which telescope?

Hi all,

I guess this has been done to death but I want to buy a telescope and dont
know what to get! I want a general purpose scope where I can see the rings
of saturns, nebulae and what have you. I have been recommended a meade etx
125 but that is by the guy in the shop. I was just wondering whay your
thoughts are?

tia

mark

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:47:32 -0000, "mark"
wrote:

Hi all,

I guess this has been done to death but I want to buy a telescope and dont
know what to get! I want a general purpose scope where I can see the rings
of saturns, nebulae and what have you. I have been recommended a meade etx
125 but that is by the guy in the shop. I was just wondering whay your
thoughts are?

tia

mark

personaly id say it would be ok for plantery work but being 125mm id
say its to small for any decent views of deep space objects like
nebula etc
im sure one of the others here will be along to help you more im still
learning all this myself

"mark" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I guess this has been done to death but I want to buy a telescope and
dont know what to get! I want a general purpose scope where I can see
the rings of saturns, nebulae and what have you. I have been
recommended a meade etx 125 but that is by the guy in the shop. I was
just wondering whay your thoughts are?
Start by looking at the 'telescope buyers FAQ':
http://home.inreach.com/starlord/
Now while a rather boring text document, it does cover most of the aspects
that need to be considered, and there are several other similar FAQ's
around.
On telescopes, a lot will depend on your circumstances, and site. The ETX,
is a fine 'small' scope. As such, you may be more inclined to get it out
than something larger. There are two common 'rules of thumb' that apply to
scopes:
1) Bigger is better. You will see a lot more through a larger aperture
scope.
2) Better a small scope that is used, than a large one that gets left
indoors.
Generally, 5", is on the bottom end of the aperture range to see many deep
space objects. However it is a very easy to use scope. Several of the
people here with larger scopes, will have something like this as a
'mobile' scope, since it is a fairly 'grab and go' unit. I have a C5 (the
same aperture Celestron unit), for exactly this reason.
With 'automated' scopes, you are paying a lot for the automation, and as
such, less money is going into the actual optics. So you can buy a non
automated 5" scope, for a lot less money, or even something quite a lot
larger, for the same sort of price. However having said that 'downside' of
the automation, for a user with reasonable levels of light pollution
(which can make finding objects a lot harder), the automation can be a
real boon.
Now the big 'plus' of such a small scope, is the ability to easily take it
to a darker site. A good site can easily make a couple of magnitudes
difference to what can be seen.
The 8" SCT, is probably the commonest slightly larger scope, since here
the optical design keeps the unit fairly small, despite the aperture.

Best Wishes

mark wrote:

Hi all,

I guess this has been done to death but I want to buy a telescope and dont
know what to get! I want a general purpose scope where I can see the
rings
of saturns, nebulae and what have you. I have been recommended a meade
etx
125 but that is by the guy in the shop. I was just wondering whay your
thoughts are?

Among all other good places for information on this subject, this is just
one.
http://skyandtelescope.com/howto/scopes/
Google is your friend

mark wrote:
I guess this has been done to death but I want to buy a telescope and
dont know what to get!

See:
http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/firstscope.htm
http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/evaluating.htm

--
Best,
Stephen
http://www.astunit.com

"mark" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I guess this has been done to death but I want to buy a telescope and dont
know what to get! I want a general purpose scope where I can see the rings
of saturns, nebulae and what have you. I have been recommended a meade etx
125 but that is by the guy in the shop. I was just wondering whay your
thoughts are?

I started with an ETX105, which is a decent scope. But if I would start all over, I would not
start with an ETX. the field of view is very small, the aperture is small, hence one can only
see the moon, planets and the brighter deepsky objects. This is good enough of course for a
beginner-scope, but such a scope does not need goto and the fancy electronics. I would start
with a 80mm shorttube refractor. Much cheaper, and easier. Then upgrade to a bigger scope if
you want to become more serious about astronomy.
--
Martijn (astro-at-pff-software.nl)
10" LX200GPS-SMT
ETX105. Coronado PST
www.xs4all.nl/~martlian

Thanks for the replies!

I think I may wait for a while and start some observing with a decent pair
of binoculars. Once I get some more experience I will think about which
scope to get. I'll probably get a pair of Helios 15x70 Stellar Bino.

cheers,
Mark