want buy a telescope for watching stars etc.? an amateur -?

Question

guide me to buy a good telescope and what r the technical aspects

Answer 1

Absolutely nothing is better than attending a star party and actually trying out a handful of different scopes.

Anyone who brings one is there to share and would be happy to tell you about their scope and its strengths and weaknesses.

When buying something that enables you to see, it is best to go and try them first rather than trying to visualize from a text description in a magazine or website.

Go to your local community college and ask when the next one is or maybe some libraries around would have a community board.

Answer 2

How much do you want to spend and what do you want to see?

Generally, a good telescope starts at around $400.

The most impotant aspect of a telescope is it's aperture. This is the diameter of the primary mirror or lens. The more aperture a telescope has, the more light it will collect, and the more you will be able to see. Larger aperture also allows you to use higher powered eyepieces and still get a decent image. Most viewing is done with quality low powered lenses though because high power isn't always favorable or neccisary.

Avoid those department store telescopes that tout "900X power!" If you did try to use such a high magnification eyepiece in them, you'd get a horrible blurry image.

If you want to see any deep space object like galaxies, don't buy anything smaller than 4.5" in aperture, but even this is pushing it. To see a lot of galaxies though, the bigger the better. These telescopes will usually be reflectors or Schmidt Cassegrains.

If you don't care for galaxies and mainly just want to see planets and star clusters, an 80mm apochromatic recfractor will do nicely. The reflectors and Schmidt Cassegrains will offer nice images of star clusters and planets too though. You should really research the different types of telescopes befor you buy.

Good brands that produce fairly affordable telescopes are Celestron, Mead, and Orion. Try to void the department store versions of these brands, and also try to avoid Bushnell and Tasco. You can also save a lot of money buying used telescopes instead of new.

You can find used telescopes in the classifeds on www.astromart.com and www.cloudynights.com

Answer 3

I'd recommend starting with a good pair of binoculars and a book about what you can see with your binoculars.

I'd also recommend finding an amateur astronomy club in your area. They often have "star parties" open to the public, where they bring out their telescopes and let folks look through them. You can get a feel for what the different telescopes are like, and talk with lots of people who love astronomy.

I've seen too many people buy a cheap telescope from WalMart, try it for a few nights, and get frustrated that they can't see things like what the Hubble Space Telescope sees, and give up entirely. That's why I recommend starting small, and starting with a book or help from others!

Answer 4

My first telescope was a 5 inch Newtonian reflector. This size telescope is absolutely perfect for looking at the moon. You can observe individual craters if you use the highest magnification. It is also good to observe Jupiter and Saturn. You can easily make out Jupiter's 4 largests moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Saturn is absolutely beautiful, you can make out the rings and everything. Obviously it isn't going to be as detailed as say an image from the Hubble, but it is gorgeous non the less.

This size i believe would be ideal for the keen amateur astronomer.

Answer 5

Things to consider:

Edit: Don't dismiss the possibility of using a pair of binoculars, much cheaper, and you get a nice intro into the night sky with them. And like teh above said, city lights do hinder what you can see, but when I lived in Philadelphia, seeing the Orion Nebula, or Jupiters clouds is possible with a very basic ($100.00) scope. But you won't see as much as if you were in teh country far from light. Which is why if you have to travel to view the sky, taht is one thing to consider, portability is the telescope.

1) what do you plan to use it for (moon, planets, deep sky objects such as nebula).
2) how much room do you ahve to store it.
3) how much are you willing to spend?

There are 3 basic types of telescopes:
1) Newtonian Reflectors: long tubes with big diameters, one end is open, and you look through an eye piece near 2/3 of the way up the tube. This scope uses mirrors to focus the light. These are very basic telescopes and easy to use, normally best for deep sky observing. The bigger the diameter, the more the scope will cost, but you will be able to see much more fainter objects.
2) Refractors: these are the long telescopes with small diameters, are are just like the collapsing scopes sailors use. They use glass lenses to focus light and make it observable. Typically these are great for observing the planets and the moon. They can also be used for deep sky objects.
3) Schmidt-Cassegrain: This is a hybrid telescope. It has mirrors and lenses and is becoming very popluar. This scope is equally suited for deep sky and planetary observations, but is much more expensive than the refractors and reflectors for a begionner scope.

For stands for the scopes. There are also various options, from a simple swivel tripod, to a equatorial tripod (tracks stars for you based on the earth's rotation using counter weights) to computer driven gears. Again, different prices and uses will determine what you want to get. The computer gears are very nice in allowing the computer to track your objects for you so you just watch, great for taking pictures too. But these are expensive.

Go to www.meade.com for alot mroe information. ENjoy.

Answer 6

If u are living in a city the city lights will make it difficult. I tried with my granddaughter in the D.C. area and was very disappointed.

Answer 7

i don't know the best, but find out and buy one. you can watch the next moon landing from your back yard.