Any stargazers in here? Telescope recommendations?

[kes7]

Okay, where better to ask this question than on a board full of Trek fans, right? We all love the stars?

My six year old has a puny little "National Geographic" telescope we gave him for Christmas a couple of years ago from Target or someplace like that (I really don't remember now). It was fine for looking at the limited stuff we could see from our balcony in the city, but we live in the country now, with an amazing night sky, and I want us to really see it.

So, what's a good entry-level telescope for a beginner? Ease of use is a must, as I am clumsy and awkward with fine adjustments. I'm willing to spend up to about $300, maybe $400 for something basic but effective and easy to use. Do they have ones you can hook up to your computer these days? If so, how much do those cost? I'd be willing to spend more for that.

Anybody know about this stuff? Thanks in advance ...

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, be very careful about buying anything in a department store. They're usually more frustrating than anything.

I'd recommend looking into Stargazer Steve Telescopes. The scopes available vary in prices depending on what you get,and they're designed for beginners in mind.

http://stargazer.isys.ca/

I've bought myself a great beginner scope this year. It's a 5-inch collapsible Dob. It's very portable, and weights about 15 pounds, and the price is right for about $250. It's a Skywatcher Heritage 130p.

http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product.php?id=146&class1=1&class2=106

There are lots that you can hook up to your computer these days, but I honestly think that they're a step up from what you'd really looking for. You wouldn't really be doing yourself any favours by getting one if you're new to astronomy, and it's one mistake that people new to astronomy often make. I would suggest learning how to use a scope and pointing it at objects first and possibly upgrading later when feeling more confident.They're quite expensive. Once you get into computer-controlled scopes, the prices usually skyrocket.

Basically, I think as a beginner you want a Dobsonian (Dob for short) as they're rather stable and easy to adjust.

Last but not least, spend some time browsing Cloudy Nights to get an idea of what's out there. There are loads of people out there that can help you narrow your decision.

Here's a 10" version of the collapsible dob which looks to have good reviews:
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=2159

So, for around $495, you could get yourself a 10" Dob and get great views and be the envy of your local club. Speaking of clubs, I would look into your local club. Go to meetings and see what people have and what people are happy with. Look through them. Get a feel for things. There's nothing like first-hand experience.

 

[gturner]

I built an 8 inch F/7 from scratch and have a 13.1 inch Dobson. Currently I'm machining on an equatorial mount for the 8", since I live in the city where star-hopping with an alti-azimuth mount is difficult.

Since you live in the country, you can get vastly better views and see deep sky objects if your aperature is big enough. You could get a smaller (3 inch to 4 inch) Meade or Celestron with auto-guiding (which makes finding objects soooo much easier) near your price range or put all the money toward aperature with a Dobson, such as an Orion XT8 ($329)

Eventually accessories (such as more eyepieces, a barlow lens, a moon filter) will eat into your budget $30 to $50 at a time.

I'd suggest browsing the online catalogs and pick up an issue of Sky and Telescope or Astronomy.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Hey gturner, have you been to Stellafane in Springfield Vermont? I usually try to make it each year. Some beautiful scopes this year, such as this one:

 

[gturner]

Hey gturner, have you been to Stellafane in Springfield Vermont? I usually try to make it each year. Some beautiful scopes this year, such as this one:

Oooo... That is a pretty one.

No, I've never made it to Stellafane (it's a long way!) but I used to read the occassional issues of Amateur Telescope Making magazine.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Hey gturner, have you been to Stellafane in Springfield Vermont? I usually try to make it each year. Some beautiful scopes this year, such as this one:

Oooo... That is a pretty one.

No, I've never made it to Stellafane (it's a long way!) but I used to read the occassional issues of Amateur Telescope Making magazine.

It's a long way for us as well. Around 16 hours in total to get there, but it's worth it. My Dad has been going there since the early 80's where his scope won a few awards; Big 21" trailer mounted Dob. It was the source of envy for many back in the day.

 

[kes7]

Thank you, you guys! Wow, I have a lot of reading to do, just looking at those links. But at least now I have a place to start. I did join the Yahoo group for our closest local stargazing group when we moved here, but their meetings are late on weeknights about an hour from my house. I can't really swing that, unfortunately.

Those telescopes look really nice ... the need for tools to adjust some of them freaks me out a little, though. The fewer little pieces to start with, the better (though I'm sure I'll get sucked into upgrading once I know what I'm doing!).

Again, thanks, and any further advice is definitely appreciated.

 

[gturner]

If I build another nice scope I might have to take it there.

The journal I was thinking of must've been Amateur Telescope Making Journal

I've been building an electric kiln for melting glass and metal, which I haven't finished yet. All the welding is done, making it a nice roll-around steel box, and I've sawed notches in all the firebrick for holding the heating coils. Next I need to mount the bricks and order additional insulation, then get a temperature controller.

