WHAT TELESCOPE TO START WITH.

@@ARMANDII I know there is a telescope thread somewhere (too lazy to look) but I think you were a bit of an afficionado. I have been looking at a first telescope, what would you think of this:
Celestron 21061 Astromaster 70AZ

GG

It's in the Members Hobbies Forum, GG.

Hi, GG. Well, in general there are three kinds of telescopes Refractors, Newtonians, and Schmitt Cassegrains and they all have their qualities and vices.
The Astromaster is a Refractor and has a f12.9 lens Focal Length, a 2.6 inch front lens, weighs around 18 lbs, and the biggest magnification it'll handle is around 165X, and 3 feet long. It's describe as a terrestrial and celestial telescope, but to be honest there ain't no such animal. Celestron is an american company which buys scopes etc from China and puts their name on it, [as do other companies] and the Chinese make some very fine optics for scopes. So, for the money, don't expect NASA views, but for a first scope to see if you'll get more interested, and addicted, it should serve it's purpose for the Moon and the Planets. You should be able to see Jupiter and four of it's moons easily.
Telescopes on their own are rated by their light gathering powers and it's the eyepiece that provide the magnification. You divide the focal length of the telescope [in the case of the Astromaster it's 900mm by the focal length of the eyepiece you're using and that will give you the magnification of the image you're seeing. I think you get two eyepieces the first one gives you 45X and the second 90X........they're not brilliant eyepieces but they'll give you a good start.
Should you buy it?...............that's a personal choice But, as an introduction to Astronomy it ain't bad. But I do have to issue a Health Warning, GG, if you get hooked on Astronomy it's very addictive. The other thing is that you can have that nice telescope standing there and you itching to use it........and it's wall to wall cloud outside The Astronomer's curse says that if you buy a new piece of equipment you're guaranteed a month of cloudy weather!!

All places are to a wise man
Ports and happy havens, so in
All gardens and in all gardeners
We find a home and brothers

@@ARMANDII - thanks for that, that is useful. I'm wondering if you could move these last couple of off topic posts to Members Hobbies so people are not bored to death with the skies?

I'm getting your drift, but I detect there may be better suggestions you may have for a beginner. If so I would appreciate hearing those (and would not hold you to account at all!). I have done a little reading and been dabbling with the idea for some time, but now want to do it to have a taster. I have been looking at reviews online as a guide which can be misleading.

Thanks again

 

Hi GG, well, the first thing to do is decide on a budget and that will define what you can buy.
There are some good books you can get second hand on the Net to give you an idea of astronomy and what you might need, such as "Turn Left at Orion", The Urban Astronomer's Guide, The Backyard Astronomer's Guide.
I started off with Newtonian Telescopes and they are great as the bigger ones are known as Light Buckets [8 inch aperture onwards] and the larger the aperture the deeper they can "see" into the deep space. But, like all things, there are downsides to Newtonians too. Firstly, they use two mirrors, a large primary mirror at the bottom of the telescope tube, and a secondary situated at the beginning of the Tube........and you have to make sure they are collimated, [calibrated] with each other to get a sharp image. that means you have to get accessories like a Cheshire, or a Cap, and/or a Laser Collimator to do the calibrating........so more expense and learning.
A lot of people start off with a Refractor because it's mostly trouble free and don't need calibrating, but again they have their downsides too. Firstly they have smaller apertures and therefore less light gathering powers. The optics are divided into achromatic and apochromatic, the first shows colour aberrations on images and so is cheaper, the second has a different design in the lens and cuts down aberrations to almost nothing but is more expensive. But it's no good having a great telescope if the eyepieces are not really up to scratch.
Then there's the Schmitt Cassegrain,[SCT's] and they are also fairly trouble free and easy to use and rarely need calibrating. They also need, like the Newtonians and Refractors, a good eyepiece to get a good sharp image. I've bought a SCT to back up the Newtonians and it is easier to use and gives great views. I would recommend thinking of getting an SCT, say a 4 inch upwards as they probably are easier to use. There are some second hand ones on the Net at a reasonable price but I would do some more research if I were you before buying any type. Also Rod Mollise [an SCT man], on the Net does articles on them and other telescopes without getting too technical and is easy to read. I could go on forever as there is so much to getting a telescope and astronomy but I won't!!

