Any Amateur Astronomers here?

[Mayfriday0529]

If any Amateur Astronomers reading this forums looking for some Telescope models to purchase. I been looking online for models but some places say not to buy from stores but from telescope stores and for something in the 300 dollar range.
Meade or Celestor good brands, i see then in Amazon.com and at the mall?

any tips.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

bump
anyone got a telescopes they recommend

 

[tritium4ever]

In the $300 range, your best bet by far is a 6" Dobsonian, sold by many reputable companies. Here's a brief list:

http://hardinoptical.com/dsh6.html
http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=365&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=4&iSubCat=9&iProductID=365
http://www.optcorp.com/cart/ProductDetail.asp?PR_ProductID=3340

The advice you got steering you away from regular non-astronomy stores is good advice. You need to stick to dedicated astronomy stores so that you can get the best advice and selection. You'll find that most astronomy stores will give good advice, since in a niche market like astronomy equipment (where the community is very tight-knit, even more so than the computer enthusiast community), a store's reputation means everything. Avoid buying the junk at Wal-Mart or other department stores, as that stuff is inevitably crap. Also avoid eBay, as that stuff is also inevitably crap. Sounds harsh, but there are plenty who have learned those truths the hard way. Don't be one of them.

Alternatively, you can search for a used scope on the net's most widely-used astronomy classfieds, Astromart:

www.astromart.com

Hope that helps. I haven't been getting much time at the eyepiece lately, what with the weather up here in Toronto being crap and all...

 

[yhelothar]

Dobs are great for the money, just make sure you get the right eyepieces.
I used to have an 8" dob, and I only had a 15mm eyepiece, which I later got a 6mm one. 15mm was too high power to view any of the deep sky objects, I could barely make out the orion nebula. So just make sure you get a 5-6mm, 15-25mm, and 32mm eyepiece and you'll be set

Even though dobs are great for the money, I wouldn't say they are the scope TO GET. It really depends on what you want. My 8" dob that I had was so big that I couldn't fit it in a car, so I couldn't take it anywhere, and I can't see anything in the heavily light polluted southern california. If there is a lot of light pollution in your area, a smaller scope, maybe a good refractor might suit you better. Bigger scopes aren't very good for light pollution, as it will gather the skyglow too, and will result in poor contrast.
For where I live, I think the ETX-90 is a perfect little scope for viewing and portability for my conditions.

 

[tritium4ever]

I would agree that Dobs are not the be all and end all of astronomy. However, they're a great starting point, particularly when you only have $300 to spend. At that price point, Schmidt-Cassegrain and Maksutov-Cassegrain scopes are out of reach. So are refractors any bigger than about 100mm. The real problem is getting a quality mount in the package. Too often a decent refractor is paired up with a useless mount. With $300 you could realistically get an 80mm short-tube refractor (80mm f/5) and a Chinese-made EQ1 mount ($279 at Orion Telescopes), and that would be serviceable. However, that's about all you can get in a refractor without spending another couple hundred bucks.

Contrast that to a 6" Dob. You get nearly four times the light-gathering power. Nearly twice the resolution. You are free of the rather severe chromatic aberration inherent in "fast" achromatic refractors. With a rather slow focal ratio of f/8 (slow for a Dob anyway), collimation of a 6" f/8 Dob isn't a critical issue. But most importantly, you get a mount that is far more intuitive to use for a beginner. Now granted if transportation is an issue, then the 80mm refractor and inexpensive EQ1 mount is easier to move around, but a 6" Dob isn't exactly cumbersome either. It's very easy to carry it in two separate pieces, and it'll easily fit in the back of a car (assuming 6" f/8, for a total tube length of 48"...just about right for the average width of a back seat). I have no issues moving my 8" Dobsonian around, and there are many times I'll take it out as one piece down my driveway to do some casual observing.

If the budget were closer to $500 or so, then there'd be a lot more options that include refractors. However at $300, the best way to go is a Dobsonian. But whatever you do, don't buy the trash scopes at department stores and eBay. If you really would rather spend just $100 or so, grab a decent pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars (which you can also use for non-astronomy purposes) and a planisphere, and learn your way around the sky a bit before investing in a scope. Buying a cheap scope isn't like buying cheap generic RAM...while generic RAM may suck at overclocking, chances are it'll at least work as advertised. Bad scopes aren't like that. Bad scopes can actually be worse than no scope at all, as you get frustrated by trying to work around the horrible optics and a mount which seems intent on screwing up your every attempt at observing something.

 

[MasterGator]

Originally posted by: tritium4ever
I would agree that Dobs are not the be all and end all of astronomy. However, they're a great starting point, particularly when you only have $300 to spend. At that price point, Schmidt-Cassegrain and Maksutov-Cassegrain scopes are out of reach. So are refractors any bigger than about 100mm. The real problem is getting a quality mount in the package. Too often a decent refractor is paired up with a useless mount. With $300 you could realistically get an 80mm short-tube refractor (80mm f/5) and a Chinese-made EQ1 mount ($279 at Orion Telescopes), and that would be serviceable. However, that's about all you can get in a refractor without spending another couple hundred bucks.

Contrast that to a 6" Dob. You get nearly four times the light-gathering power. Nearly twice the resolution. You are free of the rather severe chromatic aberration inherent in "fast" achromatic refractors. With a rather slow focal ratio of f/8 (slow for a Dob anyway), collimation of a 6" f/8 Dob isn't a critical issue. But most importantly, you get a mount that is far more intuitive to use for a beginner. Now granted if transportation is an issue, then the 80mm refractor and inexpensive EQ1 mount is easier to move around, but a 6" Dob isn't exactly cumbersome either. It's very easy to carry it in two separate pieces, and it'll easily fit in the back of a car (assuming 6" f/8, for a total tube length of 48"...just about right for the average width of a back seat). I have no issues moving my 8" Dobsonian around, and there are many times I'll take it out as one piece down my driveway to do some casual observing.

