Spotting Scope for Astronomy

Kelvin · Post by **Kelvin** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 12:42 pm

I have told you....why dun you believe me? You can hunt for at least 20-30 messier objects wtih your scope.

hey

, you right, i shouldn't be complanting about my scope... but i complainting about painful necks and straining eyes

Me just join the NYP Astro club and hope they take me on field trips with my Spotting scope, maybe i learn some stuff yeah! :o

Post by **VinSnr** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 1:16 pm

Kelvin wrote:Heads up rookies astros, i just came across a magic thing that will take wawy the pain of buying a scope.

This camcorder by Canon has 10x optical zoom and 500x digital zoom!!
WOW ! i can see the pluto about the size of a football is it??

Could someone enlighten me on the 500x or 800x digital zoom magic ?

digital zoom is basically useless. You can do the same thing by loading that picture into Photoshop and just zoom up that thing.

Yes you can a big picture with digital zoom...but also a super blur picture with no resolution. It's optical zoom that is important...not digital.

Kelvin · Post by **Kelvin** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 1:51 pm

OK, wow then it's the same as using a photoshop to zoom on the image, that is so lame :|

why did they invent something like that??

Back to my scope, recently i seen something like eletro-bincolars with image stabiler. (no more shaky images) on the Sky and Telescope magzine.
Does anyone own it ? It is that good?

Post by **Airconvent** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 8:57 pm

Kelvin wrote:OK, wow then it's the same as using a photoshop to zoom on the image, that is so lame :|

why did they invent something like that??

Back to my scope, recently i seen something like eletro-bincolars with image stabiler. (no more shaky images) on the Sky and Telescope magzine.
Does anyone own it ? It is that good?

the cheapest ones can be bought for around $120 but I'm sure the optics may not be up to standard and the aperture too small (35mm).
I suppose the canon, by virtual of their brand name, should be good ...

rich

Post by **Airconvent** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:00 pm

Kelvin wrote:Heads up rookies astros, i just came across a magic thing that will take wawy the pain of buying a scope.

This camcorder by Canon has 10x optical zoom and 500x digital zoom!!
WOW ! i can see the pluto about the size of a football is it??

Could someone enlighten me on the 500x or 800x digital zoom magic ?

bad move...a camcorder is essentially meant for video in which imperfections are easily tolerated. They are not meant for quality photographs.
Up to x10 optical may be ok but definitely x500 zoom is useless. Imagine the CCD has limited pixels and now you zoom in 500 times...how many pixels are there left??

richj

Kelvin · Post by **Kelvin** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 7:02 pm

Anyway, try using your spotting scope more offen and get familiar with the sky first using star charts. Remember, without the knowledge, it will be useless even you have a larger scope.

Ypu right, the my Sch Astro Club is processing my admin, I hope !
So i can make full use of my spotting scope without people asking me if i Tom Cruise or Some CIA agent.

The only pain is my neck when gazing over 50 degrees up.

Post by **Airconvent** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 12:22 am

Kelvin wrote: The only pain is my neck when gazing over 50 degrees up.

That is what a 90 deg diagonal is for but spotting scopes are typically less than 45 deg...