Help getting a Starter Scope

[Jeannie]

hi Masters and Experts:
I chanced upon this site and this site is a treasure!!
I always loved staring at the sky, I can locate Orion and big dipper with no maps thru naked eye. I like to look at the moon is a must, but more I want to see planets and some stars with my scope. I have no scope now but will those listed below suffice? Or do I need to up my budget?
I don't mind second hand scopes.
Some pointers from the elders here will be greatly appreciated. I am looking at refractor because I am a bit scared of the maintenance of Reflector lens, does it take a long time to collimate the Newtonian lens? I don't want to fumble and before I look thru my baby start crying.
I was initially looking at the oversea websites and the shipping costs was terrible, so I looked within, the science centre, Astro-Bargains store seems to have a good listing.
However when I looked at the Galileoscope Bundle (Galileoscope+Diagonal+Tripod) - S$160, it seems that no one is talking about this one. Is this a bad scope?
Should I get this one or the celestron first scope? I am worried these will not keep me interested enough before I buy again.
I have been to one TPY CC view and library view before to look at the lunar eclipse when I was pregnant.
Now my son is 2 and a half years and I will be making holiday to Malaysia, Indonesia, I like to get a telescope to view the night sky there.
My budget is around $200, initially I thought I could buy something decent around 100 bucks but I think I was wrong. hehe.

[acc]

Welcome to Singastro. I am sure there will be good advice from fellow members but meanwhile do browse through the buy n sell and beginners threads :-)

[Airconvent]

Hi Jeannie, a Galileoscope is more of a fun-type Galileo-design retro-scope for you to appreciate what type of scope he used to make his discoveries.
Not really for really astro work. The aperture would not been very useful in Singapore either but it is good for planets.
Astroscientific does sell a few beginner and portable scopes for less than $200 and so does mcgill.com.sg too. Do check them out.
These small aperture scope should do well under dark clear skies in Malaysia and Indonesia (as long as no haze!).
Remember, get the biggest you can carry & afford. The former will ensure you don't end up with a scope so heavy you are too lazy to bring it around.

Cheers

[Clifford60]

Hi Jeannie,

Welcome, $200 budget is a bit too low for a reasonable refractor. Suggest you get a 2nd hand MAK around 90mm-127mm plus a strong camera tripod, you will be able to ob and bring with you for your trip.

MAK needs no adjustment (collimation) unless you shock it hard.

[Hardwarezone]

To get "reasonable" overseas shipping cost you need to compare across nearly 10 different USA website to find the lowest S/H that isn't 3-5 days fedex/ups/dhl courier and without export restriction.

Example [Orion short-tube 80] MSRP USD 119.90
at telescopes.net the shipping cost is USD 55.26
find a friend and order 2 together, the shipping cost will be USD 63.65


star map here , save link as .pdf , print page 1-4
http://observe.phy.sfasu.edu/SFAStarCha ... rtsPro.pdf

[orly_andico]

if your significant other is interested in birding then perhaps you can increase your $200 budget.

camera lens for birding are quite expensive but a telescope that can be used for birding, and can also be used as a camera lens for birding (albeit manual focus only) would be a very nice telescope..

I would personally go with a short 80mm ED refractor on a Vixen Porta. also useful for birding. But here I am repeating myself...

[bornfree]

an avid birding kaki, Dave, can give u lots of tips on this..

[Jeannie]

hi hi thanks for all the advise.
aha guys: my significant other like to see chicks more, no need bino.
Anyways I intend to convert him to see nightsky, hopefully lah...
not sure how long this can last, he was there at the TPY session and amazed, he amazed but actually I am overwhelmed at all the equipment "available" and cost.
Feels like going sim lim buy computer like tat. all the talk and compare specs, I been reading a few days and the proposed budget from 100 to 200 and now edging towards 300, I think I have to think about size if can carry or not. I was thinking try at the playground with the kids at my block there and my bro also can see. so more ppl can help me with the equipment.
Thanks guys, I will read to see if what MAK and vixen is, for now Galileo is out liao. Very tempted to go beyond 70 after reading the reviews...signz.
AStro master 114 AZ at $329 sing seems like something I might shortlist, but I think I go read the MAk and the Vixen..keke
haha hardwarezone, comparing 10 sites is really hardcore manz.
I stopped at 2.

