What type of telescope should I buy?

Question

My husband has expressed interest in a telescope. It would need to serve 2 purposes - 1) viewing objects in space such as planets, moons, etc.; and 2) it would be set up in our living room window to view objects in the distance (we have a great ocean view at our house). What type of telescope would be best to serve both purposes?

Oh, and price range... under $200.

OK, what if I went up to $300? Would I be able to get a starter to serve both purposes? Or, would I have to spend a LOT more money... Maybe this gift will have to wait :(

Answer 1

Concur with a number of answers above. You're looking at doing two different things. And astronomical observing from inside a house through a window is not a good idea anyway, because of temperature differences and air currents.

To suit both purposes I'd go for a good pair of binoculars, and a star atlas, particularly "Nightwatch" by Terence Dickinson. Binoculars are very suitable for the night sky as they have a wider field than scopes, and even if the time comes later to get a scope, they'll still supplement our observing. Although it won't be a surprise, you should involve hubby in choosing them, too.

If you can find a local amateur astronomy club, you can ask them about binoculars as well. If you buy a pair, get tehm from a telescope shop, because you'll get advice relating to sky watching. For scopes anyway, the following is probably the best type for general viewing, especially the 6 and 8 inch apertures. It's out of your budget now, but for the future...

http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=telescopes

Answer 2

You can get a nice scope for under $300 or even $200.
Stay away from Target, Costco, Walmart, toy stores and those. They ARE junk scopes with very poor optics. Many even use plastic for their lenses and they are not worth the plastic that is used to make them.

oriontelescopes.com has some that are very nice at nice prices. I do like the above answer regarding the spotting scopes for your use of the scope and Orion does sell several. They have excellent optics and great customer service. Can you tell that I am an Orion Fan? Meade was suggested earlier and they do put out a good product, however they have had huge financial trouble and there is a chance that they might not be here to help you in the future---which would be sad.

Binnoculars were also suggested earlier and that is also a great idea for your use. MINIMUM should be 10x50 if you want to use in the night sky too. I would go even bigger if it were me. They must be mountable to a tripod to steady your views and some of them can get quite pricey. Most are sold seperately for binnocs., where they are usually included with the spotting scopes.

If you do decide to get more serious with astronomy, join a club or Astronomical Scoeity before purchasing a serious astronomical telescope. You will be able to try out many different types at star parties and meet new friends too. Many clubs have loaner scopes and the people will teach you a lot about the skies. Have fun with your new purchase!

Answer 3

As the others have said, it's next to impossible to get something that's good at both terrestrial and astronomical viewing. Unless your windows are made from optical glass, the view through them with any telescope is likely to be very blurry...this can even be a problem with binoculars. Telescopes for astronomy must be used outdoors, and usually have too high a magnification and too narrow a field of view to be much use for looking at scenery. I'll second the recommendation of Orion as a great source of both binoculars and telescopes, but they're honest folks, and will probably tell you the same thing about combining terrestrial and astronomy in one instrument.

Answer 4

There are two basic types of telescopes, and basically two mounts. Reflecting and refracting scopes will both work for what you want, but my personal reccomendation would be a reflector. A reflector has a parabolic mirror in the back of the scope that catches the image and reflects it to a smaller mirror which in turn reflects it to your viewing lense. A refractor captures the image through a finely ground lense. A lense is much harder to make properly than a mirror, so as far as price, a reflector is probably the way to go. They are also usually shorter, taking up less space. A general rule of thumb - Get as much telescope DIAMETER as you can afford. Those Wal-mart specials like to brag about how much they can magnify an image, but the amount of magnification can be controlled somewhat by the viewing lenses you buy. A large diameter will collect more light, allowing you to see more things.
Now, about mounts. The two kinds are: alt./az. (dobsonian) and equatorial. For ease of use, you can't beat the alt/az. It's just a basic up/down right/left mount. The problem is that they don't come with many options. An equatorial mount can be fixed to track the motion of the earth so that objects stay in your viewfinder longer. It isn't perfect, but it helps. The alt/az mount at your pricerange can't do this; it needs a computer to make the adjustments. But it is cheap and easy to use. There's a lot of other info on these mounts, but it would take up a lot of space. Go to astronomics.com for more info than I can write here. I also reccomend that you check out the Orion telescope site (telescope.com). Many of their telescopes are affordable, and they also have a use/rating system that allows you to pick a telescope that would best fit your needs. This system will give you a rating on ease of use, and will also tell you wether the telescope you selected can also be used for terrestrial (objects on earth in distance) viewing. Other good places to go - skyandtelescope.com and telescopes.com (not to be confused with telescope.com, the other site I gave you).

My personal reccomendation? I'd spend a little more and get a Go-to scope, or intelliscope. This telescope has the capability of either slewing to the object of your choice (it usually has a hand-held device with a listing of many celestial objects) or pointing you in the right direction untill you're there. This allows you to see neat stuff even if you don't know what you're doing.

Do some research, happy star-hunting, and have fun!

