A Big Hello and a few questions on a telescope...

Hi Everybody,

I'll like to say hello and introduce myself. I have been lurking this site since December last year. Normally I'm a big boards.ie fan (under the hamster name) but I really should post here more often. I found the resources and guides here very useful. I really only started my interest in a specific guided fashion last November. All my life it was... "oh thats nice" and move on. I was always interested in space events and the like but I viewed it from the mass-media perspective and likewise moved onto to the next "channel" if you know what I mean. Years ago I used Redshift 1 & 2 but I never successfully clicked with it. Likewise I have used Celestia for years (and it's earlier prototype).
Anyway last November I pick up a copy of Starry Night 4.5 (PCPro) and tried it out and gradually this encouraged me to start picking out the constellations and individual stars - Orion, Ursa Majoris and so on. From there I got to learn about the gradual changes over the nights. This fact makes it so exciting to me and makes it feel so alive like the seasons. By January/February I was pretty comfortable sky hopping around the sky via naked eye viewing. I guess I'm familar with probably 10-12 constellations now.
Then the ISS got my attention in late January and now is an event to look forward. Even got my father hooked onto it via a combination of Satscope and Starry night (he is always updating the satellite .dat files , I missed the Machholz comet excitement around the same time but I did try to see it. Then I heard about the comet showers and the times in the year that they occur. I look forward to this now that I know about them (have yet to start on this).
During this month I bought myself a decent pair of 10x50 binoculars from Astronomy Ireland for 85 euro. The brand is prismatic - I assume these are ok? - I had a scratched old pair of tasco's lying around. With a new adapter I now use this with a steady tripod at my home base (Waterford - nice dark rural skies - can see mag 5-5.5 stars with my glass aided eyesight here) and use the binos in Artane Dublin (Job base).
Magazine support is Astronomy Ireland's for one year. I have ordered Norton's Star Atlas and Nightwatch. I also came across CloudyNight's forums - which is quite good.
The binos really have extended the skies for me - The pleaides look lovely, Orion looks more detailed at it's star points. Recent wonders for me have been the Large Beehive cluster in Cancer. This has suddenly alerted me to all those Messier objects which seemed inaccessible. How do you pronoun that? The fact I can see 3-4 Jupiter's moons Callisto, Ganymede, Io (thanks Celestia!) and watch them change every night in a mere binoculars and see them in an amazing 45 deg plane blows my mind to mush! wow! I have been enjoying watching Jupiter come up earlier every night since waiting at 2am back in January. Saturn is a great addition in Gemini with Castor and Pollux. The starry night feels like a group of well known local regulars!

I guess I better get to the point. I have been looking at the next natural step... a telescope. I never had one - unless I include my father's cheap, nasty, plastic, wobbly, MegaXrated power wonder... a Bushnell 450x. It was so bad it put me right off looking at it ever again years ago.

Like Steve (in another thread), I'm looking for a starter telescope. I don't want to spend that much initially but understand I need to buy a good one to start off with and that I can add to or enhance in months/years to come. I have pondered the pros and cons of reflectors and refractors and I feel that I should go for a reflector - good price ratio, lighting and no color problems that a refractor has.
I have my eye on a C6N - I believe this would a good starter telescope.
I'm looking at it from here:
www.greenwich-observatory.co.uk/acatalog/Starter_Scopes.html
The price range is about right for me. I don't want to buy something too expensive as a starter. Has anyone had this telescope or what thoughts are on it? Would I better to get a few accesories with it (like a barlow lens) or just get used to it first. I plan to get one in June. I wish to view planets and deep sky objects - a bit of both really.
I apologise if this thread went on too long but I thought I'd give you a bit of background.

Hi hamster,

I've seen you around boards as well (on the computers forum iirc). I'm considering the C6N myself or the C4R from the same site. Leaning towards the refractor for the planetary viewing but may go for the refractor for the aperture. What I was looking for was not just refractor -vs- reflector but other models from other manufacturers.

