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New wanna be astronomer
Dear List,
I'm wanting to buy a telescope for my family and I to start gazing at the planets, stars, and nebulae. Can anyone suggest a good brand, model of scope to buy? I'd like to be able to view all our planets, galaxies, and hopefully view these beautiful nubulaes that I've seen photos of on the internet. I'm not even sure if that's possible since I have very little knowledge of astronomy. Any help would be appreciated. I was thinking of spending up to $1000 give or take. Can I find a scope that would allow me to view the above mentioned scenarios and with this type of money? Also I've noticed on some sites that people use several different eye pieces. Do these normally come with a scope or do they come seperate? Also I'm concerned about viewing from where I live. I live in North Fort Worth, TX and was curious if one has to drive to the country to view the stars and planets or does the surrounding light of the city interfere? Oh well enough rambling on. Again any help is appreciated. Paul |
#2
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New wanna be astronomer
Telescope Buyers FAQ http://home.inreach.com/starlord -- In This Universe The Night was Falling,The Shadows were lenghtening towards an east that would not know another dawn. But elsewhere the Stars were still young and the light of morning lingered: and along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again. Arthur C. Clarke "The City & The Stars" SIAR www.starlords.org Bishop's Car Fund http://www.bishopcarfund.Netfirms.com/ Freelance Writers Shop http://www.freelancewrittersshop.netfirms.com "Paul" wrote in message ... Dear List, I'm wanting to buy a telescope for my family and I to start gazing at the planets, stars, and nebulae. Can anyone suggest a good brand, model of scope to buy? I'd like to be able to view all our planets, galaxies, and hopefully view these beautiful nubulaes that I've seen photos of on the internet. I'm not even sure if that's possible since I have very little knowledge of astronomy. Any help would be appreciated. I was thinking of spending up to $1000 give or take. Can I find a scope that would allow me to view the above mentioned scenarios and with this type of money? Also I've noticed on some sites that people use several different eye pieces. Do these normally come with a scope or do they come seperate? Also I'm concerned about viewing from where I live. I live in North Fort Worth, TX and was curious if one has to drive to the country to view the stars and planets or does the surrounding light of the city interfere? Oh well enough rambling on. Again any help is appreciated. Paul --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.493 / Virus Database: 292 - Release Date: 6/25/03 |
#3
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New wanna be astronomer
"Paul" wrote in message ... Dear List, I'm wanting to buy a telescope for my family and I to start gazing at the planets, stars, and nebulae. Can anyone suggest a good brand, model of scope to buy? I'd like to be able to view all our planets, galaxies, and hopefully view these beautiful nubulaes that I've seen photos of on the internet. I'm not even sure if that's possible since I have very little knowledge of astronomy. The FAQ listed by another poster is a good place to start. But right after you read it, go find your local astronomy club (there should be a large one in Ft. Worth) and attend a few of their "star parties" where you'll get to try various types of scopes out first hand. Amateur astronomers are always willing to let visitors take a look through their gear and are a great source of info. Once you decide what you want to buy, the locals will be a great source of support and fun. BTW, don't get your hopes up too high about seeing the objects as depicted in long time exposure photography...your eyes are simply not sensitive enought to detect the colors that CCD's or film can detect when exposed for a long time. However, you will right away get a kick out of stars, star clusters, planets and some of the brighter nebulae. Once you get accustomed to viewing faint and diffuse objects (it takes practice), the galaxies and dimmer nebulae will give you a lifetime of enjoyment teasing out their detail. Just remember, all othe rthings being equal, there's no beating aperture...the bigger the better. Therefore a good starting scope is a Dobsonian (8" or 10" is a good place to start) equipped with a Telrad finder. Take a look at the Orion series of Dobs at www.telescope.com. I've always found them to be resonably priced and with good optics. While you're there, pick up a copy of "Turn Left at Orion" which will teach you about navigating the sky. Good luck and let us know how you do! Hap Griffin Astrophotos at www.machunter.org |
#4
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New wanna be astronomer
Thanks Starlord and Hap for the info.