[Sivakis]

hi hi thanks for all the advise.
aha guys: my significant other like to see chicks more, no need bino.
Anyways I intend to convert him to see nightsky, hopefully lah...
not sure how long this can last, he was there at the TPY session and amazed, he amazed but actually I am overwhelmed at all the equipment "available" and cost.
Feels like going sim lim buy computer like tat. all the talk and compare specs, I been reading a few days and the proposed budget from 100 to 200 and now edging towards 300, I think I have to think about size if can carry or not. I was thinking try at the playground with the kids at my block there and my bro also can see. so more ppl can help me with the equipment.
Thanks guys, I will read to see if what MAK and vixen is, for now Galileo is out liao. Very tempted to go beyond 70 after reading the reviews...signz.
AStro master 114 AZ at $329 sing seems like something I might shortlist, but I think I go read the MAk and the Vixen..keke
haha hardwarezone, comparing 10 sites is really hardcore manz.
I stopped at 2.

Hi Jeannie

I can relate to the confusion from the tons of information available. If you ever get the feeling that you're changing your mind from one day to the next, then yeah, been there.
But if that happens, it also is an indicator that perhaps, you shouldn't be jumping in yet. The worst thing to happen is to decide and buy something only to realise later that it couldn't do what you had hoped for. Money, time, frustration etc then leads to a drop in enthusiasm.

E.g. the Celestron Astromaster 114AZ, while affordable, is also what's commonly referred to as a "Bird-Jones" scope.
If you understand how Newtonians work, light enters the opening of the OTA (Optical Tube Assembly), hits the primary mirror at the back and is reflected onto the secondary mirror. The secondary mirror is diagonal which then reflects the light to the eyepiece. In this form, all is well and good. Newtonians offer the best bang for the buck because of its simplicity. However, some maintenance is required. The primary and secondary mirrors can become misaligned and will require "collimation", the technique of re-aligning the primary and secondary mirrors to be centered for proper viewing. This is still okay, it's not exactly rocket-science.
To talk about Bird-Jones designs, we first understand the corelation between OTA length and Focal Length. FL basically is an indication of the magnification and field of view. The OTA length is, well, the length of the tube assembly. Normally these 2 would correspond. An OTA with an FL of 600 should have an OTA length of 600, or thereabouts. For Bird-Jones designed scopes, the OTA length is halved. They then overcome the shortage through a "barlowed focuser" to magnify the image from the secondary mirror.
The advantage to this design is portability. It's smaller, lighter and easier to carry around.
The disadvantage is during collimation. Because the barlowed-focuser can be difficult to remove, trying to align the primary and secondary can be tedious since any adjustments will result in 2x the effect. You may find yourself spending considerable time and frustration at this stage.
Oh, and a scope ideal for Moon + planet viewing may not be ideal for wide-field star-gazing. Can't have the best of both worlds... sadly...

But that's just pre-empting you on what to expect of the 114AZ, in case you weren't aware of it. The seniors here have weighed in with their 2 cents and there's a lot of truth and hard-lessons they learnt (and got burnt probably lol...). I'm a part-time photographer and was shooting the night skies for a few years before deciding on my scope. I only recently bought a 2nd-hand refractor from one of the buddies here. (Resistance is futile!!) I've been there as well. Bit by the bug, wanting to buy a scope, searched everyday, read reviews, changed my mind, searched again, raised my budget, read bad reviews, searched again etc etc etc.

The MAK that Clifford60 was referring to is a Maksutov-Cassegrain and Vixen is a brand. There are basically 3 types of telescope designs - Refractors, Reflectors (aka Newtonians) and Cassegrains. For Cassegrains there are 2 designs - Maksutov and Schmidt. Both work in the same concept but with slightly different processes. Cassegrains are also very portable compared to the other 2.

I'm gonna stop here because I realise that I might end up confusing you even more! It's a brave new world out there but the sights to behold are unimaginable!

[orly_andico]

If you must, buy used. There's a lot of depreciation when you buy new.

If you must buy new, better to buy high end stuff. They don't depreciate as much.

Frankly you will most probably not be happy with what you can buy for 300. That is a very modest amount of money. Consider camera lenses, which are the same technology as telescopes. You can't buy anything but the most basic entry level lens for 300.

If your significant other is into photography I'm sure they'd be very familiar with how ex camera gear is.