What is a good telescope to buy ?

Question

I live in NYC and thankfully near the airport, which allows me to have a pretty clear view of the night sky. I was wondering what is a good telescope to buy in which I can see other planets. My budget is $1500.00. Anyone has any recommendations ? I am new to the field of Astronomy and was wondering if their were any enviromental factors that would constrict my views ?

I want to see Saturn with a telescope is that possible at all ?

Answer 1

First off, to really see anything, you will have to travel to the suburbs, or further to see much other than the planets you can see with your naked eye. Maybe hook up with a club. Fortunately, the NYC metro area has some good ones, within 1-2 hours of NYC.
If you want to see deep space, get a 10" dob
http://www.discovery-telescopes.com/discovery/pdhq.html
If quality isn't as important as size... get a 12"
http://www.discovery-telescopes.com/celestron/c-starhop.html
This is a big refractor...
http://www.celestron.com/c2/product.php?ProdID=431
I personally like to travel light and use both eyes... I have some "so-so" binoculars
http://www.bigbinoculars.com/2080t.htm
with this mount...
http://www.bigbinoculars.com/tmount.htm
I can see a lot with them.
These guys have nice binoculars too.
http://www.telescope.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=18
Binoculars can be used for so much more... You can see the rings of Saturn in a pair of $110 12x60's...

Answer 2

I took the picture of Saturn in the first source with a 6 inch telescope and a webcam.

There are many good telescopes that size for your price range. See the last 2 sources.

By the way, using a telescope is not as easy as many people think. Just getting the object in the field of view and keeping it there is a major problem for most beginners. They spend a bunch on a telescope and don't know the constellations and so can't point it and get frustrated and sell it on eBay for half what they paid for it. So you might want to start small and simple. Even the smallest telescope will show Saturn's rings, so you don't need to spend $1,500 to start. There are good beginner telescopes for $300 or even less. Of course they won't be computer controlled, which means it will be even more important for you to get a star atlas and learn the constellations. No all of them, but the bright ones that you can see in that ridiculously bright city sky you have there.

Answer 3

With $1500 you can buy a very nice telescope. Especially if you buy it used. For example, used, you can find a computerized Meade 10" LX200, which is a serious telescope, but can be intimidating for people new to the hobby. New, you might be able to find a computerized 8"

Befor you buy though, you need to learn more about telescopes.

Telescopes do two things to help you see objects. They brighten them, and help to magnify them. The larger the aperture of the telescope, that is, the larger the diameter of the telescope's lens or mirror, the more light it can collect. Most things in space aren't small, they're just dim, so most viewing is done with low magnification.

If you want to mainly look at galaxies, you would want a telescope with a large aperture. Most people who do serious deep space viewing use a telescope of at least 10" of aperture (you can see the brightest galaxies with 4.5" of aperture and dark skies though).

If you mainly want to look at planets, aperture isn't so important because most planets are bright enough. In fact people with large telescopes usually use something to dim the planets when viewing them. What is more important in planetary viewing is magnification. In fact this is one the only times you will find high magnification suitable.

To view planets you would want a telescope with a long focal length. This is the distance between the lens or mirror, and where it focuses the light. In non-folded type telescopes, this is generally the length of the tube. magnification is given by this equation:

magnification = (telescope focal length)/(eyepiece focal length)

High magnification is challenging though. The atmospheric conditions on both planets have to be perfect and more often than not you won't get good views and if you do get a good view it will only be for a few seconds. If you want to dedicate yourself to planetary viewing you would want a good apochromatic refractor. Though you would still get nice views in a decent newtonian reflector or a schmidt cassegrain.

This website illustrates different types of telescopes:
http://members.aol.com/siriusbc/telescopes.htm

Answer 4

I'd recommend an 8 inch Celestron. Yes, you can see Saturn with that. And it's still portable, so you can go find somewhere darker than the airport to set it up. You can also see most other planets, stars, galaxies, and nebula.

Light pollution will be a significant problem near NYC, and lead to high sky brightness which means you won't be able to see the fainter objects, like galaxies. But you really can't get around that in NYC anyway, so be prepared to drive out to the upstate somewhere.

Answer 5

I would get the largest aperture telescope you can afford like what has already been suggested. However, you can see Saturn's rings with almost any small telescope on the market.

Assuming that you are a beginner with telescopes though, I would go for a large 8-10 inch dobsonian....they are very user friendly.

DO NOT buy any telescope that uses eyepieces that have a .965 barrel. The standard size eyepiece is 1.25 inch or 2 inch barrel, depending on the size of your telescope. If you get one that uses the smaller .965 eyepieces you are severely limiting yourself with any future upgrades that you may want to make.

Answer 6

Celestron has in my opinion about the best name in telescopes. I have the Firstscope 114 eq, compact. It sold for aroung $200-$300. It is a Newtonian reflector (see note below***), vs refracting telescope, and it's done the job for me. 4.5" aperture, 1,000mm focal length, two eye-pieces, slow motion cable control, equatorial mount on its own tripod. Celestron puts it at the top of the quality list of their entry level telescopes.

I would steer you toward the Celestron C10-N GT Reflector, well within your budget, I've seen on sale for $1,200-$1,300.

Check 'em out: www.celestron.com or www.celestron.telescope.com

(Excerpt from website):
If you want a dual-purpose telescope appropriate for both terrestrial and celestial viewing, then the refractor models are for you. Refractors produce bright, clear images of the moon and planets as well. It is easy to see the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn with every one of these fine instruments.

NOTE *** For better views of the brighter deep space objects like galaxies and nebulae, then the larger aperture and light gathering ability of the Newtonian Reflectors are a better choice.

Newtonians reflectors (also known as catoptrics) usually use a concave parabolic primary mirror to collect and focus incoming light onto a flat secondary (diagonal) mirror that in turn reflects the image out of an opening at the side of the main tube and into the eyepiece.

Hope that helps you and happy gazing!

Answer 7

I purchased a 10' Newtonian reflecting telescope about two years ago, and I've been quite happy with it.

It's an Orion SkyQuest XT10, I believe, and it ran me about eight-hundred dollars.

Bummer you live in New York though. It'll be bloody near impossible to ever get any clear viewing conditions. I live in rural Texas and still run into problems with light pollution occasionally.

Edit: And by the way, you can see Saturn's rings perfectly with the scope.

Answer 8

Environmentally, you are in the exactly wrong place on the planet earth. You want altitude (thinner air), clear air (not urban) and away from lights (not urban or anywhere near urban). All this is crushingly important if you are a deep space jock looking for time photos of some distant galaxy. Just looking for the planets, the reference to a 4 inch refractor is excellent. But, as you get in deeper, start thinking about a remote mountain top in New Mexico.

Answer 9

If you ever want to truly witness the magnificence of the universe, NYC will only allow you a minor glimpse into space due to all the light sources.

Looking up into the night sky in Wyoming will leave you in awe. Don't blow your budget just yet. Get a modest telescope for now. You'll probably find local voyeurism more appealing than what the night sky of NYC will offer.

Answer 10

Most of the answers here are good, but I would find a star party in you area and check out the scopes there and talk to the people.
The biggest problem you have is what every one has mentioned "light pollution". Checkout Clear Sky Clock they have a light pollution map that may help you to find out the best area around you to observe.
You may even want to look into binoculars till you decide to jump in and buy a scope.