i want to purchase a telescope?

Question

something that is fairly easy to use but not anything to basic i want something that will last me a while until im ready for a big daddy a plus would be that it can hook into a computer i want it to be as powerful as i can get it and what type of telescopes are there and which is better

Answer 1

The question is, how much are you willing to spend?

You can get a used computerized/computer ready 8" Meade or Celestron Schmidt Cassegrain for between $400-$900 used if you look on eBay or www.astromart.com. Most computer compatible telescopes you will find will be Schmidt Cassegrains. There are also a few Maksutov Cassegrains but they tend to be small in aperture (diameter of the primary mirror/lens) and so they collect less light and aren't suited for live deep space viewing. They do, however, offer very crisp views of starfields, star clusters, planets, and some nebula.

You'd probably be very happy with an 8" Schmidt Cassegrain with an astrophotography set up, because it's large enough for some deep space objects and the astrophotography will allow you to take pictures of things you can't actually see with your eyes.

Before you buy any telescope, you should read up on them. There are many websites with first time buyer guides.

Just to give you a run down:

Telescopes come in three general forms. Refractors, reflectors, and catadioptrics.

Refractors are probably what most people imagin when they think telescopes. They have a lens in the front and you view through the back. Refractors come in three varieties. Uncorrected, Achromatic, and Apochromatic. Because of the way lenses work, uncorrected telescopes will have chromatic abberation. This means that the image you see may have a red red on one side and blue on the other. Achromatics somewhat eliminate this and apochromatics almost entirely eliminate this. You can get an 80mm apochromatic for around $400 used.
Apochromatic reflectors are excellent for viewing star clusters and planets but are the most expensive and difficult to produce per inch of aperture so typically aren't suited for deep space.

Reflectors: These have a tube with a big parabolic mirror in the back which works like a satellite dish and bounces the light to a secondary near the front, and you typically view through the side near the front. The Hubble roughly falls into this catagory, as do most giant telescopes. They are the most cost effective and are well suited for deep space because they can be made very large.
Newtonians and Dobsonians are both reflectors. A Dobsonian is a Newtonian on a simple "alt azimuth mount" which sits on the ground, while other Newtonians are typically on german equatorial mounts, which is ideal for astrophotography.

Catadioptrics have a mirror in the back and a special lens called a corrector plate up front with a secondary mirror mounted on the back of the plate. The primary mirrors in the back are typically spherical (which is why a corrector plate is needed). Much like Newtonians, light enters the tube, is collected by the primary mirror in the back, and is bounced to the secondary mirror near the front, but in catadioptrics, the light is then typically bounced back down the tube and through a hole in the primary mirror. You view from the back of the telescope. The acception to this is the Schmidt Newtonian where you view like you would a Newtonian. Catadioptrics typically have long focal lengths in a compact tube (with the exception of the Schmidt Newtonian). This translates to sharper detail, narrower fields of view, and flatter images as compared with short focal length tubes which have wider fields of view, brighter images, less detail, and field distortion around the edges.

The most common catadiotrics are:
Schmidt Cassegrains
Maksutov Cassegrains
Ritchey Chritien<-Expensive.

These typically come on fork mounts if they're made by Meade and German Equatorial mounts if they're made by Celestron.

I hope that gets you started. The best telescope is the one that fits your budget and your needs.

Answer 2

sounds like a great idea try ebay and wikipedia for specs

Answer 3

this is my fav brand there are alot of models this is the middle class.

Answer 4

celestron nest star series is good!