Telescope advice

[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by Vintage Pete

Yep, there is nothing like a really good refractor. I'd like to upgrade mine someday. They can and do get pretty expensive...

And, using the stereo gear analogy, buying used can get you some great gear.

[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by Doug Lax

Also is getting a brands like Tele Vue worth it for this type of scope? Would better quality eyepieces make a difference with this scope?

Indeed it is. The better (more $$ usually means better, even with Celestron & Meade, etc.) scopes provide better viewing. But, there is no magic bullet. You still have to see thru our atmosphere and contend with the light from cities, etc., so don't expect miracles. We are fortunate in southern NJ in that we are quite rural. We do suffer from lots of moisture in the air due the ocean on one side and the DE Bay on the other. Higher (on top of a mountain, if possible) and dryer (the desert) is better.

Find a good telescope shop to deal with. I've had good luck with High Point Scientific and Astronomics (which is likely the largest). Very knowledgeable sales staffs who will do a good job of helping the novice. "Astronomy" magazine is an excellent resource.

For looking at deep space objects it is difficult to beat the light gathering abilities of reflectors of one sort or another. When my brother & cousins & I lived near one another we had a 20" reflector and watched Shoemaker-Levy 9 crash into Jupiter in 1994. Talk about fighting for time at the eye-piece. Fantastic show.

Today I use the 127mm Mak-C from Celestron. For about $450 (less eye-pieces) it does a decent job and is very portable. Figure that you will spend 3-4X the cost of a reflector for a similar quality picture from a refractor. All that glass you have to look through in a refractor is expensive when done right. Once you get to 5" or above in a refractor, you can easily go to 10X+ on the cost. The larger the glass the more difficult it is to make a good lens and coat it. That is why the Hubble and most all truly large, professional telescopes these days are reflectors. Simple matter of economics.

Enjoy. Amazing what you can see on a night of "good seeing" (minimal atmospheric disruption).

[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by Doug Lax

Still cloudy a month after ....only one day of clear skies

Have you had a chance to get out much in the 10wks since your last post? It has been an exceptionally cloudy late spring-summer out this way, as well. Just picked up an alt-az mount for my large binoculars for easy viewing of the heavens.

[Doug Lax]

Havent made it out Glenn it has been real cloudy here as well. I am going to buy a Sun filter soon though

[djwhog]

If I was to invest in the 1000-1500 range what could I come up with for a total package?

thanks

In NW WY in the country it is dark enough on a clear night I see the haze of the Milky Way very easy. Especially on a no to little moon night it is impressive with the eye

[Formerly YB-2]

Look back a ways in this thread and there is a link to a "how to choose a telescope" that is very good. That said, there are some very impressive "all around" instruments for viewing the heavens in your budget:
Advanced VX 8" EdgeHD Telescope [item # 12031].
The list price for a complete package is $1999, but most places sell them for around your listed budget. They also offer a 6" model that is smaller, but with the same features. The reason I like SCs is that they are easier to transport and set-up and use than either refractors or reflectors.
However, while starting off with something nice like an 6" or 8" SC is great, you might want to get a decent tripod like this one Celestron Heavy-Duty Manual Alt-Azimuth Mount with Tripod 93607 and a decent pair of large binoculars like these Vixen Optics 20x80 Giant Binocular 1457 B&H Photo Video to get started. If you want something a bit smaller, the 70mm Fujinon or 56mm Nikon Monarch are also great bino's for viewing the heavens.
Vixon also makes some excellent refractor telescope packages like this one in your price range. Vixen Optics Advanced Polaris Mount with ED80SF Telescope 39981
Read a bit in 'how to pick a telescope' and then ask some specific questions. I envy your dark skies in WY. Especially if you can get up a mountain into the thinner air. The atmosphere is second only to man-made light pollution in limiting what we can see.

[djwhog]

Thank you YB, what are you using these days?

And if you do not mind about what is the investment I would need?