Unfortunately that project is queued up behind building an equatorial mount. I've polished a one-foot by two-inch diameter steel shaft for the right-ascension, but have to bore out two big blocks of steel for the bearing housings. So far I plan to pour the bearings out of babbitt metal. Then I have to make a worm gear, add the declination bearings, etc.

But that project is behind a metal-spinning project that requires me to make another big shaft on the lathe for the construction of a large metal spinning lathe, then building some swing arms so I can spin 1/4" to 1/2" steel hemispheres about 48" in diameter for use in a submarine project.

But that project is behind making an R-8 (Bridgeport) collet taper so we can use Bridgeport collets, and thus a wide range of cutters, chucks, and boring bars, on the lathe.

I actually suggested folding some of these projects together to create the world's first submersible astronomical observatory.

 

[Owain Taggart]

If I build another nice scope I might have to take it there.

The journal I was thinking of must've been Amateur Telescope Making Journal

I've been building an electric kiln for melting glass and metal, which I haven't finished yet. All the welding is done, making it a nice roll-around steel box, and I've sawed notches in all the firebrick for holding the heating coils. Next I need to mount the bricks and order additional insulation, then get a temperature controller.

Unfortunately that project is queued up behind building an equatorial mount. I've polished a one-foot by two-inch diameter steel shaft for the right-ascension, but have to bore out two big blocks of steel for the bearing housings. So far I plan to pour the bearings out of babbitt metal. Then I have to make a worm gear, add the declination bearings, etc.

But that project is behind a metal-spinning project that requires me to make another big shaft on the lathe for the construction of a large metal spinning lathe, then building some swing arms so I can spin 1/4" to 1/2" steel hemispheres about 48" in diameter for use in a submarine project.

But that project is behind making an R-8 (Bridgeport) collet taper so we can use Bridgeport collets, and thus a wide range of cutters, chucks, and boring bars, on the lathe.

I actually suggested folding some of these projects together to create the world's first submersible astronomical observatory.

Hah, that would be quite awesome to see. Sounds like quite the project you have going on there

Kes, I wouldn't worry too much about using tools to make adjustments. For the most part, you'll only need to do your adjustments once. My 5" collapsible Dob doesn't require tools to adjust it for instance. And what really impressed me is that I didn't need to collimate it after taking it out of the box. It was mostly point and find, and it worked straight out of the box. That is unless you were talking about the kits. That's a different story.

Yeah, weeknights aren't the greatest when it comes to astroclub meetings, especially when we're the variety that like to stay up late at night to do some viewing. We even had a club starparty that was named Frozen Banana due to all the cold we endured.

Oh and I know all about those volumes. When we were at Stellafane a couple of years ago, my cousin won their whole catalogue of telescope making books and my Dad got the ones he didn't have already.

 

[gturner]

Hah, that would be quite awesome to see. Sounds like quite the project you have going on there

Kes, I wouldn't worry too much about using tools to make adjustments. For the most part, you'll only need to do your adjustments once. My 5" collapsible Dob doesn't require tools to adjust it for instance. And what really impressed me is that I didn't need to collimate it after taking it out of the box. It was mostly point and find, and it worked straight out of the box.

Wow. It must have a very good mounting.

Oh and I know all about those volumes. When we were at Stellafane a couple of years ago, my cousin won their whole catalogue of telescope making books and my Dad got the ones he didn't have already.

Too sweet!

My mirror grinding is at an impasse. I've ground an 8" and a 10"

--- sad story. My 10" was black vitrified ceramic with a near zero coeff. of thermal expansion. After I'd finished polishing and figuring it I was driving it to a friend's house in the county, laid carefully in my passenger seat. Some woman in front of me suddenly decided she was about to pass up her turn, slammed on her brakes, and when I was forced to do the same the mirror went slamming into the floorboard, hitting a hunk of steel and putting a couple big chips (the size of a thumb) in the surface.

Anyway, if I grind another mirror I want to go significantly bigger than my 13.1 inch scope, which means I'll have to make a grinding machine. That project is obviously going to be way down on the list behind all the other projects.

BTW, the 13.1" is an old Coulter Optical Odyessey One that my dad saw advertised in the local paper, not three weeks after I finished building my 8 inch. The seller had spent half a year on a waiting list, then found out it was too big to get in and out of his house. So he sold it for what he paid (about $400 in 1983), even though he'd added a Telrad finder. I modified it for 2-inch eyepieces, but otherwise haven't done much with it.

Oh, and I just noticed that Orion is selling a 50-inch Dobson for $123,000. I wonder what the story behind that is?

 

[Owain Taggart]

Wow. It must have a very good mounting.

