First off hello to the forum
Im interested in purchasing a scope to start some basic sky watching of planets and stars etc and was just wondering what scope youd recommend for someone who is totally clueless lol
Just want a kind of all rounder to see how i get on for now then probably upgrade when i understand it all a bit more, also want one so i can take pictures of on mates pro camera
Seen this on ebay but not sure if its anygood or not for the novice?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1400-150-Seben...QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks in Advance,

Marc.

Hello, let me be the first to welcome you to baut, I'm sure there'll be many people to help you. i'm no exper with telescopes but I can direct you to a podcast that may help solve your problems

http://www.astronomycast.com/observi...g-a-telescope/

http://www.astronomycast.com/observi...eur-astronomy/

Both are good for what you're asking.

__________________
Common sense isn't so common

I've never heard of this manufacturer, so I can't comment. But the English copy is inadvertently humorous in some places:

Nebular filter CLR 1.25" for telescopes
Take more fun out of astronomical observation in the city!

__________________
The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Well, if you're buying your own telescope, you should think about several things.
First of all, you should think about quality. The best consumer brand names are Meade, Orion, and Celestron. You should definately buy a telescope from one of those brands if your going small. Meade is best for all around telescopes and computerized mounts, Orion for optical tubes. Celestron also makes good mounts and Cassegrains.

Second of all, what is your budget? You could consider a cheap 6'' dobsonian, or you could get a high quality 6'' equatorial computerized telescope for a few hundred dollars more. For a few thousand dollars more, there are even more possibilities.

The telescope itself should have a good optical tube. There are several types to consider:

Newtonian: The cheapest tubes. They only have a primary parabolic mirror and slanted secondary mirror. They have the advantage of low f stops so they are good for dim objects. Most smaller telescopes are Newtonian. They have a disadvantage in that the spider (the thing that holds the secondary mirror) causes diffraction spikes. But diffraction spikes can make a nice addition to photographs.

Refractor: Refractors use just lenses. They have no diffraction, but they are expensive. The best refractors are Apochromats, which have no chromatic abherration compared to normal Achromats. The cheapest apochromats are over $500 for just the tube. They are still probably best.

Catadioptrics: Catadioptrics are most commonly Maksutov-Cassegrains and Schmidt-Cassegrains. There are others such as Schmidt-Newtonians. They use lenses and mirrors. Catadioptrics have minimal distortion so they are okay for photography, but they have high f stops. They are also expensive.

As for a mount, if you're going to use it for photography, it is best to be on an equatorial mount or better yet, a motorized or computerized one. You can spend thousands on a mount alone, but I wouldn't recommend spending that much for the first time. You can also get equatorial wedges for many computerized alt-azimuth mount telescopes such as the meade ETX.

Astrophotography is usually prime focus or piggyback. Prime focus is using an adapter such as the Meade Basic Camera Adapter with a required T-Ring to connect it to your SLR body. You always need a motor drive for long exposure prime focus astrophotography. You can also "piggyback" your camera on to your telescope incase you want to take long exposures using your normal camera lens.

You can also use a CCD imager for astrophotography, CCD imagers are sensitive advanced webcams to connect your telescope and computer and take long exposures. The cheapest CCD imagers are the Meade Deep Sky Imagers which can be packaged half price with more expensive meade telescopes. There are also planetary imagers that won't image deep space objects like Nebulae but work for the moon and planets.

Technical considerations:

Focal length: Focal length defines magnification. To get the magnification of your telescope, you must divide the focal length of your telescope by the focal length of your eyepiece. For example, if you have a 300mm focal length telescope and a 10mm eyepiece, you have 30x magnification.

Aperture: Aperture is the opening at the end of the telescope and often the primary mirror. Objects look brighter with larger aperture and by rule of thumb, you should be able to get 2x magnification practically for every mm of aperture.

F stop: Such as f/5.0, f/4.0 etc. F stop works like in a camera lens. For astrophotography, it is good to have a low f stop.

Quality of optics: You should look for telescopes with good optical coating on the mirrors. You should look for refractors that use good glass and are apochromatic.

Telescopes to consider:

$100-300:

Orion ShortTube 80 EQ refractor, wide field viewing, good for nebulae, not available until the 31st. $299. Motor and/or goto upgradeable. Tube also sold alone.

Orion SpaceProbe 130ST EQ reflector. Good for all around, not available until the 31st. $279 Motor and/or goto upgradeable.

