Newbie here....need some telescope buying advice...

[mookie3127]

Hey guys. I've been very interested in Astronomy for about 6 or 7 years now, but have never purchased a telescope. I've been doing a little research on telescopes, but I'm not really sure which one would suite me best. I'd like something nice that is still somewhat advanced. I'm very "techie" so adjusting to a more complicated telescope shouldn't be an issue for me. I'd like something that I won't have to replace with an upgrade in 6 months to a year once I've became more comfortable with it. I've also seen some of the telescopes that will take digital pics of what you are looking at...this is very intriguing.....are these worth the hassle and if so, what are some recommendations? Any advice you guys could give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[antoniseb]

I moved this to the appropriate forum.
Mookie3127, welcome to the BAUT forum. Please take a few minutes and look at similar threads. I bet you'll get some reasonable answers.

[mookie3127]

I moved this to the appropriate forum.
Mookie3127, welcome to the BAUT forum. Please take a few minutes and look at similar threads. I bet you'll get some reasonable answers.

I didn't even see this forum...guess i just overlooked it completely. :wall: thanks for the assistance.

[Siguy]

First, what are you willing to pay for your telescope? $100-300? $300-700? $700-1500? $1500+?

[Trantor]

Go to Orion Telescope and see what they have. This is the link to their learning center, which will give you some good information. They offer a wide variety of telescopes at reasonable prices.

http://www.telescope.com/content/learningcenter/learningcentergatewaymain.jsp?iCategoryID=19&CCNavIDs=19

[Dave Mitsky]

Here are some sites that deal with choosing a telescope:

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=ss&id=9

http://skyandtelescope.com/howto/scopes/article_241_1.asp

http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html

http://www.floridastars.org/telescop.html

http://www.company7.com/library/begin.html

http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers/telescope.html

http://www.r-clarke.org.uk/starting_astro.htm

http://www.celestron.com/c2/esupport/index.php?_a=knowledgebase&_j=subcat&_i=4

Astrophotography/imaging, other than simple fixed tripod or afocal photography (taking a picture with a camera held close to the telescope eyepiece), adds a whole other level of expense and complexity to the mix and requires a lot of learning and experience. It's generally not a good idea to tackle this particular pursuit until one gets familiar with observational astronomy first. Believe it or not, the mount is far more important than the telescope itself and many amateur imagers pay several thousand dollars or more for their mounts alone.

It might be wise to first consult these sites to get a feel for what astrophotography is all about:

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/6529/primer.html

http://www.eclipsechaser.com/eclink/astrotec/aphotsmt.htm

http://www.astronomyforbeginners.com/astrophotography/

http://www.geologynet.com/astronomy/astrophotography.htm

http://www.fvastro.org/articles/digital/

http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/TOC_AP.HTM

http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/dslr/EOS300Dastro.html

Michael Covington's book Astrophotography for the Amateur is very highly recommended.

Dave Mitsky