzling, colourful and bright objects depicted in pictures of books and magazines, but the truth is these objects are often faint, usually grey smudges of light with occasional greenish tints. It also takes a lot of practice to learn your way around the sky and find these objects, some things taking many nights of observing to finally track down.

I'm not trying to put you off, but you could spend an awful lot of money and find out very quickly it's not for you. If however you do get the bug, then even locating the faintest hint of light from a distant galaxy gets your heart racing with excitement!

My favourite brand of telescopes are Skywatcher. I've had a few now and all have been of a consistent high quality.

This is my current beast... A 12 inch Skywatcher Flextube Dobsonian. You can't see it in the photo but mine also has a computerised tracking and goto system fitted to make finding things just a little bit easier :-p



Get the largest aperture you can afford. Size is everything in astronomy, it's all about light gathering power and not magnification. Just bear in mind that the larger the scope, the less transportable it becomes. If you need to take it to different viewing places, you may want to consider something smaller. I have a second scope that I take camping, a Skywatcher 127 Mak. It's got a 4.5 inch mirror, and a very sturdy equatorial mount. I've seen many objects in it and it's a good all rounder for price and quality. I would advise getting a set of decent eye pieces as well.

These are some photos I took with my 127 Mak - the colour only shows on film and not in the eyepiece but it gives you an idea of what you can see in it.

Jupiter


Comet Holmes


Orion Nebula


Good luck finding a telescope and have fun. It's an awesome hobby!