How far can you see with a basic telescope maybe in the $200-400 range?

Question

Like can you see things just clearer, can you see the rings of saturn, can you see far off galaxies?

wat is the reasonable distance a telescope can go

Answer 1

a telescope with 525x magnification is 214 dollars
http://cgi.ebay.com/Bushnell-Northstar-Go-To-Star-Locator-Telescope-NEW_W0QQitemZ300103370878QQihZ020QQcategoryZ74930QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Answer 2

There are some good answers already here. There is also an answer to your question. The answer to your question is that the standard amateur objects are either Messier catalog objects (a list of just over 100 objects), and the distance of galaxies in the Messier Catalog is 50 to 100 million light years. Messier used a small refractor and most scopes in your price range would easily out perform his.

The "what's next" question is how many of the New General Catalog or NGC objects would you be able to see. This was a list of galaxies and other deep sky objects compiled in the last decades of the nineteenth century. NGC galaxies are typically in the 100 - to 250 million light year range (except for the Messiers, which are re-indexed in the NGC).

You may be able to catch a quasar with the 6 inch apertures that would be in your price range, particularly if you had a real good night in New Mexico where the skies are clear. In that instance, you would be seeing 2 BILLION light years.

In other words, the determining issue is the brightness of the objects. Quasars are among the brightest objects in the universe and hence it's easy to see them even when they are humongously far off. As for the rest, it's pretty easy to understand that while you can see a flashlight with a good telescope at ten miles, you can't see it at a thousand miles....but you probably could see a search light. The distance you see is a function of the size of the scope and the brightness of the object.

As a final point, people who are "into" telescopes understand that it is *the power to gather light*, not the distance or the magnification, that is the key function on which everything depends. My fourteen-inch telescope at 100 magnification will bring in far more information and detail than a four inch or six inch telecope (in the $200 to $400 range) would at 200 power. The reasons are associated with the laws of optics, and I'm sorry I can't write about that here. But suffice it to say that I have a four inch telescope mounted on my fourteen inch telescope and I see these principles demonstrated all the time. The four inch, operating at high magnification, cannot "see" nearly as well as the fourteen inch at low magnification.

Because the fourteen inch can gather quite a bit of light, I don't need to go to the ultra clear skies of New Mexico to catch a quasar or two. I can do it from the relatively poor skies of New York State. So I can see quasars at 2 billion light years, galaxies from 3 to 250 million light years, globular clusters from 10,000 to 3 million light years (Andromeda G1, a globular cluster orbiting the Andromeda galaxy), planets whose distance can be measured in hundreds of millions of miles, and the bird across the lake. Size and brightness of the object, in conjunction with the size of the telescope, determine the limits of detection.

Answer 3

"How far you can see" isn't the best way to think of it. The reason is, something could be close, but so small or dim that it's difficult to see, while another thing could be much farther, but so large and bright that it's easy to see.

It's better just to ask "what can you see with...?"
The more aperture a telescope has, the more light it will collect, and the more you can see.

New telescopes in the $200-$400 range will generally include 80mm to 120mm refractors, 4.5" equatorial mounted reflectors, and 4.5" to 8" dobsonian mounted reflectors.

A 4.5" reflector with a decent focal length and the right eyepiece will allow you to see the rings on saturn, as will a 120mm refractor. You will be able to see some detail on Jupiter and Mars as well, but just barely. You will be able to see a few nebula, and just make out of a few bright galaxies, which will appear as blurry smudges. You will also be able to see many star clusters.

The amount of detail you see on the planets, and in star clusters, and the amount of galaxies you can see and how bright they appear, increase with the aperture of the telescope, so naturally, you can see a heck of a lot more with an 8" telescope than you can with a 4.5" telescope. The 8" will collect almost 4 times more light.

For about $500 you can buy a 10" Zhummell Dobsonian. A 10" telescope is usually considered a light bucket, meaning, it's suitable for serious deep space (galaxy) viewing.

If you buy used, you get a lot more for your money. You could find a 10" german equatorial mounted Meade Starfinder for around $300-$400.

Answer 4

It's not so much a question of how far as how dim, as there are relatively bright galaxies millions of light years away that you can see in a small telescope, and very dim nebulae within a few hundred light years that require a large telescope to see.

How much you can see depends mainly on the aperture of the telescope, that is, the diameter of its main lens or mirror. A larger aperture gives you a view that is both brighter and sharper than a smaller aperture. Pay no attention to advertised magnification - you can get any magnification you need with the right eyepieces. Telescopes advertised by magnification are almost always cheap junk.