 

Yes, I do. My problem is trying not to lead you into spending too much without letting you buy a low quality telescope that would ruin your chances to seeing some really good images of Planets and Stars. There are one or two problems here. Firstly a lot of Astronomers talk about "the telescope" meaning a Telescope, [of whatever type], and the tripod/mount because that is how a lot of manufacturers sell them. They also sell them separately, with the Telescope on it's own being called an OTA [Optical Tube Assembly]. I like to think of them separately as there are different types and levels of quality of both. It's no good having a great scope if the tripod/mount shakes at the slight touch or breath of wind.

To be honest, No. The quality of the telescope and tripod would be of the toy quality. I would have a look on E-bay and see if there's a small Celestron or Meade SCT going cheap and perhaps think about something like that. There's not a lot that can go wrong with a SCT and the 4 to 6 inch ones can be cheap, but not a £100 cheap. There's another couple things to consider with Astronomy, [a] when it's cloudy you can't use your pride and joy of a scope no matter how technically advanced and expensive it is so that can be a downer waiting for clear skies, and dragging a heavy good quality stable tripod/mount out of the Garage or House every time and then putting your fairly big, and heavy, telescope onto it before you even look through it can be a real pain and is one of the main reasons why people don't continue using their scopes........because it's too much of a "mither" and they can't be bothered.

Not at all, if I can help in any way I will. You might want to find out if you've got a Astronomy Club near you and pop in if you have. They'll let you look at their scopes and then try and convince you that the type they are using is the best, whether it be the Newtonian, SCT, or Refractor But it would give you an insight into what you might want and prefer.
I bought my first scope, a second hand 250mm [8 inch] aperture Celestron Newtonian, out of curiosity. I fell in love with the whole idea even though it drags you into the world of collimation, types of eyepieces, atmospheres, light pollution, filters, and sets your head spinning, but your mind asking for more You'll find getting a scope is not just straight forward looking through it!!!

 

Hi trogre, actually most of astronomers get reduced to "casual" observing due to the long periods of clouds that we get. It's not like photography where you can pick up a camera and take pics nearly all the time. You can have all the finest telescopes, smartest computer driven mount, and all the accessories but if there's cloud cover then you're sitting reading a book, at the computer, or watching TV. Astronomy can be really frustrating because the weather is not good enough.

Actually, a lot of Astronomy sites, books, etc recommend beginners using Binoculars and there are a lot of Astronomers who either only have Binoculars or have them near to hand by the Telescope. The monthly magazine "Sky at Night" has a section just for Binocular Touring.

Well, the 130p is a small [5 inch aperture]Newtonian that should give you an idea of whether you'll like it or not, trogre. However, there are some drawbacks. Firstly, don't too over enthusiastic or expectant of what you will see..........so no views like NASA images!! It should give you fairly clear images of up to 200 magnification, don't believe the marketing blurb of the Dealers, after that the resolution starts to break down. You should be able explore the Moon easily, [I love watching the Moon], and Jupiter will you on a fine night although the four Moons you should see will only be dots of light.
Other "drawbacks" to Newtonians are that you will need accessories such as a Cheshire, or a Cap, and maybe later a Laser to help you collimate the scope to get those sharp images. So you'll need to learn how to collimate, [easy, when you actually understand what you're doing].
A lot of Astronomy Sites have people on there who turn collimation into some sort of scientific, extremely exact and complicated task............it is not!! There are plenty of good video tutorials on the Net, including "ASTROSHED", that will show you step by step how to collimate the mirrors on the Newtonian.