Answer 5

You'll have a hard time finding something that isn't junk for that price (a general rule of thumb is that if it is made by Tacso or Bushnell or sold in a Department store, toy store, camera store or by mail order that isn't in an astronomy magazine it'll be crap).

You might be better off just getting a pair of binoculars if you don't already have some (they are easier to use) along with a good sky map and then if you find that you really like astronomy you could get a proper telescope.

If you do decide to get a telescope and want to actually use it to look at objects in the distance on the ground you'll need to get an erector prism otherwise the image will be upside down (for astronomy it doesn't matter if the image is upside down so astronomical telescopes don't have them).

Answer 6

Ok...first things first....if you go to a store and look at the telescopes...don't be fooled by the pictures of the planets on the box...you aren't going to see anything like that when you look through the telescope. Now, a good telescope will have the ability to put different eyepieces in. The eyepieces are measured in milimeters. This will come into play later.... There are three things you need to consider when purchasing a telescope: 1) Type 2) Aperture 3) Focal Length. Type--There are three basic types of 'scopes. Refractors, Reflectors, and Cadiotropics. A refractor is what most people think of. There is a lens at one end, possibly a few more lenses in the tube, and an eyepiece at the other end. A reflector is basically a big tube that is empty at one end, and at the other end is a curved mirror. Along the middle of the tube is a flat mirror that reflects the image from the primary mirror into the eyepiece mounted in the side of the tube. A cadiotropic is a combination of the two. Aperture--This is the primary lens/mirror size, measured in millimeters, usually. Aperture determines the amount of light that the scope can gather and focus into the eyepiece. In most cases, you want the most aperture you can afford. Aperture determines the maximum magnification ability of your telescope. Your maximum magnification is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50x per inch of aperture. My scope has 130mm aperture (around 5"), which would give me a maximum magnification of around 250x. Focal Length--Focal length is the total length from the primary lens/mirror to the eyepiece. Focal length (couple with the eyepiece) determine the magnification. The focal length of the scope divided by the focal length of the eyepiece tells you the magnification of that setup. My scope has a 650mm focal length, which gives me a magnification in the neighborhood of 75x when I put my 9mm eyepiece in. For a beginner, I would recommend a basic reflector, since you can get larger apertures for lower prices. In today's world, you can get one on a computerized mount that will actually find objects for you. My scope has a mount that I can align, and then type into the remote the name of the object I want to look at, and the scope will automatically point the scope at that object. The alignment process consists of taking a few moments to point it at three bright objects in the sky. I don't even have to know what they are, simply point it at one bright object, center it in the eyepice, and press enter. Move to the next, press enter, and move to a third, and press enter.

Answer 7

Hello AK -

I tend to agree with Best above -

You are trying to do two things at once, and they tend to conflict with each other. If you want to look at passing boats, ships, etc, then you are probably best served by a spotting scope with prisms designed to provide an image that is not upside-down, like it is in most astronomical scopes.

if you are set on purchasing a telescope for astronomy, then an introductory scope like the Orion Starblast may work, but you will have a tough time using it through the window - it will never focus properly and you will probably get multiple images until you take it outside, where it will work as designed. If you look at boats through this scope, they will appear inverted.

In either case, you can find what you need at websites like oriontelescopes.com, meade.com, and celestron.com. But Best is right - a good pair of binoculars costs less and works well for both applications. In the meantime, visit an astronomy club observing session so that you can check out what you would really like to buy when you want to spend a little more. They are always on line and you will receive a warm welcome at your local gathering place. Good luck.



ADDED:

Sounds like you really want to do this. I would look at the Apex 90 mm spotting scope with a Paragon tripod. You can find these at oriontelescopes.com. You will still need to take it outside if you really want to see anything in the night sky, but I think it's what you are probably looking for, and once you do take it outside you may see some interesting things up there. Good luck again - hope he likes it.

Answer 8

Something like this may work best for you.

http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=spotting_scopes/~pcategory=telescopes/~product_id=09946

This is a small widefocus refractor. It is relatively inexpensive; takes up little room; and, can be easily mounted on a photography tripod. These are very handy little scopes that are just as practical for terrestial use as they are for astronomy. Better yet, if he decides that astronomy works for him, he can always buy a bigger scope and then mount this one on it as a first rate finder or guide scope.

I also think the binocular suggestion is a good one. This wide focus scope behaives essentially 1/2 of a large pair of binoculars.

As an alternative, consider a large pair of astro-binoculars and a good strong tripod to mount them on. BTW, these are much larger then they appear (notice the weight!!)

http://www.telescopes.com/binoculars/astronomy-binoculars/celestronskymaster25x100individualfocus.cfm

Answer 9

At this price range, I suggest you get a pair of Nikon 10 x 50 binoculars.
Since you have an ocean view and wish to look at planets, I think your budget is unrealistically low. I suggest Meade's 105mm PE scope which is ~ $720 on sale right now. This will give you the aperture you need to observe planets at 200X. You can get a an attachment for $50 for upright, terrestrial viewing.