Beginner advice please

wrote:

Thus spake Andy Hewitt ) unto the assembled
multitudes:

A pair of 15x70 binoculars are worth having though, I have a pair of
Celestron Skymasters, and they can pick out an awful lot of stuff (as
long as you can hold them steady, they are heavy).

I would have thought these would need a mounting or cradle; you'd otherwise
be exhausted after half an hour.

I can hold them for a few minutes at a time myself, I mostly use them
for scanning before pointing a scope at the sky. A tripod definitely
helps for sure, but there are other ways and means as well, depending on
where you're looking. Laying on a camping bed or sun lounger for
example.

I think the best thing to do is to drop into your local Astronomical
club and have a look through the different scopes there.

Exercise some caution though. A chum of mine in Perth, W.Australia bought
a Celestron Newtonian reflector (I think it was the Astromaster 130EQ) with
an equatorial mounting, and has had to return it: it turns out that large
numbers of them were manufactured with the Declination setting circle
mounted 90 degrees out.

I'm sure you'll find many problems related to a lot of scopes. I've
heard horror stories about Meade, and Bushell. Not forgetting the
Chinese glue/grease that's used on the SkyWatcher scopes (easily fixed
by cleaning out the grease, and using better quality lubricant).

The advice still stands, if you want to really know for sure, then go
and get your hands on a scope, and talk to the users. Check on forums as
well, the one on the Sky at Night web site is very good, and full of
friendly and knowledgable people.

Either that, or you take a punt and just buy a scope and hope for the
best. That's what I did, and in some ways regret doing so. I wanted the
benefits of a Mak, and a Dobsonian, but having used both, I really
wished I'd just got a larger Dobsonian.

In the end, you'll generally get what you pay for, but there are a lot
of scopes at the budget end that will offer very good views of the sky.

--
Andy Hewitt
http://web.mac.com/andrewhewitt1/