If the budget were closer to $500 or so, then there'd be a lot more options that include refractors. However at $300, the best way to go is a Dobsonian. But whatever you do, don't buy the trash scopes at department stores and eBay. If you really would rather spend just $100 or so, grab a decent pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars (which you can also use for non-astronomy purposes) and a planisphere, and learn your way around the sky a bit before investing in a scope. Buying a cheap scope isn't like buying cheap generic RAM...while generic RAM may suck at overclocking, chances are it'll at least work as advertised. Bad scopes aren't like that. Bad scopes can actually be worse than no scope at all, as you get frustrated by trying to work around the horrible optics and a mount which seems intent on screwing up your every attempt at observing something.

A dob is out of the reach for anyone within 100 miles of a major city too. You should get a refractor, since the moon and planets will be what you will be looking at.

 

[tritium4ever]

Originally posted by: MasterGator
A dob is out of the reach for anyone within 100 miles of a major city too. You should get a refractor, since the moon and planets will be what you will be looking at.

That's nonsense. A 6" Dob will perform better on the planets and the moon than a cheap refractor because of:

1) greater resolution and light grasp
2) lack of chromatic aberration
3) a mount that isn't jiggly (and if you're spending $300 for a scope and a mount, it will be jiggly to some extent)
4) the small aperture limits the magnification you can use (for an 80mm scope, about 160-175x under very good conditions, less when the conditions aren't so great)
4) the short 400mm focal length (of an 80mm f/5 scope) makes it very difficult to get high magnifications while maintaining useful eye relief, regardless of the conditions (unless you buy premium eyepieces, which is obviously out of the price range here)
5) there are plenty of deep sky objects visible even in light-polluted skies...maybe not galaxies and nebulae, but you always have the Orion Nebula and a number of stunning globular clusters and double stars that would be much better resolved in a 6" scope than an 80mm scope

The only real argument for a small refractor and mount over a Dobsonian, in this price range, is portability. At this point we have no idea how portable Jnetty99 needs a scope to be, and you're talking about light pollution being a problem when we haven't even established where he lives! For all we know, he could be living in a rural location with mag 6 skies. In that case it would be an easy choice to pick the Dobsonian. Yet even in the city the Dobsonian is the better choice, for all the reasons I've pointed out above.

 

[tritium4ever]

Oh yeah, and if he does live in a light polluted location, having a 6" Dob will be far more useful on those nights where he's able to get to a dark sky observing site.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Hey guys thank for the tips i been away so finally started to read your replys.

 

[dud]

OR ... you could consider a GOOD pair of binoculars. You can see a large percentage of objects using a good pair of binos. If your budget is about $300, consider Celestron's 80mms or 100mms (objective diameters). These are large, heavier binos but they can be mounted on a photo tripod.

Consiber binos because you will be looking at objects in STEREO (vision) AND the light-grasping capacity of a pair of 100mm binos is TWICE that of a 100mm (4 inch) refractor!

Good luck.

 

[vegetation]

In my opinion, pay the money for a good scope, at least $400 - 500 or forget the idea. A cheap scope ultimately just ends up in your garage, collecting dust. It sucks to view objects in space that are blurry and wobbling.

 

[Bowmaster]

I bought an Orion Starblast about 6 months ago. It's a 4.5" reflector that's very very easy to use with very good views - and it's only $169.00. I've never regretted buying it - I got the recommendation from Star & Telescope.

Orion Starblast

Oh - and forget that "for youngsters" crap. I've used it at starparties and get a good many people using it. The setup time is seconds - I just set it on a sand-filled painters bucket, sit in my chair, and point it to what I want to look at.

 

[Descartes]

Eh, I really don't care for smaller dobs. If I were to get a dob, it would be a 16"+ truss dob.

Honestly, I can't think of any solid recommendations for $300. If you up your budget to about $500 you have quite a few more options. I would personally go for Orion's 127mm Mak. It's a popular scope with quality optics, a decent mount, and it's highly portable. I'll have to second dud's binocular recommendation as well, and I'd personally go for a set of Oberwerks. You can get a great entry-level set of eyepices, filters, etc. from Celestron at Adorama (I can't find it, but it's no there somewhere for ~$100).

What is your knowledge of astronomy? How much do you wish to learn? A dob will be much easier for you to navigate around the sky, because you're not constrainted to the two axes of an equatorial mount. The equatorial mount is one of the larger hurdles for beginners, because it's not a natural motion if your knowledge of the sky is limited. Once you begin to learn the sky you'll want to go with an equatorial mount, and possibly one with goto.

I have the following equipment:
Celestron CG5-GT mount that I interface with my laptop
Two EQ3 mounts
A Paragon Plus tripod for my 12x63 and 15x70 binoculars
An Orion 80ED Refractor
An Orion 150mm Newtonian
and a Celestron 9.25" XLT CF OTA on order.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: vegetation
In my opinion, pay the money for a good scope, at least $400 - 500 or forget the idea. A cheap scope ultimately just ends up in your garage, collecting dust. It sucks to view objects in space that are blurry and wobbling.

I agree, but the blurry and wobbling part is just the mount. A good mount will run you ~$1000 depending on the weight of your OTA. I would recommend getting a cheap mount to start, and then invest in a quality mount. You can rework some of the lesser mounts to get them reasonably stable (e.g. filling the tripod legs with sand, etc.).

 

[phoenix79]

http://www.optcorp.com/cart/ProductDetail.asp?PR_ProductID=3340

Another vote for OPT. I've dealt with them in the past and they have great service.