What can I see with a 100x50mm refractor telescope?

Question

I want to purchase an inexpensive telescope but I still want to see planets. I have no idea what all the magifications and stuff means. Please help.

Thats awesome so I dont have to go out and buy a 200 dollar telescope. the one with the 100x50 is like 30 bucks. So im pretty happy. The reason why I really want one is all the hype about teh comet holmes.

so should i try to find a telescope with teh numbers closer together? so its not blurry?

Thank you so much everyone for your help...

my next question then i suppose is which of the ones on this site http://www.dunhamssports.com/family/index.jsp?filter=yes&fCat=702351&categoryId=702351&cp=1900623&fgender=&fbrandid=&fpricesort=priceAscending

do you think i should get. Im trying to stick under 100.00

Thanks again!

Answer 1

First you need a little more knowledge about how a telescope works and how to compare the technical numbers. A visit to the Televue website will help. http://www.televue.com/engine/page.asp?ID=139 (cut and paste into your browser goto window) This is only an article within the site, there is much more on the televue home page worth exploring.

When you see a telescope advertised with the power as a prominent number in the advertising specifications it most often means the telescope is "Junk". "Junk" telescopes try to impress you with a high power rating which is useless in practice. About 30 power per each inch of objective diameter is a practical limit. In the real world you will find getting past 200 or 250 power is not practical most of the time due to limitations of the atmosphere called "seeing". Also most of the objects you would look at will be observed using 100 power or so in a smaller scope (80mm to 100mm objective lens) and some items require low powers to get the big picture, like cruising the "Milky Way" or the "Pleiades" The proper description would have the objective lens diameter usually in millimeters and the focal length of the objective lens (an example would be 80mm X 800mm - which is F-10). Often the "focal ratio" is included which is the focal length of the objective lens divided by the diameter of the objective lens. I would not choose a telescope of less than 80mm to 100mm in a refractor and larger in a reflector type. How do you get "Power" in a telescope? It is a calculation derived by dividing the Focal length of the objective by the Focal length of the eyepiece. A 1000mm FL objective and a 10mm eyepiece would be 100X (power), while a 20mm eyepiece would produce 50X with this same lens. So you can see you will need about three eyepieces to cover a low medium and high power to begin with and maybe add a couple of more later. Eyepieces are a complicated subject and very important in producing a pleasant view. They have many parameters. Many amateurs like a wide view eyepiece in the low powers while at higher powers you may want to ovoid eyepieces with a short (low number) eye relief (distance between your eye and the eyepiece lens - less than 10mm ER is not so pleasant to use and 15mm plus is better, but you need to read the Televue articles about eyepiece technical terms and relationships to the objective lens. Next the mount you use for your telescope becomes more critical as power goes higher and above 100X you will need a very good mount with slow motion controls or even a motorized tracking drive. Lower power is OK on the point to aim mount referred to as an ALT/AZ type.

What should you buy for a scope. Well the first thing I would recommend would be some 10mm X 50mm binoculars such as the "Nikon" Action Extremes, search the net for a good price. Add to this a book such as "Turn Left At Orion" as a good beginning guide. If you don't get into astronomy in great depth you will have the binoculars to use on land.

If you want a telescope avoid the cheap junk they are a waist of your money. Look at the "Orion" website for some ideas. I also would recommend the 80mm "Planet hunter" refractor from Burgess optical, but you will have to buy your mount separately. Another place to look for used telescopes and astronomy equipment would be "Astromart" on the web. If you know what you are looking for some good savings can be had there. One last suggestion; get out of town to a dark sky site and you will be able to "see" much better. The city lights reflect off of clouds and moisture in the air to reduce "seeing" and will not allow your eyes to become dark adapted (to become sensitive to the lowest levels of light). Find a local astronomy club and go to one of their observing sesions to get a better idea of what you can see and the equipment needed to do a reasonable job to observe your selcted objects. --Dan--

Answer 2

Not much, especially if you're in a city with a lot of light pollution. A very small scope has limited light gathering capability. It will show the Moon, larger and brighter planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) and a few bright star clusters. I doubt that you'll see much else that's interesting.

If you're looking at a department store telescope (and it sounds like you are), my advice is save up for something a little better. The cheap ones have notoriously bad optics and are too small to gather much light. The result is poor image quality and a disappointed telecope owner. You don't have to sink thousands of dollars into it. About $400 will get you a really nice entry-level reflector that will serve you well for years. It will give you much better image quality and will be large enough to see a lot more than a couple of planets, especially if you have reasonably dark skies.

Don't worry about magnification. It's not that important. The very high powers that are advertised by some manufacturers are unusable. I do virtually all of my viewing at less than 200x and most of it at 100x or less.