$300-1000

Meade ETX series Maksutov Cassegrains: Good for all around and great for piggyback photography. Come with Equatorial wedges. $699-999.

Most of the better Orion Refractors are in this range, including apochromat optical tube assemblies.

Celestron Omni XLT 127mm Schmidt-Cassegrain. Very good deal. $599. Motor drive upgradeable.

Adorama Camera gives rebates on Celestron NexStar Cassegrains along with free shipping. $499-1199. They have equatorial wedges and goto capabilities.

$1000+

The Meade LXD75 SN-6 and 8'' Schmidt Newtonians are extremely good telescopes for $999-$1199. They have GoTo capabilities along with drive correction and other goodies. But the 10'' is too heavy for the mount.

There is also an 8'' Schmidt Newtonian for $1499 on the LXD75 mount.

Both Orion and Celestron make high quality Equatorial Goto telescope like the LXD75.

Meade LX90 and Celestron CPC telescopes start around $2000

Mounts:

Meade LXD75: $599. Computerized Goto. Very stable. Perfect for photography.

Celestron CG-5: About $700. Computerized Goto.

Celestron CG-E: $3000. Computerized Goto. Extremely good.

Losmandy G11: $2999. One of the best mounts around. I don't know much about it.

Telescopes to avoid:

Meade ETX80. It is half a binocular on an ETX mount.

Konus MotorMax telescope: The same as the ebay telescopes.

Celestron Mini Mak: It is not a "Mini Telescope", it is a cheap spotting scope.


No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, never, ever, ever, ever, buy a telescope off of ebay. I bought a telescope off of ebay (off brand like seben), and it was a BIG mistake. First I bought the telescope ($140): Getting it was a fiasco, horrible seller. It took around a month until it actually arrived. When it finally arrived, it was crap. First thing that pointed to that was the fact that one of the screws for the tripod was too short. It was an open box item so either: The seller swapped the screw for something else to be cheap, or it was just an error from the chinese sweat shop it was made in. Then the next thing was that the mount was wobbily. No matter how tight you made the screws, it would still move when it wasn't meant to. Later it got worse. The 6'' Newtonian optical tube may have been okay, but still wasn't very good. I'm not entirely sure that it had a parabolic mirror. The finderscope was entirely useless and nearly impossible to focus. The eyepieces were also okay, but it came with a useless "1.5x erecting eyepiece", which was like a large barlow that made the image upright, but it was useless. It also came with a 2x barlow that seems to have a plastic lens. I later got a motor drive for it, but it was impossible to tell whether you had set the correct speed. The motor drive broke. There are various other small details I won't get into right now.

I also bought a $40 refractor off of ebay that was near useless, I gave it away.

So, as for buying your own telescope, don't go with ebay, even if it's brand name. There are also numerous scams on ebay.

Search this forum, plenty of 'what scope should I get' threads already here. Here's one to start with:
I'm thinking of getting a telescope

Here's something else that is highly recommended reading:
http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html

I started out with a cheapie 2.5" Tasco refractor, went to a Bausch and Lombe 8" dob, then to an 8" reflector on an equatorial mount, and now I have a Meade ETX125. Of them all, the absolute hardest to handle was the 8" on the equatorial mount; it just is not intuitive and is heavy and clumsy as hell. My favorite is the computerized ETX, for its portability and ease of use, although I do miss the brighter images of the two 8" scopes. The best image for $ was the dobsonian.

Knowing what I know now, I'm beginning to think about a computerized 8" Maksutov-Cassegrain. For a newbie, though, in my experience the 8" dob would be the best choice: all your money goes into the telescope and not the mount, and t's easy to use and reasonably portable. The downside (IMO)is that you have to be able to read a star chart to locate most objects, and you can get back and neck strain using the finderscope (I would strongly recommend getting a Telrad reflex sight).

__________________
Beady's Corollary to Occam's Razor: "The likeliest explanation of any phenomenon is almost always the most boring."

Like I posted in other threads: check out your local astronomy club. There you can most likely get your hands on some scopes to see what they are like, and hear first-hand stories of their pros and cons.

I've had a Criterion RV-6 since the late 70's, still offers great views, but alas, the motor is shot and no shops can figure out how to replace it (motor is easy to replace, but it needs a pin drilled and fitted to make it work).

Plus, its quite a bother to move.

So, I'm nearing purchase of a 10 inch Meade LX90, that should keep me happy for a while.

I would reccommend buying 10 x 50 bino's 1st before purchasing a telescope. Learn the sky and see how you like it.