I also have Celestia installed but haven't really looked at it much. I may need to buy a laptop as well

Steve

good evening- or morning it is now.

cant comment onthe scope choice. I am also a "lurking" beginner, got the LIDL skylux at christms. I bought the celestron lens kit from adorama and am pleased with it. I think we all go through the same learning/beginner process and the forum is a good way to learn from the experience of others and avoid sometimes costly mistakes. They are lots of helpful people on this site who will respond I am sure later - bit late now. For my input, i think your summation is sound - I am hunting something similar, looking at Skywatcher 130m. I will seek something with a RA drive - I think that very necessary for extended viewing and it seem that most people progress to photography as well, you may want to consider this.
And maybe check the second- hand sites. You can find these with some patience and a search - some details in earlier posts in this forum, on this ite somewhere.
Try this page also

collegecameras.co.uk/Manufacturers.asp?CatID=5&ManuID=48

Good luck in any case

nosmo king

hi guys,
the first bit of advice i would give you is you might look at this book:-
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/047141.../202-7069450-6440628
starware by phil harrigton, it has a good bit of useful advice and it compares
telescopes manufacturers by by type of telescope as well as explaining what all the accessories are for and how they rate. my second bit of advice is to find your local club if you can and get along to meetings and observing sessions particularly. there you will get to look through some of the scopes and you'll have a better idea of what to expect. thirdly don't rush to buy anything, stick with binoculars for the moment. you will learn your way around the sky with these and the knowledge will help you later with your scope. if you can do this in conjuction with point two you will be well prepared. as to type of telescope it really depends on personal choice and what you are interested in seeing. this is why i would suggest to try to look through other peoples scopes first.

some advice i would suggest first though is before you buy it are simple things like where you are going to store it particularly if it is large or heavy or both. if it is a task to get out and set up it will sit there and not get used. when getting a scope i would check it has a decent finder, anything below 8 x 50 is probably not a good idea. another thing i would check is the mount. if it is not solid the scope will shake and it will be fairly useless and then you'll probably give it up. with the optics you get what you pay for. generally the more expensive the telescope the better quality on the whole you get. most people buy refractors if they want to do planet observing and reflectors if they want to observe deep sky. for a refractor generally anything below 75mm or 150mm for a reflector is considered not worth getting as you'll probably quickly wear it out. also the optics tend not to be of good quality and you get a rainbow of colours. sorry if the post is a bit long, if you follow the first to bits of advice you'll be doing ell. if you can on short notice get to cosmos this weekend there is usually a good selection of scopes to be seen and seen through and more advice than you can handle there. some links below. the two telescope companies are run by amatuers here in ireland and they usually turn up at cosmos and the whirlpool start party, although i believe andromeda will not be at cosmos this year, it was posted on the this site somewhere. i have bought stuff from both of them and they are helpful. they were in your shoes in the past so they will understand where you are coming from. most companies in the astronomy market in the uk and ireland are run by amatuers so i would go with them as opposed to buying from a photography shop as most of them really don't have a clue.
stephen.


cosmos weekend
www.tullamoreastronomy.com/index.asp
andromedaoptics
www.andromedaoptics.com
north down telescopes
www.mccreaa.freeserve.co.uk/

Welcome to the boards Hamster! Seanie M is my name there, we've 'talked' a bit! So, you've come over to the dark side... :lol:

Seanie.

Thanks for the welcome and the advice guys!

stepryan, my first telescope will be a compromise. Rather than got 1 refractor and 1 reflector... I plan to view deep space objects and the moon (and planets) through a C8 or C6 reflector. Storage is fine and transporting it is pretty good. I'll do more research. Shopping around I have the following 4 sources... with quite a variety of prices for a similar model (Celestron/Explorer). My budget is 600-800E with 200E for accessories. Anyone deal with these suppliers?

Telescope Supplier Type and Model Cost
Andromeda Optics Explorer-200 (200mm (8") F/1000) Newtonian Reflector €875.00

collegecameras.co.uk Celestron C8-N Newtonian Reflector (8" / 200mm) 600 Euro (410 stg)

pulsar-optical.co.uk EXPLORER 200 EQ5 584 Euro (400 stg)
greenwich-observatory.co.uk Celestron C8-N 730 Euro (500 stg)

These prices are before delivery and I have asked for the latest on these. I won't be buying until June (I plan a week off - and it will rain of course ) and will research more in the meantime. Better a reflector rather than a refractor for an all-rounder if I don't buy 2. This model I'm looking at seems portable enough while still capable and is a good entry level and has room for future adds on like astrophotography way down the road (by going for the EQ mount).

The online .pdf manuals for the celestrons are a good of source of info!