telescopes

unclehobart

unclehobart

New Member
I'm thinking about getting an entry level telescope. Any advice on what to look for? Price?

I live fairly close to a bright city... so seeing anything faint is a pipe dream.
 
Well I have a Bushnell. I'd be able to tell you the exact make and model, but someone (Bish) who shall remain nameless (Bish) borrowed my telescope (Bish) a few years ago, and hasn't managed to return it yet (MrBishop) :D

Bushnell product listings
 
Well, anything smaller than a 6 inch reflector isn't worth the effort. You may as well invest the money in a pair of binoculars. You'll get better results. I've used both reflector and refractor, and reflector's definitely the way to go. Refractors ramp up the magnification higher, but only by sacraficing the field of view and a lot of stability. And don't fall for the old doubler trick. They give you a tube to extend the viewfinder, but it makes the telescope so hypersensitive that brushing your eyelashes against the eyepiece while blinking ruins your view.

Here's a useful link



Maybe somthing like this. Small, portable, and still very good quality. Just what someone who's gonna have to drive away from home to use it might need.


Oh, and some necessary first reading to make skygazing much more enjoyable.
 
Edit: Read prof's post again ^^^ it makes more sense than this one. :D

hmm.......as yer live in a light-polluted (light-polluted? who comes up with these stoopid phrases?) are, yer not gonna want to spend a fortune on summit the size of an oil barrel....mainly cos as yer said, the pollution is gonna fuck up any distant views anyway.

So it'll be a small telescope? Well, best advice I can give ya is try to match telescope strength against really good binoculars......dollar for dollar binocs are prolly gonna be a better deal :)
 
My astronomy class used 8-inch reflector telescopes (don't know which brand) during one of the first night labs and it worked fairly well, even though it was on the Fresno State campus in the middle of town.

My parents have a Bushnell refractor telescope (not sure the size, probably something cheap like a 4- or 6-inch). I asked my astronomy professor if Bushnell is any good and he said it's like buying a Ford.
 
Camelyn said:
Well I have a Bushnell. I'd be able to tell you the exact make and model, but someone (Bish) who shall remain nameless (Bish) borrowed my telescope (Bish) a few years ago, and hasn't managed to return it yet (MrBishop) :D

Bushnell product listings
Click to expand...
Borrowed it? You mean like I borrowed your BBQ and your washer/dryer and all those other lovely things that wouldn't fit into your apt when you moved out?

You want the telescope back, m'dear...you might want to ask first :D This is the first incling that I've ahd that you might want to remove it from storage
 
I want to be able to see the rings of Saturn and the storminess of Jupiter with a little clarity... just to let you know my baseline. What kind of magnification are we talking about to achieve said goal?
 
unclehobart said:
I want to be able to see the rings of Saturn and the storminess of Jupiter with a little clarity... just to let you know my baseline. What kind of magnification are we talking about to achieve said goal?
Click to expand...

Number One: Have realistic expectations!
DON'T EXPECT a small telescope to show images like those you may have seen in magazines. Those pictures are likely from the Hubble Space Telescope or some other large professional telescope. If you are expecting "video game" type images with amazing detail and color, you will likely be in for a letdown.

One target that will show tremendous detail (even in a small telescope) is the Moon. Even a telescope as small as 2.4 inches (60mm) will reveal a wealth of detail. You'll be able to see craters, mountains, "seas", and a number of other fine details. As far as planets are concerned, only a few will show reasonable detail in a small telescope. On Jupiter you can see cloud bands, maybe the Great Red Spot, and 4 of the large moons. Jupiter is the planet that consistently shows the most detail in amateur telescopes. However, even at high magnification Jupiter will only look about the size of some of the medium sized craters on the Moon. Saturn will show its glorious rings, and keen eyed people (with good seeing) might also spy some cloud bands. Saturn's largest moon Titan will also be visible but only as a moderately bright dot. Venus will be easily visible, but no surface detail will be seen since the planet's surface is permanently hidden by a thick, white atmosphere. You will be able to see the phases of Venus quite easily however. Mercury is too small and too far away to see any surface detail, and is often not visible due to its proximity to the Sun. If you can find Mercury (which generally can only be seen in twilight conditions), at best you will see only the planet's phases. Mars is easily seen in a small telescope, but only shows detail when it's close to Earth. Due to Mars' orbit, it only "puts on a show" every few years. When it is close to Earth, you might see a white polar cap, and perhaps some surface markings. The biggest problem with Mars is that it's a small planet. Even at high powers in a large telescope Mars at best looks about the same size as a tennis ball viewed from about ten feet! Uranus and Neptune can be seen in a small telescope if you know exactly where to look. You'll need to have a finder chart to locate them. Even very large telescopes show them basically as small green and blue dots. No surface detail will be visible. Pluto is out of the question for a small telescope; it generally requires an experienced observer using at least an 8 inch telescope (in a dark sky with a highly detailed finder chart) just to see it as a very faint dot!
Click to expand...

From the article I mentionned above. Don't forget that Newton and Kepler only had homemade scopes, and look at what they managed.
 
unclehobart said:
I want to be able to see the rings of Saturn and the storminess of Jupiter with a little clarity... just to let you know my baseline. What kind of magnification are we talking about to achieve said goal?
Click to expand...
200X or so will get fair view of the rings. Like prof says, don't get your expectations too high. Remember, any telescope you buy won't come close to major telescope images. My 4.5 with a 100x lens and a 2x Barlow (effectively 200x was good for seeing the rings of Saturn and some Jupiter cloud band detail (plus the four big moons and the red spot). The colors are nowhere near as vivid as they are in photos though. Jupiter seemed about the size of a dime at arms length. Higher magnifications bring more detail, but someone walking by will make the image shake uncontrollably. :D The size of the mirror has less to do with magnification than with light gathering capability, but the more light you gather, the more you'll be able to magnify (and the more detail you'll see). I take back what I said earlier though, it sounds like you want at least a six, possibly an eight inch. The prices seem to go up exponentially with the increase in mirror size.

This is at my high school. It's how I got interested in such things in the first place.
 
my dad bought a telescope back in 2000. it's a mead. i believe he consulted many sources like astronomy and telescope magazines before making the purchase.
it has accompanied -- and been used by-- my family on many trips, and also been set up outside my house many times.
it works well, and we've looked at saturn and jupiter with it before, so i think it could do that, seeing as it has.
but if not for you wanting to see saturn and jupiter, i, too, would suggest good binoculars.
but i'll ask my dad what exact kind of telescope he has.
 
Unc, if you want to come up and test out this scope, before
buying one, feel free. (gemme a ring) ;)
 
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