Help!!! Need help finding a telescope!

[Extraterrestrial]

i'm also considering buying a scope, maybe we can go shopping together and bargain! but i want to play, play, touch, touch some scopes first. wanted to join the sp people, but it has been raining, cloudy all fridays.......

[MooEy]

a 2nd hand 410 geared head with a 2nd hand 190d will prolly cost u no lesser than 250, a well whipped up 2nd hand cheapo 80 f/5 will cost u maybe 200. that's seems below the 500 budget, but the diagonal, finder and eyepieces will set u back at least another $150. prolly in no lesser than 6months u will feel like getting better optics than that 80 f/5, sell and buy, until u get something decent, money wasted in the process.

if u ask me, i think the only type of scope with decent mount and optics less than 500 would be the dobsonians. 1 year back i remember seeing the celestron 4.5" dob selling for $475 at astro scientific. slighty more than what u would get if u buy it from oversea, but u get local warranty, not sure if they still selling at that price.

~MooEy~

[A 5 YeaR Old]

sounds pretty interesting, so is chinese made 'scopes or 'scopes from brands like orion or meade better in the sense of price and portability and quality

[weixing]

Hi,
Both "Made in China" and "Made in US" got scopes that are Portable.

Anyway, I had used quite a few "Made in China" scope (Sky-Watcher 127 MCT, Celestron 80mm F5 Refractor and Sky-Watcher 6" F5 Newtonian) and I must said that none of them was bad and the optics was quite good. I think the main different between them is quality control and the finish. Those "Made in US" scopes generally got more consistent quality and got better finish than the "Made in China" scopes.

Have a nice day.

[MooEy]

country where the scope is made used to be a big deciding factor. jap scopes are the best, us scopes would be somewhere mid range to gd, while china stuff are crap.

but it seems that nowadays the china stuff are getting better and better, while the mass market US scopes are becoming rubbish. often just china stuff with their big name on it.

if price isn't really that much of a concern, my recommendation is that u shop for proper equipment, maybe not the top end stuff, but reasonable quality. stuff that u will be keeping for a long long time.

it may seem crazy to fork out 2k+ for a 3" tak refractor, but considering that it will last u a long time, and the views would be at least 2-3x better than a cheapo chinese 3" achromat.

~MooEy~

[weixing]

Hi,

jap scopes are the best, us scopes would be somewhere mid range to gd, while china stuff are crap.

You seem to forget about Astro-Physics, Tele Vue, Teleport, Questar & etc etc Anyway, any of those high-end scopes that mention above will give you fantastic views and I think most of us won't be able to find fault with anyone of them.

Anyway, as I always recommend for newbie to get at least a 4" scope or the largest aperture scopes that he can afford and handle. Don't get an expensive scope that is smaller than 4" unless you can regularly go to dark site (such as Mersing) for observation. Remember, you can't see much with a scope that is smaller than 4" even it is a Tak in singapore light polluted sky.

Have a nice day.

[MooEy]

hmm..more or less looking at mass market stuff. and i also did mention mid range to gd. so brands like ap(if they ever exist in the past, maybe 15 years back) would be considered gd. celestron used to offer gd stuff back then, things like sp-c8.

quite disagree that a 3" cannot see much in sg. a 3" is 4 mag improvement over the naked eye wor, on an gd night can already see up to 7mag easily. in theory a 8" gives like 1.8mag improvement over the 3", but if u factor in other stuff, it's only abt 1.2-1.5mag difference.

alot of brighter and easier target are quite nice in a 3". most stuff visible in sg with a 8" sct will at least appear as a smudge in a 3".

~MooEy~

[weixing]

Hi,

hmm..more or less looking at mass market stuff. and i also did mention mid range to gd. so brands like ap(if they ever exist in the past, maybe 15 years back) would be considered gd. celestron used to offer gd stuff back then, things like sp-c8.

If you rate the scopes from Astro-Physics as mid range to good, I had nothing else to say.

quite disagree that a 3" cannot see much in sg. a 3" is 4 mag improvement over the naked eye wor, on an gd night can already see up to 7mag easily. in theory a 8" gives like 1.8mag improvement over the 3", but if u factor in other stuff, it's only abt 1.2-1.5mag difference.

If you just look at the numbers in the magnitude limit of a 3" and a 8" telescope, the different doesn't seem to be very much... the limit of a 3" scope is around magnitude 12 and a 8" scope is around magnitude 13.8... around 1.8 magnitude different. But if you look at the number of stars that you can see, it is quite an improvement. Below is a table that show number of stars that you can see (get in from some website):
Magnitude 11.5 -> 1,823,573 stars
Magnitude 12.5 -> 5,304,685 stars
Magnitude 13.5 -> 15,431,076 stars

alot of brighter and easier target are quite nice in a 3". most stuff visible in sg with a 8" sct will at least appear as a smudge in a 3".

That is the point. If a newbie buy an expensive 3" scope and see that he can only see a fussy patch, what will he think?? It may just kill off his interest in Astronomy.

By the way, I'm not saying the 3" Tak is not a good scope. In fact, I think it is a great scope! But I think it is more useful for more experience observer who know what he want or someone who can go to a very dark site for observation regularly.

Have a nice day.

[acc]

Hi,
That is the point. If a newbie buy an expensive 3" scope and see that he can only see a fussy patch, what will he think?? It may just kill off his interest in Astronomy.

Agree with Weixing. At 3" (Takahashi or otherwise), u go like this when viewing DSOs: "hmm, is it really there or am I seeing things?", "Gosh, its just a dim little smudge", "darn, see nothing". :oops:

At 5": "heh, I can make out some structure in the galaxy", "wow, the globular resolves into so many stars!"

[Q]

yes I have to agree, for new people, you need to generate the interest 1st, thus a bigger aperture is what you would need. In fact my interest in astronomy took off when I used the C8 to hunt for my 1st DSO; globular cluster, that is when I (like what acc said): wow, the globular resolves into so many stars! haha