Thank you for the suggestions! What's poplular? I mean are there any
particular produts that most people, who have been doing for a while, tend
to lean towards?


"Jon Isaacs" wrote in message
...
Any suggestions appreciated!
Thanks

Hello Rob.

Welcome aboard and welcome to a great pass time.

You are looking for some advice, I am going to provide some, though it may
not
quite be what you are hoping for. I will not recommend any scope or mount
or
eyepieces.

There are lots of different aspects to this hobby, lots of different parts
of
it people find that they enjoy. Some people find they are most
interested in
viewing the planets, seeing every last detail waiting for hours for that
perfect glimspe. Some folks enjoy viewing faint deep sky objects, some
enjoy
star hopping, some just enjoy sitting out under the clear night sky and
wandering around, seeing what they might see, some enjoy taking photos of
the
deep sky, some sketch what they see at the eyepiece....

Most have some balance....

And for each type, there is equipment specifically suited for that
pursuit.
There is no "best" telescope that will do everything, there are always
compromises, trade offs...

I believe that for someone who is starting out, it is not really possible
to
know what you will find to be the most exciting aspect, what will make you
get
up at 3 AM to see if the stars are out or drive 100miles to get in a few
hours
of pleasure.

So, my suggestion really is to start simply, start with a basic general
purpose
scope, get some experience, discover what it is that you really like doing
and
then choose the equipment that will allow you to do that.

This may sound harsh, but I am a firm believer that someone starting out
needs
a scope suited for someone starting out. When you are more experienced,
you
will have different needs.

Used scopes are easy to sell and while they lose some value, the existence
of a
global marketplace, ie www.astromart.com, means that you can buy something
for
now and then sell it when your are ready to move on.

So, here's a taste of my suggestions:

1. Before buying anything, I hope you take the time to educate yourself
by
joining a local astronomy club and getting some experience looking at and
looking through a variety of telescopes. There are many options of sizes
and
types. Each has its own set of capabilities and liabilities. It is
difficult
to really know what will strike you fancy without spending some time under
the
stars.

It is good to find out that one scope might take 30 minutes to setup while
another of equal light gathering ability might take a minute. It is good
to
have some sort of idea what you will see in variety of apertures(objective
or
mirror diameter), the experience of looking at the deep sky in a 4 inch
F15
scope is different than that of viewing it in a 5 inch F5 scope which will
be
amazingly different from the views provided by a 10 inch F5 scope.

Issues like field of view, dewing, tracking, collimation, thermal
equilibrium,
coma, chromatic aberration(false color), polar alignment, periodic error
correction, auto guiding, vibration....

There is just a great deal to learn and understand about operating a
telescope,
there is no ideal scope, no one scope that is the best value, the best
deal...

2. So, I recommend that even after you get some experience, you consider
something simple as a first scope, something that will allow you to
discover
what you enjoy and don't enjoy. Then when you have some experience, then
is
the time to spend some real money on the stuff that will serve your needs.

3. Astrophotography is an expensive and tedious task. It is one part of
this
hobby where dollars really make a big difference, having the correct
equipment,
really does make a big difference, especially when imaging the deep sky.
A
good rig starts at the bottom with a solid tripod, a solid mount that has
accurate tracking, auto-guiding, and then one adds a scope or two and a
camera
or two as well.

Deep sky imaging is possible with general purpose digital cameras such as
your
C-5050, it does allow exposures up to 16 seconds and it does have noise
reduction, both of these make it possible. With your camera you would be
able
to image the planets, starfields and some of the brighter Deep sky
objects.

But in general, deep sky photography requires exposures much longer than
16
seconds and requires cameras that cool the CCD chip because otherwise.
Such
cameras are expensive, though getting cheaper. A 5 mega pixel
AstroCamera
would be probably be over $10,000. Fortunately one does not need a 5
megapixel
camera and under most circumstances those pixels are wasted.

A couple of good sites for photography are

www.astropix.com

Lots of photos and a good section that is basically a primer in all
aspects of
Astrophotography.

www.astro-physics.com Lots of nice astrophotos take by a variety of
folks,
most all with Astro-Physics scopes with a variety of cameras.

So, I hope I haven't discouraged you. Joining a club and getting in some
time
with experienced folks ought to be exciting and at the same time help you
discover what this is all about....

Best wishes,

jon isaacs