Need advice on Telescope buying

[Emre Üçöz]

I have made up my mind and finally decided to buy a telescope. But unfortunately I am a little bit confused on so many different brands and sub types. I hope that in our WBF community some of you have a hook in Astronomy and can help me to find out the best one to buy.

 

[Bruce B]

Check these out.

Meade

Remotecentral forum

 

[DonH50]

I have a couple, and more importantly have friends really into astronomy (one has about $25k in his main 'scope, and a few thousand more into his spotting scope and accessories). What is your budget, what do you want to do with it?

 

[andromedaaudio]

I ve been tempted to get more into astronomy , if i would i would go for this company , it depends also if you just want to watch or get into astrophotography also
http://www.astrosysteme.at/eng/products.html

Picture of my stargazing trip to san pedro de atacama in the atacama desert Chili where all the ESO big telescopes are


DSC_0113 by andromeda61, on Flickr

 

[MasterChief]

Amateur astronomy is my first hobby and I have doing it for 30 years, so I will gladly give you some recommendations. First off all, some questions:

1. Budget?
2. Are mobility important?
3. Main interest, visual observing or astro photography?
4. Level of knowledge?
5. Level of ambition. This hobby can really be complex and time consuming.

I must also recommend Cloudy Nights forum. A fantastic forum with some of the best amateurs in the world. It is to astronomy what wbf is to high end (*10).

 

[amirm]

Great to see people with experience in this field.

How about describing different tiers here? I am not sure what they would be. But how about $500, $1000, and $2,000? Let's assume stationary and photography unless OP comes back to chime differently.

 

[MasterChief]

Great to see people with experience in this field.

How about describing different tiers here? I am not sure what they would be. But how about $500, $1000, and $2,000? Let's assume stationary and photography unless OP comes back to chime differently.

For 500$ my recommendation would be a pair of binoculars (10*50).Actually a fantastic way to explore the sky and in many cases the best choice for a beginner. For 1000$ I would choose a 8"-10" Dobson. For 2000$ you can get more technical stuff but for photography it is actually not good enough IMHO. I would choose a good refractor with a simple altaz mount.

Meade and Celestron telescopes are twice the price in Europe vs USA. Generally astro-stuff is way more expensive in Europe than in the USA.

 

[DonH50]

+1 on binocs at the $500 point. A top-notch pair is amazing (and no, I do not have such a pair).

My friend has a Starmaster http://www.starmastertelescopes.com and I am not sure which (24" maybe?) For ready availability and decent quality for an entry-level (<$5k) 'scope he also suggested Meade, with Televue eyepieces.

I have an old Newtonian 8" reflector, forget the brand, great optics but primitive sighting.

One of the things to decide is if you want to do camera work and thus need a good motor drive.

 

[amirm]

Thanks guys. Don, what is the motor for? To automatically go where it is supposed to go?

 

[Bruce B]

Thanks guys. Don, what is the motor for? To automatically go where it is supposed to go?

I'm sure it's to track a distant object. Because everything is constantly moving, you only get to see a distant obect for a few minutes before it moves out of your field of view. Then trying to unlock and move the telescope by hand is time consuming where a motorized drive will have more stability and provide easier tracking.

 

[MasterChief]

I'm sure it's to track a distant object. Because everything is constantly moving, you only get to see a distant obect for a few minutes before it moves out of your field of view. Then trying to unlock and move the telescope by hand is time consuming where a motorized drive will have more stability and provide easier tracking.

For visually observations motors are a good feature but actually, for beginners, may cause more problems and making the whole experience to complicated. Because of the earths movement the stars seems to travel over the night sky. If you want the telescope to follow the stars it must exactly compensate for this. For this, the observer must do a polar alignment and for that it takes some basic knowledge about star navigation. For photography it is an absolute requirement and it is a matter of seconds before the picture will be blurred without the drift compensation. There are some "all in packages" solutions from Meade and Celestron but in my experience they are seldom used by the owners.

For a beginner I think the best way is to go as simple as possible. The wonders of the night sky and the curiosity to explore these objects must be the fundamental reason behind a purchase. Every step up on the technical ladder will only cause the beginner to loose interest because all the time in the beginning goes to the setup.

When a beginner advance to a intermediate state and have a basic understanding for astronomy and how to observe they usually starts upgrading (as in HiFi).

Even if OP have big bucks to spend I would recommend gear that suits the level of knowledge and experience. Even a rich beginner should, imho, start with simple stuff where every buck goes into good optical quality and a steady mount.

 

[Emre Üçöz]

Amateur astronomy is my first hobby and I have doing it for 30 years, so I will gladly give you some recommendations. First off all, some questions:

1. Budget?
2. Are mobility important?
3. Main interest, visual observing or astro photography?
4. Level of knowledge?
5. Level of ambition. This hobby can really be complex and time consuming.

I must also recommend Cloudy Nights forum. A fantastic forum with some of the best amateurs in the world. It is to astronomy what wbf is to high end (*10).

