ETX 105 good scope? :)

Lilian wrote:
I personally would not recommend any non GOTO scope to a begineer
because you wlil never find anything.

I'm sorry, Lilian -- you often write good stuff, but that comment is
just *SO* wrong! Many of us began with non-GOTO scopes. I would suggest
that someone who puts the money into decent optics, mount and
atlas/guidebook has the potential to ultimately see a heck of a lot more
with it that the person who sinks a good proportion into GOTO.

Best,
Stephen

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My beginenrs approach to identifying stars was to set up my digital camera
on a tripod, and take a 15 second, point and wish, exposure of the night
sky.

I then loaded the pic on to my PC, opened up starry night , and compared the
two.

I now start at Orion (usually out the front window), spot Sirius below left,
then look for Taurus off to the right of Orion, then over to the Pleides
etc. I'm quite impressed now that I spot Jupiter, Mars and Saturn quite
easily.

I don't know how much of this I'd have gained with a GOTO scope - as it
stands my diddy chrimbo present scope is so juddery most observing so far
has been by eye anyway.

My beginners spotting is limited to the south sky for the moment, mainly due
to it being cold and a great view out of the front, south facing windows.
Roll on the summer !

On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:15:52 -0000, "Dr DNA"
wrote:

My beginenrs approach to identifying stars was to set up my digital camera
on a tripod, and take a 15 second, point and wish, exposure of the night
sky.

I then loaded the pic on to my PC, opened up starry night , and compared the
two.

I now start at Orion (usually out the front window), spot Sirius below left,
then look for Taurus off to the right of Orion, then over to the Pleides
etc. I'm quite impressed now that I spot Jupiter, Mars and Saturn quite
easily.

This is actually quite a nice way to learn star hopping in comfort.
There's no doubt that you *do* start to recognise the star patterns
when you scruitinise them in this way. They may not be exactly as you
would see them in the flesh, so to speak, but it teaches you how to
recognise patterns and use them to bridge areas between sections of
the sky. The biggest problem is when the camera isn't quite as
sensitive to certain colours. Hot-pixels could be an issue too.

--
Pete Lawrence
http://www.pbl33.co.uk
Come and visit the "Lunar Parallax Demonstration Project"

"Lilian" wrote in message
...
You will pick up a good second-hand one at www.ukastroads.co.uk

I personally would not recommend any non GOTO scope to a
begineer because you wlil never find anything.

I don't know about the ETX, but I have a Meade 4504 which is a GEM (German
Equatorial Mount) Newtonian with GOTO.

Aligning the scope well enough to get good & reliable results with GOTO is a
real pain at the beginning of every session. If I felt that 'doing it right'
depended on good GOTO then I'd have given up long ago.

On the other hand, I really love the fact that the scope is motor driven and
comes with the electronic controls in both axes to allow me to centre
objects in the eyepiece with one hand.

So I use Cartes de Ciel to locate objects worth looking at, print off a
couple of charts at different scales to help with locating them and then use
a combination of star hopping and random searches to find the objects. GOTO
itself isn't necessary, but if it gives you full electronic slewing and
tracking then its probably worth paying the extra.

Owen
By the way - the value/necessity of GOTO is one of the classic astro
conflict areas. It's basically pointless trying to change anyone's mind on
this point.

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 23:09:34 -0000, "OG"
wrote:

"Lilian" wrote in message
...
You will pick up a good second-hand one at www.ukastroads.co.uk

I personally would not recommend any non GOTO scope to a
begineer because you wlil never find anything.

Owen
By the way - the value/necessity of GOTO is one of the classic astro
conflict areas. It's basically pointless trying to change anyone's mind on
this point.

Agreed - each to his/her own. However, to make a statement that you
will never find anything without GOTO is potentially misleading to
those looking to purchase a new scope. It just isn't true.

--
Pete Lawrence
http://www.pbl33.co.uk
Come and visit the "Lunar Parallax Demonstration Project"

I make my comment based on what I hear from the members who come to our
Astronomy Group. Those without a GOTO scope find the moon, planets and maybe
a couple of bright deep sky objects and then that is it. The telscope is
then resigned to the cupboard!

Yes, there are soe people who are willing to learn the stars etc, but from
what I see of the newcomers to the hobby they are in the minority, people
want a quick fix today.

Yes you can get star charts out and learn the night sky, but its not that
easy, especially with out light polluted skies. So I am merely setting a
beginners expectation that *in my opionion* its much harder without a GOTO.
That said, not every begineer can grasp how to use the GOTO either!

Lilian

Lilian wrote:
So I am merely setting a beginners expectation that *in my opionion*
its much harder without a GOTO.

It may well be (I'll never know, since I began long before the days of
GOTO), but that was not the statement that a few of us challenged. This
is:
I personally would not recommend any non GOTO scope to a begineer
because you wlil never find anything.


Best,
Stephen

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"Lilian" wrote in message
...

Yes, there are soe people who are willing to learn the stars etc, but from
what I see of the newcomers to the hobby they are in the minority, people
want a quick fix today.

Well, they will not get that from such a small 4" instrument. A 6" Dob for
£300 is a good starter scope and will show a lot more.

After all, what good is using Goto to find something if you see nothing? ;-)))))