Paul "Paul" wrote in message ... Dear List, I'm wanting to buy a telescope for my family and I to start gazing at the planets, stars, and nebulae. Can anyone suggest a good brand, model of scope to buy? I'd like to be able to view all our planets, galaxies, and hopefully view these beautiful nubulaes that I've seen photos of on the internet. I'm not even sure if that's possible since I have very little knowledge of astronomy. Any help would be appreciated. I was thinking of spending up to $1000 give or take. Can I find a scope that would allow me to view the above mentioned scenarios and with this type of money? Also I've noticed on some sites that people use several different eye pieces. Do these normally come with a scope or do they come seperate? Also I'm concerned about viewing from where I live. I live in North Fort Worth, TX and was curious if one has to drive to the country to view the stars and planets or does the surrounding light of the city interfere? Oh well enough rambling on. Again any help is appreciated. Paul |
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New wanna be astronomer
Hello Paul. DO read the following links:
"Purchasing Amateur Telescopes" http://www.perkins-observatory.org/FAQ.index.html "The Heretic's Guide to Choosing and Buying Your First Telescope" http://findascope.com/ "So, You Want to Buy a Telescope?" http://www.astroleague.org/al/astrnote/astnot19.html Now that that's out of the way, here are my 2cents. I'd recommend an 8" or (if you can handle the weight) a 10" Dobsonian either from Discovery or Orion. You'll have money left over for plenty of accessories and maybe even a pair of 50mm or larger binoculars (which I would recommend buying and using even before you get a telescope). Dobsonian mounts are easy to use, even for a beginner. Bear in mind however, that they don't have GOTO and work best if you learn to star-hop. Nonetheless, they will show you the most for the buck. You won't see nebulae and galaxies like they appear in the photos (even from a dark sky site thought it helps a LOT), since our eyes are insensitive to color in faint light, and photons can "burn" onto a film or ccd chip in a way that our eyes cannot, even with large aperture telescopes. From urban skies, only a handful of galaxies are observable compared to rural skies. There are no goto scopes under $1000 that would have the light-gathering ability that you probably want, even though they would help in finding objects, especially in the city. An 8" goto scope starts around $1200 or so. One option would be to purchase digital setting circles for the 8" or 10" dobsonian. This would bring the cost right about to $1000, though you would have to hassle with installing the encoders and such. Please do more research before you make a decision. In addition to the above links, check out the newsgroup sci.astro.amateur 90% of the threads center on telescopes and accessories and is much more active than alt.astronomy Hoped this helps Malcolm "Paul" wrote in message ... Dear List, I'm wanting to buy a telescope for my family and I to start gazing at the planets, stars, and nebulae. Can anyone suggest a good brand, model of scope to buy? I'd like to be able to view all our planets, galaxies, and hopefully view these beautiful nubulaes that I've seen photos of on the internet. I'm not even sure if that's possible since I have very little knowledge of astronomy. Any help would be appreciated. I was thinking of spending up to $1000 give or take. Can I find a scope that would allow me to view the above mentioned scenarios and with this type of money? Also I've noticed on some sites that people use several different eye pieces. Do these normally come with a scope or do they come seperate? Also I'm concerned about viewing from where I live. I live in North Fort Worth, TX and was curious if one has to drive to the country to view the stars and planets or does the surrounding light of the city interfere? Oh well enough rambling on. Again any help is appreciated. Paul |
#6
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New wanna be astronomer
Also, you're going to need at least 1 low power eyepiece. It depends on the
focal length of the telescope that you end up buying, but try for something that gives you at least 1/2 degree field of view (maybe a 50mm or so Plossl or Erfle.) Higher powers are nice for looking at things like the moon and Saturn, but they are not ideal for deep sky objects like galaxies and nebulae. First, you would only be able to see a small portion of the object. Second, higher powers attenuate the already faint light (although seasoned amateurs have a use for this kind of view sometimes.) And third, if you are trying to find deep sky object at higher power, you will get frustrated. They have a very small field of view and getting something like the veil nebula centered at 150x is a quick way to go insane. The smaller millimeter rating an ocular has, the higher power it will provide at any given focal length. So a 30 millimeter eyepiece will be lower power that