Telescopes

Archive for January, 2010

"The most expensive part of the Telescope is the lens." If this is true then how can I know if the telescope I want to buy, $8,000, has the lens I’m paying for?

When you’re paying that much for a telescope, you should expect topnotch quality control. A full star test should be made to check the optics.

Hey, I just got a Meade ETX-80AT-TC Astro Telescope with AutoStar for Christmas
and was using my 9.7mm eye piece with my 2x barlow and I was able to see the
moon in great detail, taking up the entire lens. I also am noticing that it is
picking up on very very faint stars that I cannot see with the naked eye and
making ones that I can see look great through the piece. I have a few questions
for you. How decent of a view should I get of planets? Like jupiters moons and
any cloud belts? Saturn ring and cloud belts? Venus phases? Are there any
planets beyond those and the inner planets that I can see such as uranus and
neptune? if so what would they most likely look like? and what would Mars look
like through my telescope? I was observing something in the sky last night
December 27th location Florida, indian shores near tampa about between one and
midnightish and it wasn’t dircty above me but it was above me and to the east
slightly I think. What I was looking at appeared to be redish orange it was
pretty bright, it even appeared to be red/orange from the ground looking up
without a telescope, my first thought was that it was mars but then I thought it
might be a giant star of some sort. Would you be able to tell me what this is?
or most likely was? Like I said I am not 100% sure whether it was Mars or not.
It could have been Aldebaran the giant red star. I dont have a night sky chart
and am still getting used to my autostar alignment. Another question, what
should galaxies or nebulas look like through my telescope? I know my telescope
isn’t the best but I have been told that it should be able to pick up on things
like that. Lastly. The two eye pieces that I have are a 9.7mm piece and a 26mm
piece, does Meade make any higher power eye pieces for my Telescope? or is there
any way to purchase a piece that would enhance power? I am already planning on
buying the 6.4mm eyepiece. Is there anything else that I could buy to enhance my
viewing experience?

[PS: I just got done with a starwatch outside just now and it is 11:30 pm
december 27th tampa florida indian shores and it is semi cloudy out but for a
while there was a big patch of sky un-touched by clouds. I happened to see that
same redish spot in the sky but it wasn't in the same place, at least it looked
enough like what I saw yesterday redish-orange, very bright kinda luminating hen
I looked at it through my scope. Part of me says its mars and part of me says
its just a giant red star. although when the clouds came by I could still see it
through my scope to a certain degree. Is/was this mars? or just a giant red
star? I hope that I can see Mars slightly more clear than what I saw]

One last final question. Does any one know when/which/ planets/nebulas/galaxies
ill be visible tonight? and where?

in the tampa florida area.

That’s a little too much to put into one question. I’m not reading all that, but I will answer your last question on where to find objects to view. Download this free star chart program. It is easy to use. All you do is enter your location and it shows what you can see. Enjoy.

http://stellarium.org/

I’ve looked at a lot of telescopes, and lowered my options down to two, the Orion SkyQuest XT6 Classic Dobsonian Telescope, and the Orion StarBlast 6 Astro Reflector Telescope. They have the same price only the starblast is a "best seller". I’m only a beginner in astronomy and this is my first telescope well… second but i returned the first because it was a horrible telescope…

I think overall the SkyQuest XT6 will be a much better choice. You will be able to use it on the ground vs a tabletop. It will be easier to collimate and keep collimated. It should perform better on the Moon and planets because of this AND because f/8 vs f/5 is much more forgiving of eyepiece aberrations.

Plus, and this is a big plus — it is easier to manufacture a good quality mirror at f/8 than at f/5 which means that you are less likely to get a lemon with the longer focal ratio.

The only real advantage of the StarBlast is that it is a little more portable. But the SkyQuest isn’t that heavy either.