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| Telescope recommendations |
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Onewing
Member #6,152
August 2005
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Wife and I have been talking about getting a telescope forever. We now live a bit outside of town and have a better view of the stars. And with Christmas around the corner, now seems like the perfect time. I have a budget of $100-150. Any recommendations? ------------ |
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SiegeLord
Member #7,827
October 2006
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I've only ever used a somewhat crappy 60mm refactor, and an 20cm reflector I built myself. The 60mm refactors are super cheap, and I definitely could easily see details in the various planets and the moon. Everything else wasn't that impressive, I think due to aperture issues. My self-built telescope suffered from mounting issues which prevented it from fully utilizing its aperture advantage. One definite thing I'd recommend is to get an equatorial mount rather than a azimuthal one. Planets in particular move very fast across the sky, giving you only seconds to observe before you need to adjust your telescope... a bit of a pain if there are people you want to show something off to! Equatorial mount will at least let you adjust a single axis instead of two which makes a world of difference. I wouldn't bother with anything computerized (it'll be out of your price range anyway), and spend your money on the mount + aperture instead. It's not that hard to do things manually (including collimation, which I had to do a lot with my home-built one). "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow."-Ecclesiastes 1:18 |
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Ariesnl
Member #2,902
November 2002
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ever considered to build one yourself ? Perhaps one day we will find that the human factor is more complicated than space and time (Jean luc Picard) |
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Chris Katko
Member #1,881
January 2002
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Ariesnl said: ever considered to build one yourself ? If the goal is to look at stars, just buy one. They're easily made by manufacturers and will have way better tolerances than you will have. Most importantly: They're guaranteed to work out of the box. They'll likely cost less too. If you want to learn about telescopes, try designing them, etc; sure, go make one. But I've lost SO MANY hours and dollars over my life doing the "I could just build it!" method when I should have just bought something. So many solder kits that needed days to diagnose what was wrong... so many... so... many... {"name":"uJfwO.gif","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/5\/1\/518fbf76ff0c38b7524c6d2181851c74.gif","w":325,"h":315,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/5\/1\/518fbf76ff0c38b7524c6d2181851c74"} -----sig: |
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Erin Maus
Member #7,537
July 2006
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Chris Katko said: But I've lost SO MANY hours and dollars over my life doing the "I could just build it!" method I know what you mean, man. (From a programming perspective). My game looks like something someone could scrap together in a week using Unity/Unreal. But it's taken me six months... So much time wasted through the years developing my own tools, writing my own games using low-level libraries, and so on. But I bet we learned a lot more as a result and are better for it. --- |
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Chris Katko
Member #1,881
January 2002
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Learning is good! But make sure it's learning something you care about! Programming pays dividends. Random telescope project? Probably will end up as clutter on your desk for a year or two... -----sig: |
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Onewing
Member #6,152
August 2005
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Agreed, Chris. I'm looking to buy (hence the budget) and avoid the time spent building (which I imagine is worth way more than the budget I have). ------------ |
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