Hi I wonder if you can help

I have been looking at telescopes for a long time now and was going to treat myself to a Mead ETX90 for christmas. Any how I just had my birthday and my girlfriend bought me a Bresser Lyra 70 telescope which I know compared to the one I was looking at is a big difference but my question is what will I be able to see and has she done the right thing considering I have never used a telescope before.

Thanks

Anthony

I'm moving this from Q&A to Astronomical Equipment & Accessories.

In my experience, since you've never had a telescope before, you don't really know what pattern of usage you'll settle in to. You should probably assume that your girlfriend did exactly the right thing, and thank her unreservedly. If, months or years from now, you decide you want a bigger/better telescope, go ahead and get one.

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Forming opinions as we speak

For most novices, a 6 or 8-inch Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian alt-azimuth mount, commonly called a Dob, is generally considered the best choice as a first telescope. When it comes to telescopes, aperture almost always rules. (Light grasp and resolution are directly related to aperture size.) Compare those apertures, 150 and 200mm respectively, with 70mm and you should get a rough idea of how much more you'll be able to see with a larger scope.

Here are some web sites that have useful information on choosing a first telescope.

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

http://skyandtelescope.com/howto/sco...icle_241_1.asp

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.celestron.com/c2/esupport..._j=subcat&_i=4

http://www.astronomics.com/main/cate...lescope/Page/1

Dave Mitsky

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De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Err, he already has a telescope, I think he's asking whether the one he has is good or not.

Well, I can't find much information about it, but the telescope you have is certainly in a completely different world than the Meade ETX-90. The ETX-90 is a go-to maksutov cassegrain on a wedged alt-azimuth mount with an aperture of 90mm and a focal length of 1250mm while the Lyra is a 70mm refractor on a german equatorial mount with a focal length of 900mm. The Lyra is made in china and is probably nowhere near the quality and precision of the ETX. But the ETX is a much more expensive piece of equipment. Although it may be of poor quality, you should still be able to see impressive views of the moon and planets. Most of the Messier Objects will be visible. You should be able to benefit from having a polar aligned telescope, so that you can track the sky with ease.

Check in with your local astronomy club, see what they have to say.

Err, I know that. I was merely expanding on what antoniseb said and supplying some information so that the OP can make an informed choice if he decides to get a really useful instrument.

As far as the Bresser Lyra is concerned, the OTA itself may not be too bad since it has a high enough focal ratio (f/13) to not suffer from objectionable chromatic aberration (i.e., false color). However, the eyepieces supplied with the telescope are the primitive and extremely cheap Huyghenian (H) and Symmetrical Ramsden (SR) designs and should be replaced with Ploessls. The alt-azimuth mount will probably leave a lot to be desired, and the 5x24mm finder scope, which is probably stopped down, will be of little use except for finding the Moon and other bright objects.

http://www.astroshop.de/en/telescope...rius-70-900-az

Dave Mitsky

__________________
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

I own an etx 90. Its now my grab n go scope. Its a case of "nice optics shame about the rest."

It was my first telescope and really got me into astronomy. However the "Go-to" I found to be very frustrating as it took an age to set up and quite often it would get lost and I'd have to start the whole process again. I ended up by pointing the scope manually and rarely used the go to.

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It would appear that we have run off the OP!

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T. Anderson

Hi all

Thanks for your reply sorry been a bit busy with work of late.

Right I set it all up and took a good look at the Moon with the 9mm lense but was wondering what else I can look at????

Thanks again your support is appreciated.