Oh yeah. I was really pleased with it. They did a good job in designing a beginner scope. Many reviews point out that they "got it" in terms of finally making a scope and fixing many of the issues that plague most beginner scopes on the market, and for that it gets top marks. When I had first seen it on display somewhere, I fell in love with it. It's beautiful

Too sweet!

My mirror grinding is at an impasse. I've ground an 8" and a 10"

--- sad story. My 10" was black vitrified ceramic with a near zero coeff. of thermal expansion. After I'd finished polishing and figuring it I was driving it to a friend's house in the county, laid carefully in my passenger seat. Some woman in front of me suddenly decided she was about to pass up her turn, slammed on her brakes, and when I was forced to do the same the mirror went slamming into the floorboard, hitting a hunk of steel and putting a couple big chips (the size of a thumb) in the surface.

Anyway, if I grind another mirror I want to go significantly bigger than my 13.1 inch scope, which means I'll have to make a grinding machine. That project is obviously going to be way down on the list behind all the other projects.

BTW, the 13.1" is an old Coulter Optical Odyessey One that my dad saw advertised in the local paper, not three weeks after I finished building my 8 inch. The seller had spent half a year on a waiting list, then found out it was too big to get in and out of his house. So he sold it for what he paid (about $400 in 1983), even though he'd added a Telrad finder. I modified it for 2-inch eyepieces, but otherwise haven't done much with it.

Oh, and I just noticed that Orion is selling a 50-inch Dobson for $123,000. I wonder what the story behind that is?

Bummer about the mirror. Guess you need to make a special box for carrying bigger mirrors. I'd suggest a wooden box packed with newspaper and packing material. But then again, that's not good to a mirror even if packaged correctly.

I'm really lucky to have a friend who surfaces telescope mirrors where I am. He has a whole vacuum setup. If you ever need any resurfacing done, let me know and I'll point you in the right direction.

As for the 50-inch Dobsonian, it's massive isn't it? I actually know the guy designing those. He's from Quebec. As you know, Stellafane's the center of innovation, and it's no surprise that he's attended and won awards with his scopes for many years. He wasn't there this year because he was helping to sell these scopes overseas somewhere. But his scopes have always been very nice hand-carved things catching a lot of attention. And he does say that he's not a cabinet maker. He wants everyone to know that! You've probably seen pictures of them somewhere. Anyway, I'm not supposed to say this, but Orion hired him to design those beasts.

Here's a link to his site:
http://www.normandfullumtelescope.com/home_en.html

 

[gturner]

Oooo... Those are gorgeous - and so big that the wood must get soaked if you look at a nebula!

 

[sevenstars]

Maybe you're already beyond this (I'm not; I'm just an eternal stargazer), but can I say, especially if you have a young child, don't ignore a good set of binoculars? Obviously they're not a telescope, but they can't be beaten for ease of use, and you can begin to see some wonderful things with them...

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Rather than investing in your own meagre hardware, you could rent time on a big telescope.

http://www.slooh.com/
http://www.lightbuckets.com/
http://www.global-rent-a-scope.com/

 

[gturner]

Maybe you're already beyond this (I'm not; I'm just an eternal stargazer), but can I say, especially if you have a young child, don't ignore a good set of binoculars? Obviously they're not a telescope, but they can't be beaten for ease of use, and you can begin to see some wonderful things with them...

A good pair of binoculars is a really good idea.

Having both eyes focused on the same image is so beneficial that amateur telescope makers often contruct dual telescopes.

Just taking the first google hit, here are some choices. link

The pair that caught my eye (for some reason a binocular is always a "pair") is this, Celestron Skymaster 80mm aperature, 25 to 125 power (zoom) binoculars for only $119.98

 

[Aragorn]

This thread subject suddenly made me flashback to my childhood. Anyone remember this guy on TV?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JEMWN8SKJg[/yt]

Looking him up, I discovered that he passed away a month ago.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, a good pair of binoculars is always a good idea. They don't even have to be big ones. They can often be more effective than a telescope when wanting to see something quickly. But Celestron does make good ones. We have one of the bigger sizes. You can even find binoculars that don't need any focusing.

 

[gturner]

I just found a 2-inch TeleVue 55mm Plossl ($200+) in an old box of eyepieces I have, along with a 2" barlow, a 2" coma corrector, and a 2" Lumicon deep sky filter. I haven't seen them in ten or fifteen years, when I loaned my friend the Odyessy One. He should be dropping the telescope itself off at work in the coming days, and I shudder to think what the mirror coating must look like, being about 30 years old.

I guess its time to have it refinished.

 

[sevenstars]

RE: Jack Horkheimer-- he debuted well beyond my childhood, but how sorry I was to see the death notice last week, on his PBS show.

Keep looking up!

 

[Amaris]

Loved the guy. I miss him, too.