First Scope

Hi only just found this site and first off its a great site with lots of good info.
I'm a newbie at astronomy and after spending long time tracking the stars with my eyes I feel its time to move on and get a scope.
I'm thinking of getting the Celestron Astromaster 114EQ which is at the top of my limited price range at the moment. I'm just wondering how esential it would be to get new eye pieces for it straight away or should I be able to use the standard eye pieces while I try to build up enough money to replace. Also any thoughts on the scope itsself would be appreciated.
Cheers,
John.

Hi John and welcome

I would say roll it all around in your head as best you can and if that scope is as large
an appeture you can go at the moment then go for it, and yes getting more eye pieces does make
a great difference, but dont worry about that just yet.
Get your scope and learn to use it and find your way around the sky, now a 114 scope will
restrict what detail you can see especially with galaxys, but you will get super views of
the moon and you will be able to see the rings of saturn very well and the moons of jupitor
and the orion nebula and the list goes on and on, now to upgrade your eye piece collection
will improve your moon views and saturn and jupitor and mars but you dont need them straight
away. I am using a 150mm scope and I get brilliant views of the planets and some nebulas,
galaxys not so good because 150mm doesnt have enough light gathering power but im getting
close to upgrading my scope as you will in time.
So john I hope this helps you and incurages you to, as astronomy is a wonderful hobby,

So best of luck when you buy your scope and clear skys.

cheers Derek

Hi John

It is always a good idea to get the most aperture you can within your budget. Have a look at the following instruments for between than €150-€200

www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_inf...-Montierung-EQ2.html

www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Skywatch...aTrak_Telescope.html

If you could stretch to €300 you could get an 8" dob which will keep you going for many years and show so much more than a 114mm instrument (which you will want to upgrade from fairly soon).

www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_inf...ial-offer-model.html

Skywatcher, GSO make low cost good quality scopes.
Telescope house ( www.telescopehouse.com ) in the UK and telescope service in Germany ( www.telescope-service.com ) are worth looking at to compare prices. Both are good companies to deal with.
Best of luck with the scope hunting.


It is also worth looking at second hand instruments- there are some bargains to be had at the moment. Place a post on the items wanted section and see what you can get for your budget.

Hi John. Im a newbie aswell and I had the 130mm version of that Astromaster scope not so long ago and my advice would be stay away from it, especially the smaller 114 version. I didn't like anything about it, the cheap equatorial mount was very wobbly and difficult to move, it was next to impossible to find or keep a target in the view for any length of time due to the shaking and looseness of every component in it, I dont think I had one enjoyable night with it and the few times I got it pointed at Saturn the view was dark, blurry and disappointing, and that was with the 130 version, it'll be worse in the 114. Theres no centre spot for collimating the mirror either which was annoying. I switched to the 90mm Astromaster refractor on an AZ mount when I saw it cheap on Ebay one night and was much happier with it:

www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=62&ProdID=425

Its way easier to point at anything and the views when you find something seemed a lot clearer and brighter to me even though the aperture is a lot smaller. I guarantee starting out with the cheap EQ mount on those Astromasters you'll be struggling to point it at the moon never mind tiny galaxies. Im going upgrading again to this 102 refractor with GOTO:

www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=8&ProdID=29

Just bite the bullet like people say and spend €300 plus, maybe keep an eye out for secondhand stuff on Astromart or Ebay or the buy and sell sections of the various astro forums. If I was in a dark site Id be buying as big a dobsonian as I could find for a reasonable price but as Im currently living in the Galway suburbs Im happy with a grab and go refractor that I can carry downstairs and put in the car on a good night. I dont think ill ever use an EQ mount again, and remember with any kind of reflector you will need to buy collimation tools and keep checking and collimating it, also the image may be upside down and reversed, with a refractor the image is correct and they dont need to be collimated.

Hi lads. Thankyou eveyone for your comments you've given me plenty of things to think about. I like the 130mm Skywatcher which I would be getting for the same price as the 113mm Celestron. Dobs wouldn't really suit me coz I really need it to be mobile. Well I'll keep searching for now and I'll have to see if I can some up with a little extra euro to try get a better mount.
Cheers again everyone much apprecaited.

Managed to get alone of a scope for a few months from someone who doesn't have time to use it. It's a Meade DSX 90. Its a 90mm Maksutoz-Cassegrain Goto scope and I'm gonna use it to get an idea of what I want to buy myself and gives time to save bit more cash. Beware, knowing my luck we're in for clouds for a few weeks. Beautyful clear sky this afternoon and needless to say as we aproach to sunset nice clouds making their way accross the sky. Fuming..
My next question is can anyone advise on some nice free software with sky charts and such or anything else to help get on my feet. Thanks.