This is a Cap which fits onto the Focuser of the scope while collimating

This is a Cheshire


This is the Laser Collimator

I have all three

The 200p is a nice basic Newtonian........but I don't like the Dobsonian mount. Why, because you can end up in some very awkward, neck breaking, positions with that type of mount. A Equatorial Mount is a lot better, in my opinion, as it's a lot easier to loosen the rings on the Telescope to turn the eyepiece into a more comfortable position, and you're not so likely to get into awkward viewing positions

Celestron, Orion, Skywatcher, Meade, etc??? Nearly all Newtonians are made in China, sold to various companies which then put their own badge on what is basically the same scope. So all the people who are a fan of one particular brand are just nit picking to justify their bias. All the optical mirrors for Newtonians are made in China and are pretty good and there is no real difference in their quality except for the size for which ever scope it's for. That also applies to some eyepieces/accessories of mediocre quality that are made in China, bought in bulk, and then badged to what ever company it is.
Celestron has a reasonably good "mass manufacturer" name as does Skywatcher. Neither actually make a scope, they are distribution companies. Behind Skywatcher is a company called Synta [Chinese] which also supplies all the other companies that rebadge astronomy equipment that you see on the market.
I don't recommend cheap Refractors as they will have inferior lenses as good lenses are expensive to make in comparison to the Newtonian optical mirrors.

The Orion XTi is near enough exactly the same scope as the 200p. The XTi refers to the mount which, again, is a dobsonian mount and as I said earlier they have, for me, problems in viewing positions.

 

Hi trogre, I'm only, at the moment, a visual astronomer although thinking about possibly doing some imaging next year. You're right, all of the Astronomy sites, tutorials, books, etc, assume you can see Polaris and don't seem to want to acknowledge, or talk about, that you may not be able to see it. Me?, I can see True Magnetic North from my patio but I have NEVER
seen Polaris due to either the weather, light pollution, or just because it is not as bright as said. But at my latitude and longitude 53.11N 02.11W the difference in degrees between Polaris and Magnetic North is less than .25 and so makes no difference. I have an arrow painted on the patio pointing North and I use that to orientate the scope every time I take it out and set it up.

I was originally thinking of getting a NEQ5, but I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to get a 300pds Newtonians and because of the bigger loading weight capacity went for the NEQ6.
The NEQ5 is a great mount and will handle up to a 250pds easily so would do you well, although it ain't cheap. All a NEQ5/6 needs is for you to set the latitude on the dial on the side

The dial is the black disk on the side. Once set to your latitude you never have to reset it unless you move to another latitude. But only of the really annoying things that seems predominant in astronomy gear is that you will need to mod it straight away! Why?? Because the steel bolts that you can see in the image [L shaped bolts] are those that set the mount into the latitude and longitude positions and the ones supplied are mild steel and not up to the job. They have to take the weight of the mount and after a while will bend under the load......so you have to buy the upgraded steel bolts because you don't want a jammed bolt in the mount It's the same with any telescope you get, it will come with a mediocre plossi eyepiece which will be fine until you start hankering after better images.

Firstly, if you're viewing from Home then you won't need a Powertank. I use a 15' extensbion cable plugged into an RCD, and then up to two AC to 12 volt DC converters plugged in the extension for powering up the mount and either a fan for the Newtonians or the DewShield Heater for the SCT.
All types of telescopes need a cooling time if taken out of a warm area, like a House, of around an hour. I usually set mine up, whether Newtonian or SCT, on the patio about an hour and a half before I use it............it's normal practice. So it's not a vice of any particular telescope just a universal physics problem.

 

Good ol' Jodrell Bank It's not far from me, Scrungee, did you see any of the other slave dishes that are around Cheshire? Jodrell Bank not only has the Telescope but it also has a very good Arboretum. What brought you to my neck of the woods??

 

Agreed I have to go into Manchester twice a month and just hate Cities.

 

Hi Trogre, well, Meade make a Max Mount for their 20 inch aperture SCT Telescope






The 20 inch telescope, only, sells for $40,000 while the Max Mount sells for $20,000