telescope question?

Question

what is the best telescope I can get with $200 or $300? what will I be able to see with it?

Answer 1

As most of your responders have suggested, serious astronomy requires serious money. But there actually are some decent telescopes available for $300. Not great but decent.

This is under $200 and is an adequate instrument.

http://www.telescopes.com/products/celestron-firstscope-114-eq-short-newtonian-reflector-5936.html

It ships with everything you will need. You will easily see Jupiter and 4 of its moons, Saturn and its rings and 4 of its moons. You will be able to see globular clusters, some galaxies if the skies are sufficiently dark, the phases of venus, and even double stars. Now a note of caution. This is a newtonian and will require recolmination occasionally (realigning of the mirrors).

http://www.telescopes.com/products/celestron-firstscope-114-eq-short-newtonian-reflector-5936.html

This site also has other more expensive telescopes to drool over.

Answer 2

The best telescope you can get for $200-$300 is that one you didn't buy and instead saved until you could buy one for $300-$400

What you can get depends on if you want to buy it used or new and what special features you want or don't want. Any type of GoTo system or bells and whistles is going to translate into a smaller telescope, meaning you won't be able to see as much. Sure that GoTo system may have 30,000 objects in it, but in a dinky little telescope you aren't going to see them all! I'll bet most of the objects are stars which look all the same anyway.

New, the largest telescope you can buy for around $300 is a 6" Dobsonian. You can buy an 8" one if you go a little over $300.

With a 6" or 8", under a dark calm skies and with good eyepieces and some patience, you will be able to see a few cloud bands on Jupiter and some of it's moons, the rings around Saturn, the Cassini Division in the rings, some detail on Mars, including the icecap, and you will be able to spot Mercury, Venus, and Uranus too but you won't be able to see any detail really. You will be able to see many many star clusters, a few nebula, especially with the right filter, and a few galaxies but most won't be particularly impressive. The 8" will collect 1.78 times more light than the 6" so will allow you to see more. It'd be worth the money to buy the 8".

If you buy used, the largest you will be able to afford an 8" Schmidt Cassegrain, maybe a 10" Dobsonian, or sometimes you can find a 10" Newtonian such as a Meade Starfinder on a german equatorial mount. The 10" Dobsonian will allow you to see all that the smaller telescopes will and more. You will be able to see more detail on the planets, more nebula, more detail in the nebula, more star clusters, more galaxies, and more detail in the galaxies.

The downfall to Dobsonians is you can't do astrophotography or any type of tracking with them. You will have to keep moving the telescope to keep things in view. For tracking and astrophotography you need someone on a good german equatorial mount or something on a specially equiped fork mount. Most Schmidt Cassegrains are on a fork mount.

So if you don't want to do astrophotography and want to spend your time just looking through the eyepiece, get an 6", 8" or 10" Dobsonian depending on if you buy new or used.

If you do want to do astrophotography, buy used and get an 8" Newtonian on a very steady German Equatorial mount, or an 8" Schmidt Cassegrain on a fork mount and get a wedge or field derotator if it doesn't come with one.

Good german equatorial mounts are usually made by Vixen, Losmandy, and CG type mounts, for example, the CG-5.

You can find used telescopes at http://www.astromart.com
You can find new telescopes at http://www.oriontelescopes.com
and http://www.telescopes.com

Answer 3

Go to Ebay.com

Search on the beginning screen for Reflector Telescopes.

That is the best kind of telescope you can buy. What you should seek is any unit that has a mirror larger than 6" .....say 8". Never point this scope at the sun. Look for a package offer that includes several eye pieces - the more the merrier.

Watch out for shipping costs which can get pretty high for something like this. Only purchase a "new telescope." Be careful to note where the scope is that you are bidding on. Shipping Costs from Europe and Asia to the USA can be as much as the scope itself.

Refractor telescopes are like the rifle scopes and spotting scopes you see advertised for hunters, etc. Those are limited in usefullness and get long and bulky as you get into the high powers necessary to see well into the stary sky. That is why I suggested you stick with Reflector Telescopes.

To get familiar with telescopes try visiting several Internet sites and sites operated by various sellers. That way you can get familiar with the component names and functions. Best to be educated in your buying.

Meade and some other companies make Reflector Telescopes which have folded optical paths to make the scopes shorter and less bulky to transport from here to there. Those are the cats meow when it comes to fine optical systems, but you will pay a high price for them.

Once you purchase and receive your telescope, always be extremely careful about capping off the eye piece opening and the sky view opening with clean closures of some type. Dust, trash, and dirt will ruin your nice new telescope when they get inside. Do not let dew form on the mirror or lens.

Answer 4

Look, people will tell you that it's a child's toy, and in comparison to telescopes some of us have used or built, it is. But it is far better than the naked eye. I would say if you are thinking about a telescope that size, you might consider a pair of binoculars. I don't know what price range you are talking about, but you should be able to find some decent second-hand ones with at least 50 mm lenses for the same price. Check it out on e-bay some time. I have seen lots of them there.

Answer 5

Astronomy is a wonderful hobby. Unfortunately it can be expensive. When it comes to telescopes if you cant afford a good one, don't bother wasting your money on a crappy one. The cheap, flimsy department store telescopes (priced around $150-$300) are of poor quality and will yield dissapointment.

I recommend a meade ETX type telescope. Expect to pay ~500.

Check out this ebay link for prices :

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Meade-ETX-90-EC-Telescope_W0QQitemZ110064123318QQihZ001QQcategoryZ74930QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Answer 6

I recommend binoculars. You'll be amazed at how much stuff you can see. And since they'e so portable, you'll use them a lot more than you would a telescope. I recommend a pair of 10x50's with porro prisms and "fully multicoated" optics. Get a book on binocular astronomy like the one by Patrick Moore.

Answer 7

At that price, not much more than the moon and a couple of planets...and even they won't look like more than like tiny orbs. Nebulae and galaxies would be too faint to see. You could see some loose star clusters otherwise.
You MIGHT find a Dobsonian that can see a little better...but you might find its mount frustrating.

Answer 8

You might do very well if you get a good used older scope without all the Go-To computerized features. Check a local club or www.astromart.com. If you want a brand new one, you'll be very disappointed.