a 6mm one. Also, I have been out of the loop for a while, but I found that a decent nebular filter can work wonders when observing nebulae from slightly light-polluted areas. It increases the contrast between emission nebulae and light polluted skies and makes finding the objects easier. They can also dim the object in question somewhat, so you'll want to obseve both with and without and see which you like better. It just depends on the object and the type of light pollution. My own bias says that I never met a Barlow I liked (they double or more the effective magnification of a given eyepiece at a lower cost than buying the correct eyepiece) because even good ones do not perform as well as using the correct eyepiece in the first place. Finally, all the FAQs recommended here are fabulous, but I just want to add one thing: if the telescope you are considering accepts eyepieces which have a .956" outer diameter for the steel barrel, run, don'y walk away. These are ALWAYS garbage. The standard is 1 1/4 inch, and although that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good scope. .965 does mean it's a bad scope. As far as I know, there is not a single .965" ocular which is worth even paperwieght status.As far as I know, no quality astromonical ltelescope will offer a terrestrial inverter as standard. (Images through astronomical telescopes are inverted or upside-down. This doesn't matter for looking at space where there really is no up or down. They are ommitted because they only degrade the image quality by introducing multiple unnecessary optical surfaces. Cheap telescopes come with them because people want to look at their neighbor's swimming pool right-side up.) Along the same lines as .965 oculars, if the telescope comes with a "solar filter" thats screws into the eyepiece, then it is a dangerous and cheap sham of an instrument. No solar filter EVER screws into the eyepiece; safe ones always go in front of the objective (for obvious reasons) and with these, it is worth spending good money. Blind astronomers don't have any fun. "Malcolm" wrote in message m... Hello Paul. DO read the following links: "Purchasing Amateur Telescopes" http://www.perkins-observatory.org/FAQ.index.html "The Heretic's Guide to Choosing and Buying Your First Telescope" http://findascope.com/ "So, You Want to Buy a Telescope?" http://www.astroleague.org/al/astrnote/astnot19.html Now that that's out of the way, here are my 2cents. I'd recommend an 8" or (if you can handle the weight) a 10" Dobsonian either from Discovery or Orion. You'll have money left over for plenty of accessories and maybe even a pair of 50mm or larger binoculars (which I would recommend buying and using even before you get a telescope). Dobsonian mounts are easy to use, even for a beginner. Bear in mind however, that they don't have GOTO and work best if you learn to star-hop. Nonetheless, they will show you the most for the buck. You won't see nebulae and galaxies like they appear in the photos (even from a dark sky site thought it helps a LOT), since our eyes are insensitive to color in faint light, and photons can "burn" onto a film or ccd chip in a way that our eyes cannot, even with large aperture telescopes. From urban skies, only a handful of galaxies are observable compared to rural skies. There are no goto scopes under $1000 that would have the light-gathering ability that you probably want, even though they would help in finding objects, especially in the city. An 8" goto scope starts around $1200 or so. One option would be to purchase digital setting circles for the 8" or 10" dobsonian. This would bring the cost right about to $1000, though you would have to hassle with installing the encoders and such. Please do more research before you make a decision. In addition to the above links, check out the newsgroup sci.astro.amateur 90% of the threads center on telescopes and accessories and is much more active than alt.astronomy Hoped this helps Malcolm "Paul" wrote in message ... Dear List, I'm wanting to buy a telescope for my family and I to start gazing at the planets, stars, and nebulae. Can anyone suggest a good brand, model of scope to buy? I'd like to be able to view all our planets, galaxies, and hopefully view these beautiful nubulaes that I've seen photos of on the internet. I'm not even sure if that's possible since I have very little knowledge of astronomy. Any help would be appreciated. I was thinking of spending up to $1000 give or take. Can I find a scope that would allow me to view the above mentioned scenarios and with this type of money? Also I've noticed on some sites that people use several different eye pieces. Do these normally come with a scope or do they come seperate? Also I'm concerned about viewing from where I live. I live in North Fort Worth, TX and was curious if one has to drive to the country to view the stars and planets or does the surrounding light of the city interfere? Oh well enough rambling on. Again any help is appreciated. Paul |
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