On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 21:16:16 GMT, "David"
wrote:

I have decided on buying an Orion SkyQuest 4.5 dob. It is a compromise
decision as I got three kids 13 and under and the 4.5 is also fairly
portable. I was wondering if users familiar with this scope can tell me what
I can expect to see.

I have one I bought a little over a year ago (and I also have three
kids 10 and under in age)


The only other telescope I have own has been one of those 60mm refractors
sold in department stores, actually mine was a Jason refractor I bought at
13 years old back in 1971. So the Orion 4.5" has got to
be a step up over that one. Can I see any deep sky objects like Orion Nebula
as an example.

Well, sure, but then M42 is visible to the naked eye ;-) Seriously,
though, it's a nice object in the 4.5, and under higher power you can
make out some structure in it, even with some not-so-good skies.

What about galaxies?? With my Jason refractor I was able to
see Andromeda , though it was a small.

Yes, you can easily see M31, but keep in mind even in light-polluted
skies you can see it with binoculars. I haven't been in a dark enough
sky to see much more than its core.

Here is my take on it: I found it to be an excellent beginner's scope
for the price. I find it to be a little short for comfortable viewing
if I put it on the ground, so I usually put it on a low table (we have
a "kids' table" that is about 2 feet high and three feet square).

If you want to do much planetary viewing, you might want to also get
either a 2X Barlow (as we did) or buy another eyepiece in the 5-7 mm
range (assuming Orion is still bundling the 10mm and 25 mm eyepieces).

When Mars was at its closest approach last summer, I could see its
south polar ice cap, and some darkish surface detail. Jupiter is a
nice object. I can usually see two major equatorial cloud bands, and
when the sky is clear I can sometimes see some other detail. I haven't
seen the GRS yet, though. Also, the Galilean moons are easily seen.
Saturn is also a pretty nice object, and your kids should appreciate a
view of the rings. IMO Venus is not much to look at, except when it's
at a thin crescent stage.

Depending on how dark your skies are, you can make out a number of the
"faint fuzzy" deep space objects, but they probably won't knock your
socks off. Mostly I try to find them because I like the hunt.

One thing that did happen to me was that I acquired a taste for
looking at open clusters. Many of them are quite pretty in that scope,
even when the skies aren't so great. Personally, I think Winter is a
great time for starting to observe, with a number of interesting
clusters out, not only bright naked eye objects like the Pleiades and
the Beehive, but other easy to find ones such as the clusters in
Auriga and Perseus and M35 in Gemini (and moreover, there is plenty of
dark outside in the winter).

Nick

--
Nick Theodorakis

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