I want to see neat things like comets, satellites, different types of stars, and planets! I would fall in love with this telescope if it was right. Please help me find this telescope. My budget is as said $80-$160. I am a beginner so I do not want something too crazy. I want to start out according to my status, in this case, a beginner. I am in the US and please help me find good stores and good telescopes!
2007-01-21 02:17:33 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Orion telescopes has some.
The first source is their selection of beginner telescopes.
The editors of Sky & Telescope magazine all liked the one in the second source.
2007-01-21 02:20:47 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I bought a ETX-70 with autostar computer. It is a telescope for beginner to advanced and has a computer in it that slews to the various night sky objects. Honestly I love my ETX-70 but I could not get the autostar feature whch has some 600 or so night sky objects programmed into it to work all that well and I aligned it correctly using alt/azimuth. However.....maybe my autostar computer that connects to the scope was defective because I have read many users with ETX 60's and 70's who love theirs and got it working great. With my Meade ETX 70 I regularly view Jupiter and all of its moons, Saturn when I can find it in the sky manually, I have seen Mars and Mercury with it. Nebulas like Orion nebula and beautiful views of the Pleides and of course the moon with great detail... You can buy barlow lenses 2x barlow to see things bigger or the various Meade lenses (the smaller the magnification the higher power) The Meade ETX comes with a 25mm and 9mm lense, the 9mm is great for the things I just mentioned above while the 25mm lens is for land viewing objects and to see those you will need an erecting prism because the Meade ETX is a reflector scope not a refractor so objects appear upside down. This does not matter a whole when viewing night sky objects but does matter when viewing land based objects.
2007-01-21 02:30:49 · answer #2 · answered by Jenny T 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure that any one telescope is ideal for all you want to do. At your price range, you'll have to really think about this and do some research. I strongly suggest that you buy quality optics at your price point, not some wacky WalMart special that promises to deliver the stars and gives you blurries.
This being the case, you can do some reasonable viewing with binoculars and spotting scopes, especially if used with a decent tripod. Of course, your dollar figures are still at the low end for decent stuff.
I bought a Celestron C90 MAK for reasons similar to yours, but also wanted terrestrial viewing, and have been reasonably happy with it. It sells for around $130, but you'll need to budget for a good tripod too. I'm not saying this scope is THE solution for you, just an option.
Do some research at places like Sky & Telescope (http://skytonight.com/), Astronomy.com (http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=ss&id=9), or Cloudy Nights (http://www.cloudynights.com/).
http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=askastronomer&Number=389666&page=5&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=
You might consider renting time online for observation on pro-level telescopes that do astrophotograhy. This is not direct viewing but you say where you want it to point and it takes the picture(s) and makes it available to you.
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/nov/23/views-space-available-rent-online/
http://www.global-rent-a-scope.com/FAQ/
Finally, you might find something you like in the form of a kit or set of plans that you build yourself.
2007-01-21 02:44:55 · answer #3 · answered by mattzcoz 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Can't you get more creative than to just buy something new from a store? People buy telescopes, use them once and soon find out that they still can't see more than just more star dots, and then they collect dust. For your tiny budget, look around for something used.
2007-01-21 02:27:19 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I got my husband on at Wal-Mart (usually near the optical department) We have had it a few years, unfortunately, he has never used it because we live in the city and it never gets dark enough to really be able to use it.
2007-01-21 02:26:11 · answer #5 · answered by busyscrappin 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You can get some pretty good deals on ebay from actual companies selling brand new products
2007-01-21 04:42:56 · answer #6 · answered by Goo 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
try to find one on ebay
2007-01-21 02:23:17 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