Telescopes for beginner

no help from anyone?

This may be outdated advice because unfortunately I''ve been out of the hobby for a couple years now, but it''s been my experience that a dobsonian reflector is the best bang for the buck because you get an easy to use scope with a larger aperture for less money. Of course it''s all relative to what your observing goals are as well. I think a dob with a Telrad is the easiest scope to use for a beginner. Take a look at http://www.discovery-telescopes.com and http://www.telescope.com

Phillip

I think I''m going to go with
this one



What do you guys think?

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Original post by WillyWag
What do you guys think?

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What will you be observing mainly? What are the skies like where you will be observing? Are you in the city, or do you have access to really dark skies?

I think that if all you want to do is look at the moon and planets, and maybe a few of the brighter star clusters, it''s a reasonable scope. If however, you plan on observing any deep sky objects, ie, galaxies, nebulae, etc, you may want a larger aperture scope. I would recommend at least an 8", which means for the price range you were talking about you would need to go for a Dobsonian. The goto features on those meade scopes are not very useful if you don''t have the aperture you need to see the object you''re pointing at. Another thing you could try is posting your question on the sci.astro.amatuer newsgroup, or read their FAQ, it has lot''s of good info on getting beginners started with what scope to get. All my old astronomy links are stored offline at the moment, but if you want, email me and I''ll send them to you.
Phillip

Well, thanks for the help.
I''m in a good area, the moon is SOOOOO bright. Sometimes I lookoutside and I can literally see everything in the yard lit up as if it were daytime. The moon is huge and I''m hoping this will make for good observation.''

The good thing is there''s no lights in my neighbourhood. I live on the side of a mountain and they don''t have streetlights. I think this means I have dark skies?

Anyway, I''m hoping to get this for my wife, she''s a novice but with a good scope I think she''ll really get into it. I would like ot get into it also so I don''t want to be discouraged by crappy equipement.

I''ve heard the aperture is ok for beginners, the field of view is wider which will maybe make it easier to locate stuff?

I''m still not decided between the ETX 90AT. If I can get some good closeups of the moon I''ll be very happy. Saturn or
Mars would be nice too. Now I''m starting to think I should just wait.

Aggh.

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I''m in a good area, the moon is SOOOOO bright. Sometimes I lookoutside and I can literally see everything in the yard lit up as if it were daytime. The moon is huge and I''m hoping this will make for good observation.''

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Don''t look at the moon past it''s 1/2 to 3/4 cycle. The light is too bright for your eyes. Remember, you''re pointing your eye at a small beam on concentrated light that is much like the same small beam of light from a magnifying lens that you can burn ants with. Also, as the moon becomes full, the shadows drop and you can''t pick up ridges as good. Around 1/2 cycle you can see nice outlines, ridges, valleys, and shadows.

Once you get the telescope, the first thing you should find is Saturn - that blew me away to see the rings around the planet. Also, Jupiter and the moons are cool. Stare long enough at Jupiter and you''ll see the multiple color bands on it.

Thanks for the tip Jim. I don''t really understand the terminology just yet but by 1/2 to 3/4 cycle it''s when the moon is more than 1/2 full and less than totally full? Is it safe to look at an entirely full moon? I guess not if it''s reflecting the entire rays from the sun.

I''m excited, my wife will have a freak out for surely.

ok, so here''s the update: I went to Discovery store in the mall. The etx70 was $299 and sample images looked pathetic. I saw something I hadn''t seen: A DS2114 ATS, reflector with a 4.5" aperture. It looked good but was $399, so I got it. The ETX90 was there too but it was $499 and didn''t come with a tripod OR Autostar.

ANYWAY, I got the DS 2114, brought it home, checked the box out. It was clear this box had been returned bu someone else. It was opened, and the main scope had a turning knob that was bent.

I called customer service at Meade, they offered to ship a new scope assembly but I told them I''d just bring it back to the store.

SOOOO I go back with it. They took it back no questions asked.

NOW I''m considering getting a Meade Polaris from Brookstone, what do you guys think of that???

(This is starting to make me nuts).

fuck it, I''ve decided to just get a flat screen tv/dvd/vcr combo from toshiba.