Question about buying a telescope.

[Prowler67]

I am new to the world of astronomy and wanted to get a telescope. The one I am looking at is a Celestron FirstScope 114 EQ Short Newtonian Reflector. The price is about $160. Is that a good price, or is this company not known for quality? Right now I am mainly interested in look ing at the planets and more prominent things in the sky. Also is a longer focla length better than a short one. Any suggestions? Thank you.

[desertmonk]

firsttelescope.com is selling a celestron powerseeker 127 for $128 +25 shipping. Celestron is a major telescope maker; though I do not have one, I do own a pair of their binoculars and they work just fine. For the price you really couldn't do wrong. You could get a orion 4.5 inch dobsonian for $200 and it would work fine also.

[Wolverine]

Thread moved to a more appropriate location.

[aurora]

Do some research first. Read through some of the previous threads here in the Astro Equipment section, where people have listed links to lots of online sources and given great advice (such as, try to find a local astronomy club and visit them during a star party so you can look through and at a number of telescopes and ask questions to the people that have them.)

I don't know what would be best for you, but I suspect you might benefit from something a little better than a bottom of the line small scope on an EQ mount.

[redshifter]

I echo aurora's views. Yes, definitely do your research, go to a star party, get a feel for what seems to work best for you. The Celestron would probably be a good first scope, but if you go to a star party first and try out different types of scopes, you might find something you like better. Whatever you do, don't buy a cheapo dept. store scope. A 6" dob IMO is just about the best first scope money can buy. They're easy to use and set up, very stable (this is important), and you'll have enough aperature to get great views of planets and most Messier objects, not to mention the moon. As far as focal length goes, longer will yeild greater magnification with a given eyepiece, shorter will allow you to use lower magnification and wider fields of view. I prefer shorter focal lengths mainly because I like lower power wider fields of view, and it's a pretty rare night when you can go beyond 150 - 200X anyways.

[Prowler67]

Thank you all for the information. I am currently tryin to contact the local astonomy club. I guess it is kind of a blessing and a cure to live in a medium sized town, less light pollution but less people. I live in Northern Colorado and have been told that the "seeing" was good on a clear, calm winters night. I have been looking at the pictures of dob, am I correct in assuming that they sit on the ground as opposed to a tripod?

[redshifter]

Yes, a dob is a reflector telescope that sits in a particle board mount. Most of the higher end dobs will use higher quality wood for the mount, but particle board works just fine. The main advantages with this are 1) Cheaper to manufacture than a tripod/EQ mount, 2) Inherently very stable, 3) Very easy to set up; no polar alignment is necessary, just plop the mount on the ground, put the tube on the mount, and you're ready to observe (after collimation check of course). What I like about my dob is that I'm observing right away, while others are still setting things up. The disadvantage to a dob are 1) Less portability, 2) Automatic tracking is impossible without an expensive upgrade (EQ platforms can be spendy) 3) No automatic goto capability, although you can buy encoders which will point you to objects (the Orion 'intelliscopes' are a good example of this). However, IMO the advantages outweigh the disadvantages by quite a bit.

A good example of a 6" dob: http://www.telescope.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=9 this'll show the regular and intelliscope versions of the Orion dobs.

I envy your location, it should be very easy to get to a dark sky and with some altitude as well.

[Prowler67]

Portability can be a problem for me, I have a small car. But i figure that either way I go $200 dollars is not too much to pay for even 1 marginal night of veiwing the solar system. Speaking of good location, I was looking at Venus(I think, might have been Murcury, Im new at all this) and it was bright this morning, about 45 min before sunrise, the sky was just starting to light up in the east. But I was looking at it and making sure it was not moving because it was in the direction of the landing pattern of the airport. I determined it was not an airplane, but it was twinkleing slightly. It was pretty windy here last night and the jet stream is nearly over us, but I actually saw Venus shift from one position to the next for a split second. Is that unusual?

[redshifter]

Venus flickers very noticably and is the brightest object in the sky aside from the Sun and moon. It flickers so much that it's not the greatest telescopic target, it roils around too much. Mercury is a lot dimmer and is low on the horizon at dawn/dusk.

As far as portability goes, a 6" dob's tube length will be around 48" and about 8" in diameter. I put the tube of my 10" dob in the back seat and the mount in the front. As long as you have a 4dr car, it should fit OK, but measure to make sure. You might be able to put the tube into the back seat of a 2dr car, but that could be problematic.

[Prowler67]

I got an 88 Celica, nothing fits in the back seat. How high does it sit? Would putting it into the trunk work and putting the base standing behind the front seats work?

[Kaptain K]

If it was above the eastern horizon early in the morning and very bright, it was probably Jupiter. Venus and Mercury are both too close to the Sun to see right now. Mercury will be an evening object later this month (its best evening appearance of the year). Venus will be a morning object starting in March.

[Dave Mitsky]

Ahem, Venus is currently visible in the morning sky.

http://www.aaa.org/aaawhatsup.htm

Dave Mitsky

[Kaptain K]

OK, my mistake. But you've got to admit, it is just barely in the morning sky.