Comments for Telescopes

Comment on is cstar a good company to buy telescopes from? by Tom A

Tom A — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:53:59 +0000

In short, these look like what are sometimes called "hobby killers". You may well get little use apart from seeing the moon and terrestrial objects.

Read this, especially the heading "Money And Before You Buy". Ignore that it’s for Australia; the principle is the same. Ignore the prices too, because they’re in Aust dollars for 2002.

http://astronomy.concreteairship.com/scope.htm

You would do better with a good pair of 50mm binoculars an a book of star maps, especially "Nightwatch" by Terence Dickinson.

I also strongly advise finding a local amateur astronomy club. They’d love to help, and show you what you can expect to see through different scopes. Don’t rush into this.
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Comment on is cstar a good company to buy telescopes from? by B.

B. — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:10:59 +0000

I have never heard of them.

Try oriontelescopes.com

or astromart.com

Both are good sites to purchase from.
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Comment on Which criteria should I consider before I buy a telescope ? by sparc77

sparc77 — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:52:59 +0000

In addition to some of the other excellent answers, I would like to add that you should consider the type of mount you will be using as well. Should you need a motorized mount or a non motorized one, should it be an equatorial mount or an alt/az mount. Many of these questions will be answered by knowing what you plan to do with your telescope.
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Comment on Which criteria should I consider before I buy a telescope ? by Dr. R

Dr. R — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:39:59 +0000

Some of the folks above are offering good advice. To add, I would suggest starting small and simple for your first telescope to get some first hand experience. You may discover that you like the idea of owning a telescope more than actually using one, for example, and save yourself a lot of money. Perhaps an 6" Newtonian with an equatorial mount and clock drive from Meade. This description is an example of the 4 most important criteria in order of importance (IMO): aperture, optical configuration, mount type, and manufacturer. You should research the tradeoffs of all the options in each criterion before buying anything that challenges your budget.
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Comment on Which criteria should I consider before I buy a telescope ? by Mr. Quark

Mr. Quark — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:55:59 +0000

A good pair of binoculars with a nice tripod is encouraged for the beginner. This is because of simplicity of use and it has utility beyond just star gazing if you decide you are not all that into star gazing after all. With binoculars you can see the 4 largest moons of Jupiter as they go around it, and see Jupiter as a disk. You have a decent shot at making out Saturns rings, or at least that Saturn is not quite round.

You can see all kinds of cool stuff on the moon, (craters, mountains, rays, maybe some rilles) and open star clusters are BEST viewed through binoculars’ wide field of view rather than a telescope. More of the brighter stars have distinct colors too, rather than those just hinted at with the naked eye. Globular clusters and the brighter nebula are tantalyzingly enhanced.

This site has a good intro to telescopes if you insist on plunging into that route immediately, though I encourage you to hook up with a local astronomy club to find help using your new toy or you might find yourself frustrated and putting it in your basement to collect dust for the rest of its life.

http://www.belmontnc.org/

This is a pretty good essay about getting your first scope too.
http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html
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