I have started to check out cloudy nights forum, thanks.
budget is between 1000-3000 usd which also should include some filters and eyepices.
astro photograpy
level of knowledge - average but never had an experience with telescope
very self motivated ambition.

 

[MasterChief]

Ok, if you want to get into photography as quick as possible I would strongly recommend Sky Watchers NEQ6 mount. Incredible value for money and in my opinion the minimum requirement for serious astro photography. It is widely used in the world (in US the name for this mount is Atlas). Then I would choose a Sky Watchers Explorer Newtonian, preferably the 200mm model. It is not to heavy for the mount and it is a fast scope (F5) and that makes the photography easier because you dont need so long exposures. But it is quite a bulky setup and require some muscles and ambition. It usually takes up to an hour before you can take pictures, and that is when you can handle the equipment. In the beginning count for many days of trial and errors. Because this is a very common mount there is a lot of tutorials on YT how to do a proper setup with photography quality polar alignments.

For photography there is also very handy to use a laptop controlling the mount, camera and the auto guiding equipment. I assume you already have a camera?

Then of course you need some accessories as eyepieces and some other stuff. I strongly recommend Baader Hyperions eyepieces.

 

[amirm]

Very good info guys. Question: how is the camera mounted to the telescope? Do they have adapters for different camera brands?

 

[MasterChief]

Very good info guys. Question: how is the camera mounted to the telescope? Do they have adapters for different camera brands?

Yes, that is correct. Its called a T-ring and is used instead of the lens. More advance amatuers have special CCD-cameras optimized for astronomy (for example they have inbuilt cooling) but they are pricey and can only be used for astro photography. The best of them cost more than $ 10.000 (SBIG is a common brand).

 

[andromedaaudio]

something like this for the advanced amateur , a beauty , but even with less pricy ones the picture quality amazes me


RC by andromeda61, on Flickr

 

[amirm]

Yes, that is correct. Its called a T-ring and is used instead of the lens. More advance amatuers have special CCD-cameras optimized for astronomy (for example they have inbuilt cooling) but they are pricey and can only be used for astro photography. The best of them cost more than $ 10.000 (SBIG is a common brand).

Ah, I know about T-Mount. Didn't realize that is what they provide. Thanks a bunch .

 

[Greg_R]

I have started to check out cloudy nights forum, thanks.
budget is between 1000-3000 usd which also should include some filters and eyepices.
astro photograpy
level of knowledge - average but never had an experience with telescope
very self motivated ambition.

+1 on starry nights. The best advice I got there was to start with some star charts and a good pair of binoculars (I have a set of 7x50 Fujinon that I still use). If you start with a high power scope you're going to spend all your time searching for an object (let alone photograph it!).

Are you hoping to photograph deep sky objects or planets/moons?

 

[DonH50]

Amir, MasterChief has answered for me (I am on a farm with limited access this week). The motor drive is primarily to track objects as the earth moves so you can get the long exposures needed. However, it adds complexity, and a good drive can cost a goodly penny. As for camera mounts, most vendors now provide adapters for Nikon and Canon in addition to the universal T-mount. My friend got one of the CCD systems a few years ago and loves it, but it was an expensive upgrade (I think in the $3k - $5k range for his). Since modern digital SLRs have attained speed (ISO) better than the best film cameras it is less critical but much depends upon what (how far away) the object and how much light-gathering your 'scope provides. Big reflectors do best but littler refractors usually often higher magnification and are arguably easier to use, cheaper, and better for a beginner.

In astronomy, as in many things, you get what you pay for, and it does not pay to go cheap. Not that any of us are worried about you in that regard!

Advice I have seen repeatedly over the years is a close parallel to cameras: buy a decent scope, then get the very best eyepieces (like lenses) you can get. The eyepieces can be used when you upgrade, and you do not want them to be the limiting factor in performance.

 

[Emre Üçöz]

Ok, if you want to get into photography as quick as possible I would strongly recommend Sky Watchers NEQ6 mount. Incredible value for money and in my opinion the minimum requirement for serious astro photography. It is widely used in the world (in US the name for this mount is Atlas). Then I would choose a Sky Watchers Explorer Newtonian, preferably the 200mm model. It is not to heavy for the mount and it is a fast scope (F5) and that makes the photography easier because you dont need so long exposures. But it is quite a bulky setup and require some muscles and ambition. It usually takes up to an hour before you can take pictures, and that is when you can handle the equipment. In the beginning count for many days of trial and errors. Because this is a very common mount there is a lot of tutorials on YT how to do a proper setup with photography quality polar alignments.

For photography there is also very handy to use a laptop controlling the mount, camera and the auto guiding equipment. I assume you already have a camera?

Then of course you need some accessories as eyepieces and some other stuff. I strongly recommend Baader Hyperions eyepieces.

Thanks for the info on mount and eyepieces, I do have a Canon D40 that I will use for Astrophotography. I have seen also good application on appstore for scanning night sky.