If you want more advice than you can get here, check the Internet for an astronomy club in your area and attend a meeting. Most clubs have members who are happy to give advice to beginners. If you go to a star party, you can even look through the telescopes and get an idea of different products and how well they work. That was a great help when I bought my last telescope.

It's a great hobby. Good luck!

Answer 3

First, do not be fooled by magnifying power alone! As an
experienced amateur astronomer, I would recommend that
you NOT buy what is called a Department Store Telescope.
If an ad says 300 or 400 power for $99.95, I would run the
other way, since you will be disappointed with the lack of
performance. A more important consideration is aperture,
or light-gathering power, and to get the best performance
for your money, I would buy a Dobsonian-type reflector,
probably 4½ or 6-inch diameter. Those will perform well
on the moon, planets, etc. and are not overly expensive.
Better yet, see if there are any astronomy clubs in your area
and talk to some of them; most members are more than
happy to help out newcomers, and maybe will let you look
through their scopes and see how you like it. Don't be too
hasty; look before you leap! One good web site that sells
equipment is OrionTelescopes.com, but there are others
as well; also, astronomy magazines have many ads with
some very fine scopes. Good luck!

Answer 4

I trust virtually each and each and every of the previous solutions, yet specifically, I decrease back up Starrysky - - The bounce to a 150mm aperture will be very important in words of visibilities. As others also note, a 150mm refractor will be... expensive. If that is no longer an situation - flow for it!! A 150mm refractor will very virtually continually have a extremely better high quality of optics than a common 150mm reflector. notwithstanding, as Starry factors out - for an similar cost as a mid-decision 150mm refractor, you may want to very virtually actual purchase a 200mm reflector with a flow-to force, a 250mm dobsonian reflector with a 'push-to' laptop or a 300mm no-laptop dobsonian. and each and each and every of those might want to have a tendency to conquer even a first rate-high quality 150mm refractor hollow in words of sunshine-amassing and viewing ameliorations. in case you'll come across a community astronomy club - contact them, and observe in the experience that they have got members with a 200mm Dobsonian (virtually the most elementary telescope between severe beginning astronomers) that would want to be prepared to show you how to try their scope to work out what the ameliorations are.

Answer 5

You won't see very much with a scope this small. It's really a toy telescope. I also wouldn't buy a telescope from a sports store; buy from a store which specializes in telescopes. It won't cost any more, and you'll be sure of getting something decent. The safest place online for a beginner to buy is probably Orion, because they only stock good equipment, have very helpful staff, and a good return policy. The least expensive scope I would recommend is this one, their StarBlast reflector:
http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=starter_scopes/~pcategory=starter_scopes/~product_id=09814

It's marketed as a kids' telescope, but don't believe it. I owned one for a while, and I'm 66 years old! They stock some less expensive scopes, especially around Christmas, but this is the best of the bunch.

Answer 6

100x50 means 100 power with a 50 millimeter diameter lens.

100 power is really too much for a 50 mm lens. But you could see craters on the Moon, the rings of Saturn, and the Moons of Jupiter with it. If you can reduce the magnification to between 25 and 50 it would be much better. At 100 power the image will be dim and blurry. Forget about galaxies or nebulae. Even with a bigger telescope these deep sky objects are extremely disappointing to most people. They look nothing like the photographs because those photographs are the result of long exposure photography that makes them look millions of times brighter than the really are. But the Moon and planets are plenty bright and they will look like you expect.

Answer 7

Buy none of those ones. They are rubbish. If you have no experience, the best suggestion for a limited budget is a good quality pair of 50mm binoculars (especially 10 X 50 or 12 X 50).

If your budget extends a little further, then look at this. This scope, or one like it with a larger aperture, will be a keeper.

http://www.amdish.com/ItemId/B0000XMSNO

You can buy a cheapie for the short term if you want, but it will be wasted money. Read this, ignoring the fact that it's from Australia, and ignoring the money amounts (which are for AU dollars in 2002). The principle is the same.

http://astronomy.concreteairship.com/scope.htm

Answer 8

Refractors have an inherent flaw called achromatic aberration. This is caused by the various colors of light focusing at different points. With a refractor a star can never be resolved into a hard point of light. You'll also find that the objects in the sky are whizzing by fairly quickly. A decent astronomical scope will have a motor drive to compensate for the earth's rotation. Basically you get what you pay for. 50mm isn't much light-gathering power as compared to say a 4-inch reflector. As the magnification goes up you're looking at a smaller section of the sky and the image gets progressively darker. If you find the refractor whets your appetite then you might want to get a reflector with a motor drive and really do it right.

Answer 9

Easily, you'll see the craters on the moon, and Venus when it looks crescent-shaped. You'll see Mars as a very small disk, and Jupiter and it's 4 large galilean satellites. The most impressive thing you'll see is Saturn's rings - it won't be very big, but you'll easily see the rings, and perhaps Titan close by.