Atlas Explorer 1149

Hi all,
I'm after gettting a present of the above telescope. I am completely new to astronomy and looking at the skys at night.
Does anyone know if the scope is a good one or should I be looking at maybe getting a better one?

Thanks in advance.

Eoin

Hi Eoin,
Getting a telescope is like buying a car (just ask Dave McD:wink:) , you get what you pay for.
Its a small enough scope but you should be able to see detail on the moon, some detail on the planets, orion nebula and a number of the brighter clusters and a number fo galaxies (as faint glows).

Also, its about realistic expectations, dont expect to see across the universe with it, dont expect to see hubble space telescope images of galaxies, make sure you know what to expect when you look through it, best way of doing this is to have a look through a friends scope. You might then say, those images are fine, or I want to see abit more, and then decide to go for a more expensive scope.

Thanks Dave.
I was looking through it last night at the moon and I thought that the image I saw looked fairly good. I could make out alot of detail with it.

As you say you get what you pay for but it should get me started and keep me interested for a while yet!!

Thanks again

Eoin

You get what you pay for? You got it as a present :lol:


Before you decide to go for bigger/better and spend the price of a car ( ) use the scope you have through the winter. You'll soon get a feel for using it and will hopefully get to see many of the wonderful night-sky objects. I'd recommend you buy one of the newsagent magazines, like Sky at Night or Astronomy Now - these will give you tips, tricks and a list of objects/events to look out for. Also, if you get hooked, join your local astronomy club - you'll get loads more help and you might get to see other scopes that'll maybe help you decide if you want to 'trade-up'.

If you're getting good detail on your lunar images then I'd say you'll get use out of the scope, until you get a dose of 'aperture fever'...

Cheers

Dave

You can always pop around to your local astronomy club- you'll get plenty of pointers and maybe even a sneaky look through one of those car priced scopes

Thanks for the advice lads. I think that there is an astronomy club here in Limerick. Must try and find out more details though.

Thanks again

Eoin