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

Hi Everybody,
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

Great program for both educational, fun and observational use. I've been using Starry Night for many years and now on Pro 5.

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?

Yes, these are made by Bresser in Germany and are excellent wide angle binoculars for the price. Each pair of binoculars is individually examined and tested by shop staff before being sold.

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

If you want an equatorially mounted reflector which can be subsequently be upgraded with dual axis motors + hand controller, then the C6-N is a nice telescope to start with. Alternatively, it has a larger brother, the C8-N. If you want a simpler and cheaper option, then a 6 to 8-inch Dobsonian is ideal.

Gordon

Thanks for the help there Gordon. Why do people think the equatorial is not so simple? I got the C8-N manual and I'll go thru it. It looks like a very solid and stable piece of kit.

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.

Stephen,

Generally, yes, if you're talking about mass market telescopes, but it should be mentioned that there are some fine small refractors around and below 75mm available from manufacturers such as Borg, Takahashi, Televue and Zeiss for example. Similarly, a couple of highly recommended 4.5-inch reflectors are Orion's Skyblast and Skyquest dobsonians. Your comment on colour is correct for achromatic refractors (although this is corrected to some extent in the better made models or with the use of an MV filter) but not for ED refractors from the manufacturers named above. Reflectors of course won't show any chromatic aberration but can suffer from a variety of other aberrations, especially the cheaper models.

Gordon

Thanks for the help there Gordon. Why do people think the equatorial is not so simple? I got the C8-N manual and I'll go thru it. It looks like a very solid and stable piece of kit.

I had an 8-inch Dob for a few years. Only takes a minute or two to set up and take down. Easy to use and great for beginners as all they have to do is move the telescope manually in alt/az and find objects by star hopping. Tracking is relatively easy to get the hang of.

Eventually (or ideed initially), you may very well want a motor driven scope (or one with just slow motion controls), especially for high power tracking and/or photography. While Dob drives are available, most people turn to SCT equatorial wedges or German Equatorial Mounts, the latter being more time consuming to set up and use. You can always buy a Dob initially and put in on an equatorial mount at a later date.

An equatorial mount can present problems for complete beginners. Some beginners undoubtedly struggle, starting with getting their latitude right, then their polar axes pointing east west or south, anywhere but north. I've seen this happen and had to explain the principle of correct polar alignment on a number of occasions. Once polar aligned, the motions required to centre even a bright planet in the eyepiece may prove quite baffling. With a Dob, anyone, even a child can be tracking the Moon and planets in a couple of minutes with almost no learning curve at all. The concept of tracking is wonderful; the steps needed to achieve the reality by a beginner are difficult.

Having said all that, if properly instructed, a reasonably intelligent person can learn the intricacies of a GEM in a short period of time. Forget about using the setting circles found on most mass market mounts. They are usually too small and inaccurate to place an object within the FOV. Learn to starhop using a good book such as Nightwatch, Star Watch, Star-Hopping for Backyard Astronomers or the Messier Marathon Field Guide to name but a few.

Gordon

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

I'm sent them a mail to see if they ship to Ireland. The ordering system only has shipping costs for the UK. Some good prices there though.

Steve

Hi Hamster
If you want to look through some scopes you're welcome to come along to our obsv sessions which will be either in Kill , the Mahon Falls or Clonea Beach our next meeting and obsv session is next Mon 4th at 8pm in Brigie Terries just outside Dungarvan on the Waterford road.
I always post details here and you can also log on to www.deiseastronomy.com
I'll also be at Cosmos from Friday night till Sunday.
I'll PM you with contact details
Eugene