On a limited astronomy budget, there's always a trade-off between features and optics - you can buy a tiny telescope with computer control, or you can buy a much larger one that's fully manual. So to see more stuff without breaking the bank, you have to be willing to work at learning how to find things. You also have to realize that optical quality counts, and do some research into what's good and what isn't. I recommend the Yahoo telescopes group ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/telescopes/ ) and the forums at cloudynights.com for advice and informed opinions.

Answer 5

Well, you can see the Andromeda Galaxy with the naked eye, and that's 2 million light years(!)

All kidding aside, you don't measure the worth of a telescope by how far you can see (since you can see pretty much an infinite distance) nor even by the magnification. With any reasonably good astronomical telescope, you can increase the magnification as much as you like by switching to a shorter focal length eyepiece. Generally this will turn that small, bright fuzzy blob you're looking at into a big, dim fuzzy blob.

The way to make that blob less fuzzy is with APERTURE, which is the diameter of the telescope. The bigger the tube, the more light it gathers, and the sharper the image, meaning that you can drive it to higher and higher magnifications without losing detail.

Even a fairly inexpensive telescope in the $200-$400 range will enable you to see the rings of Saturn, the four largest moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and fantastic views of craters on the Moon. Good luck!

Answer 6

To answer your question directly, yes you can see the rings of Saturn or some distant galaxies. However there are numerous factors that limit what you can see with any telescope.
Aperture is the biggest factor among physical equipment. The larger the aperture the more light gathering power you will see (larger price tag too). Optics quality is another factor. The greater the quality of your optics the more expensive the equipment.
With a less expensive scope you WILL see the rings of Saturn. With a larger telescope with superior optics you will also see the divisions between the rings (Cassinni Division, etc). With a less expensive scope you will see the Andromeda Galaxy (M32), with bigger scope and better optics you can see the Whirlpool Galaxy, or the Crab Nebula (M1) in Taurus.
So to answer your question directly yes you can see the rings of Saturn or distant galaxies with a scope in your price range. But remember light gathering capability and not power is the most important factor in a telescope purchase.

Answer 7

the thing you want to look at most is the base for one a sturdy base is best. and a lot of times the smaller the lens the better because the atmospheric distortion will not affect it as much. So it depends on the telescope but with a $30 one from walmart can see things very clearly with a good base. you can see the rings of Saturn you can see galaxies, and yes they tend to be able to see things crisper and clearer.

Answer 8

A 4.5 inch reflector will show you nice views of Saturn and its rings and its moon Titan. Jupiter's surface and the four large Galilean moons are easy, also.

Actually, to see three big galaxies, you just need binoculars.

Look at the teapot shape made by the constellation Sagitarius. You are looking at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy is a giant close companion of our galaxy. To find it, find the "W" of Cassiopia. Split the largest "V" with an imaginary line and follow the point of the "V" to a cloudy spot just one "W" length from the point of the "v." That is the center of their galaxy. The third binocular galaxy is Messier 81 (pronounced "Mess-ee-ay"). I will leave it to you to find this star cloud floating in space.

How far away are looking at these? Jupiter is 30 light minutes away, Saturn about 100 light minutes, the center of our galaxy, about 30,000 light years and the Andromeda galaxy is about 2,000,000 (two million) light years away. Pretty cool, huh?

Jamey

Answer 9

Back when i swam for high school we did anywhere from 3000 to 10000 meters (10000 during christmas and thanksgiving break on doubles) I started off bad as f*** freshmen year of high school only capable of doing less then 1000 in a practice. I did a 50 free in 46 seconds, 50 butterfly in about a minute ten, and wasnt able to do a breaststroke properly. Overtime I got better, towards the end i gained a school record, many medals, and missed states by 1 seconds on the 200 free. gets ya in good shape, and even if you start off not so hot, practice will help a lot.

Answer 10

Galileo could see the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter with his equipment but don't expect them to be distinct. As to galaxies you may be able to see what look like smeared stars, those are galaxies. They were originally called nebulae because their shapes were nebulous it wasn't until relatively recently that we were able to determine that they were galaxies. You certainly won't see their structure.

Answer 11

Despite the name, telescopes do two things -- magnify and collect light. You have to ask yourself what you want to look at. Refractors principally magnify and are good for looking at planets. Reflectors collect light and are best for deep sky objects such as nebulae. Binoculars are a good alternative.