clueless on telescopes!?

[Oda Nobunaga]

hi there astronomers...oda here n im kinda lost with wat telescope i should buy! i've been to many websites n recently went down to astro scientific centre to check out the goods...but was clueless as to wat telescope i should get. some gd people tell me that i should go get a 2nd hand one but i prefer a new one. i was thinking of gettin' this one

http://www.telescopes.com/telescopes/re ... escope.cfm

or maybe this one,


http://www.telescopes.com/telescopes/re ... escope.cfm

but still not confident enough bout the specs. some say that gettin' one with GoTo is gd but some say dun...so im kinda confused! really, really need advice on wat kinda telescope i should buy!!

[Zephyrus]

Hi Oda,

You should be getting at least a 4" in Singapore. I'd recommend you to take a look at Astrobargains' catalogs instead, since they have a wider selection. They also give you great advice, compared to salesmen who are just out to make sales. The last time I went to make a purchase as Joo Beng (Astrobargain)'s house, I had a long and nice chat with him. Prices are rather decent as they are slightly lower than trying to ship the items in by yourself from online retailers.

Anyway for your scope choices, GOTO is a neat feature to have, but aperture is your priority in Singapore skies. Every aperture counts, so try to get a scope with 4" or more to be doing proper Astronomy here. Otherwise, I'm sure you'll be thinking of upgrading your scope within months. Another thing about getting the NexStar GOTO, you're probably going to change your mount once you upgrade your scope since the mount capacity is only good for the weight of the 80mm scope that comes with it.

I bought a 5" mak, and I've loved it ever since. I've been spending money on accessories more than on trying to get a new scope. The latest accessory I'm getting is the WO dielectric 1.25" diagonal for better performance. Talking about 2nd hand scopes, I got my entire setup for $750. It came along with a Manfrotto 055c tripod and 410 gear head that costs about $400 (for both) brand new. The OTA was practically going for $350. It also came with 25mm and 10mm plossls.

About having GOTO... Indeed, it's a neat thing to have, but it's also troublesome to align. Also, the NexStar GOTO mount that you're looking at, slow-motion and manual control of the scope is not possible without battery. So, it'll be a hassle when you want to find objects by yourself and your mount happens to run out of battery (it runs on 8 AA batt). Depending on personal preferences, finding objects by yourself can be really fun and something that keeps you in the hobby.

I remembered when I started out last July, I got a pair of 8x42mm binoculars and a David Chandler planisphere and set a floor mat on the Buangkok MRT open field and starting scanning the sky for celestial objects. I found Andromeda on my binoculars and it was the first galaxy I viewed. When you find objects by yourself, it's an estatic feeling that no GOTO mounts can give you. Some of the more experienced astronomers in Singastro such as rlow are great human "GOTOs".

In future, if you really prefer GOTO, I suggest you get EQ mounts instead which have a heavier capacity. I recently got my SkyView Pro mount in April, and it has a Intelliscope Push-To system. What I really wanted was it's motor drives, to help me track objects. The Push-To computer helps me to find objects too, by telling me where to push. I decided to get it because I didn't want to get GOTO, which I know will kill my hobby for sure.

Anyway, what's your budget? Let me know and I can probably help you come up with a list of decent scopes that could be keepers, like my 5" sky-watcher mak, as well as a list of accessories such as skymaps for you to get started with.

Regards,
Zane

[Meng Lee]

Hi,

Sorry, let me use this thread to vent my fustration on something:

Whoever has been recommending PowerSeeker telescopes to beginners, please wake up, otherwise this person is either trying to let beginners learn astronomy in one of the hardest possible way or trying to terminate interest in astronomy in beginners.

Thanks for the cooperation.

Meng Lee

[VinSnr]

Hi,

Sorry, let me use this thread to vent my fustration on something:

Whoever has been recommending PowerSeeker telescopes to beginners, please wake up, otherwise this person is either trying to let beginners learn astronomy in one of the hardest possible way or trying to terminate interest in astronomy in beginners.

Thanks for the cooperation.

Meng Lee

That 80mm refractor look quite decent......but I think the mount can be tossed.

[Meng Lee]

The OTA is decent but the indecent 5x24 finderscope (with a field stop inside, so effectively it is 5x15) and the diagonal that causes significant dimming of images can also be tossed.

ML

[Zephyrus]

Hi Oda,

Since your budget is around S$700, you can consider getting the Orion StarBlast 6. It's a really easy to use scope whereby you don't even need to turn knobs to control where your scope is pointing. You simply just push your scope to where you want it to be. It's focal length is 750mm, so the 10mm Plossl gives you 75x magnification, and the 25mm gives you 30x magnification.

Since you mentioned that you want to look at galaxies, I'd like to tell you that in Singapore, unless you have a 10" and above aperture, it's rather hard to observe galaxies since they are really dim, and we are in a heavily light-polluted city. Of course, that's why I recommended you the StarBlast 6 since there's nothing to assemble, and it's really portable so you can bring it along with you for trips to Malaysia. You'll be able to observe galaxies much better in dark viewing conditions such as in Malaysia. I've joined rlow once in his monthly trips, and it was awesome as I observed and handtracked the ring nebula through his 11" at 200x magnification.

Learn how to locate celestial objects using the aid from planetarium softwares, starcharts etc. and you should be able to find them by yourself in no time. Also, the 6" would be really decent for you to observe planets such as Jupiter, as well as star clusters such as Omega Centauri which I've observed on my 5" before. Like I said, every aperture counts in Singapore, so what I see on my 5", will be slightly brighter on your 6" and you'll resolve more dimmer objects on your 6" compared to my 5". Although for a beginner, there isn't much difference since you won't be able to recognise any of those dimmer objects anyway.

For ordering, you may choose to import direct from Orion's website, or you may contact Joo Beng from Astro Bargains for a quotation on how much the scope would cost you after shipping.

Regards,
Zane

[noelsky]

i'm new here and i want to start a new hobby. astrology somehow fascinates me lately and i'd like to buy a telescope. is Meade ETX-125PE - 5" f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain with UHTC ok for beginners like me?

thanks!

[acc]

http://www.singastro.org/web/mediawiki/ ... _Equipment

[superiorstream]

Hi,Bothg newcomer and experienced sifu
Recently come across the new telescope from celestron--the omni 150-a 150mm f/5 refractor with a internet price tag of only us$999.If any newbie have a budget that should be a good starter.If it perform,easy access to star cluster etc. with that light collecting power.Any opinion or anyone with experiences on that scope?Celestron normally wont come out with things that destroy their name right?

[weixing]

Hi,

Hi,Bothg newcomer and experienced sifu
Recently come across the new telescope from celestron--the omni 150-a 150mm f/5 refractor with a internet price tag of only us$999.If any newbie have a budget that should be a good starter.If it perform,easy access to star cluster etc. with that light collecting power.Any opinion or anyone with experiences on that scope?Celestron normally wont come out with things that destroy their name right?

A large and fast achromatic Refractor is not for beginner unless you only interested in wide field observing. Also, this scope is quite heavy... at around 7kg for the OTA alone.

For beginner, it's always good to have a more general purpose scope, such as SCT, MCT, long focal ratio achromatic Refractor, APO Refractor and F5 and slower Newtonian.

Have a nice day.