[Formerly YB-2]

You can get started with a very nice rig for $500-1000. However, $1500 will get you a great set-up.

This would be a good place to start for general viewing:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/used/910878
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Telescope.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...inoculars.html
You will be amazed how much you can see with a pair of good binoculars on a decent mount. If you think you want a bit more light gathering and magnification, then go with a larger binocular like a 16x70 or 20x80. The drawback of the larger binoculars are the size & weight can make them unwieldy if you want to do any viewing without the tripod (think reclining in the chaise lounge in your backyard).

If you want to skip the binoculars, here are a few more suggestions.

As my brother (5" ED glass refractor) & cousin (22" reflector & 8" ED glass refractor) are both into astronomy more then I am, I use one of these for the portability Celestron NexStar 127SLT Computerized Telescope 22097 B&H Photo and a pair of Fujinon's 11x70 binoculars on the Celestron tripod I listed above. If I did not have access to their larger instruments I would likely go to a 7" Maksutov Orion SkyView Pro 180mm GoTo Mak-Cass Telescope | Orion Telescopes or a 3" ED glass refractor like this Orion Sirius ED80 EQ-G Computerized GoTo Telescope | Orion Telescopes or the Vixen listed in my previous post.

Outside of light & the atmosphere, the most important thing for a decent telescope is the glass (assuming it is well made mechanically). Larger diameter means more light-gathering. But, like diamonds, maintaining quality in the glass and finishing/coating of same grows exponentially with size. If a good 4" telescope costs X then an 8" telescope of similar quality can easily be 2-10X as much. For instance, the 115mm ED glass Orion refractor is $1800 and the 130mm is $3000.

Taking into account portability (size) & ease of use, which are both important to me, the Cassegrain (Maksutov, Schmidt or Newtonian) telescopes have the most to offer for the $$. However, a 3-4" ED glass refractor is also very nice. A larger reflector is nice if portability is not an issue.

Again, don't hesitate to talk to the places like Orion and Astronomics (probably the largest reseller in the U.S.) or Highpoint Scientific. They are good folks who do their best to point you in the right direction with your choices (scope, mount, eye-pieces, etc.) as their sales folks are generally amateur astronomers themselves. My experience is that if you purchase something from them that does not work the way you had anticipated they will do their best to make you happy. I purchase from Highpoint or B&H as they are both just up the road from me and I am in the fortunate position of knowing what I want when I do purchase.

[djwhog]

OK well it has been awhile since this thread and so I borrowed a friends unit that is an older Meade maybe about a $500 or so department store unit and it is way better than the naked eye of course. But I have decided I want to go better, not top notch but at least into the lower range of the high end home units.

So I think I really like the Meade LX90 - ACF models and they make an 8:, 10" and a 12" LX90 ACF. I am leaning towards the 12" unit. it seems if you want any sort of deep space viewing and or better detailed viewing other than the so called local planets and the moon you need to get into 10" and larger scopes.

Meade also makes the same size basic scope in much more costly models and the main differences are features better stand etc.

You also can of course spend a mini fortune on many types of filters and eye pieces too. The Meade 12" LX90 ACF comes with Advanced Coma-Free is in the $3k range give or take a few hundred. And the you can read about the LX400, 500, 800s with even more Advanced Coma-Free technology.

The LX90 ACF are computer drive, have a Sony GPS etc and are a nice unit, moon details are stunning and you can you tube and see some pretty darn nice stuff other have shown.

Questions for anyone out there, one how do you capture images with a camera, and two, anyone have a scope like this and care to feedback on them compared to say an 8"?
Thank you

Here is a stock photo of a 12" to get an idea of the size, most folks at home you talk to have a 4" and some maybe get into 8" scopes, but 10s and up get heavy and large fast, some weight 200+ lbs. Would really like a 16" but then you are talking like 10K +

[djwhog]

Also I learned that going from an 8" to a 12" is 2 1/4 times for surface area and thus that much more light.