Beginner Question!

[kaomoo]

I second the scopes what Orly suggested base on your budget. Personally, I would recommend non-technical and non-astrophotograpy inclined yet newcomers getting a really good AZ mount first. Even when they progress to EQ mounts in the future, the AZ can still be a keeper for grab-n-go observations locally or overseas.

u couldn't have said it better. 3 months after getting my scope i am still not good with tracking.

[Gary]

u couldn't have said it better. 3 months after getting my scope i am still not good with tracking.

Bro, I think for your case it is different. You ARE technically savvy and into AP and you will figure out the tracking issues sooner or later. Just take your time and continue to enjoy the learning process. The knowledge gained will save you tons of money for your future AP purchases.

I think it took me more than 3 months to figure out how an EQ mount works conceptually. LOL. I was lucky to attend James ISTAR first light party and get to play with his EQ GOTO mount (for sale now btw ) and getting guidance from James and Mr Au about the EQ mount. I learn more about EQ mount on that evening than the first 2 months and 30 days just reading about it.

[Appleboy]

Hey guys,

Thanks alot for all the replied. Well frankly speaking I haven't seen through the night sky with any scope at all or attended any observation sessions (since I am a relatively shy guy). I wanted to view DSOs the most is because I find them amazing and beautiful.

In any case I will be grabbing some beginner's books and start to study the basics myself.

[antares1]

Hello,
I'm a total noob when it comes to telescopes, but I'm actually hoping to get one soon. My budget is quite low, sadly, approx SGD$300, and I'm satisfied as long as I get to see Saturn's rings... So I'm wondering which telescopes would u guys recommend?

After browsing through a few threads, seems like the Orion ST80 is quite popular for beginner. And I oso chanced upon the Vixen Space eye 70...
Btw, my friend is trying to sell me his Celestron Firstscope 80EQ for $200, is it a reasonable price?

TIA

[SillyYun]

beginner noob question here, has anyone tried to view satellite with telescope? Will we be able to see them?

[cloud_cover]

Yes you can see them but they move quite fast so it may be difficult to catch one.
Don't expect it to look like the public.relations picture of it you see in a pre launch news article though

[Gary]

@SillyYun -- Most of them are very small and unless you have a very powerful telescope, you will only see a bright dot moving in the field of view of a telescope.

I have seen a few of them and mostly in Malaysia. Most of them I saw them were accidental while I was using a widefield scope like a 80mm f/5 refractor on a push-to az mount. It is extremely fun and visually exciting to manually follow the satellites through the telescope as you see a bright dot drifting across a background filled with stars.

There are many software and apps that will give you info about different satellites transiting in the sky at any moment. Do check them out if you are into satellite observation.

The International Space Station (ISS) is probably the biggest man-made satellite we can see on Earth. My best experience seeing it so far was one night at toa payoh central with 2 passerby during a sidewalk session. One of them spotted the bright ISS drifting high and bright across the sky. Since my 8 inch telescope was already well aligned with a telrad finder, I quickly push the scope ahead of the ISS trajectory while looking through the telrad aiming sight, then stop pushing the telescope, look through the eyepiece and wait for ISS to drift pass while waiting for the scope vibrations to stop in a few seconds.

As I was not expecting and preparing for it, the focus is definitely off but for the split second it drift through the fov, I can clearly see an fuzzy outline of the ISS drifting by. The experience was so thrilling that I would love to do it again sometime! (Thanks for reminding me indirectly!)

Do check out this legendary amateur astronomer's website to see some of the best satellite videos and photos captured through telescopes. Even spy satellites! How amazing is that?

http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/satellites.html

[SillyYun]

Hi Gary and cloud_clover,

Yeap yeap I do have the app, was wondering if u can give us some sample pic that u saw? kekeke...
thanks for that link

I dont have a telescope yet
gonna read up more about the specs..

[cloud_cover]

I dont have a telescope yet
gonna read up more about the specs..

Beware! Telescopes breed!

Seriously though, other than reading, join Gary or some of the others for some obs sessions. You'll then be able to gauge what kind of scope can offer what Generally any generic scope of similar aperture and type will give fairly similar images

[Gary]

Hello,
I'm a total noob when it comes to telescopes, but I'm actually hoping to get one soon. My budget is quite low, sadly, approx SGD$300, and I'm satisfied as long as I get to see Saturn's rings... So I'm wondering which telescopes would u guys recommend?

After browsing through a few threads, seems like the Orion ST80 is quite popular for beginner. And I oso chanced upon the Vixen Space eye 70...
Btw, my friend is trying to sell me his Celestron Firstscope 80EQ for $200, is it a reasonable price?

TIA

Hi Antares1. Welcome to Singastro forum. Sorry for the super late welcome. Just saw your first post while searching for something. LOL.

ST80 is a good scope for beginner if you enjoy using the strengths and advantages of this design which is widefield star clusters and super portable and not too concern about its weakness like colour fringing and inability to do high magnification on planets (esp the smaller ones).

For the Celestron Firstscope, perhaps you can let us know how good is the condition (e.g. any defects like scratches or fungus on the main lens) and we may be able to advise you if it is worth $200.

Do check out the sales history in the buy and sell forum here to have a general feel of the pricing of various scopes.

Good luck!