Anybody know about Astronomy telescopes?
 

My wife is looking at getting into astronomy,something neither of us know anything about!!

I am looking at a decent telescope in the £150-£200 range.

I don't want to waste money on a cheap one,to find i need to upgrade or can't get accessories for it.

It is a minefield out there with lense types,magnification etc.

Any help or guidance would be appreciated.

We were looking at a Celestron Firstscope 114,but the reviews suggest it's mor for kids and you will tire of it very quickly!!

Help!!!

Blo*dy hell Jasp', I've just been looking at them this AM too. Chrimbo prezzie for No#2 daughter.
Guido will be able to help as the same knowledge for big lenses goes for telescopes. They are the same thing.

Magnification = Blimey snowy, I can see the pub from here. x100 is better than x50, simple really.
Resolution = Blimey snowy I can see the pub from here, and it's dead clear.
Focal length = bigger is better, but you drop the amount of light collected so, the bit where you see f5.6 or f16, etc, the smaller the number the better the light collection (brighter) the object will appear.

Long telescope is just that, it's long. Reflector is stubby and has a mirror in the bottom that reflects the light back up the body and into the eyepiece.
Bigger the reflector diameter the better magnification you get. Usual is 4, 6 and 8 inch.

Optics, the more accurately ground the less distortion and better imaging you get. High tolerances cost bucks, so you pay for what you get.
It's why Guido's 400mm APO f2.8 (is it?) costs 7 grand new, and my 400mm f5.6 cost 500 quid new. It's also the reason why Guido gets pin sharp pix and we don't apart from his shear talent.

Google to some of the telescope sites and it'll all be in there.

Ains.

This looks ok:

Celestron Firstscope 114

Ask Melnie Mouse,she knows

A friend of my mum and dad used to run a business making mirrors and lenses for telescopes before he retired. He's about 85 now but his enthusiasm for astronomy is still undiminished and he's bang up to date with all the latest and he still gets invited to give talks to various societies.

I'll email him and see if he can give you a call

thanks.

Jasper ,one thing, the more powerful the telescope the bigger and heavier the tripod will be required to hold it. Some of the scopes out there may look the part ,but when you look through them in the night sky difficult the use. I have a Optolyth Birding scope with a 20/60 times lens. It will allow me to see the ring of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter because of the vast distances involved some thing with a 100x lens will not always make that much differance. Looking at the moon with a good 10x40 binocular will show all the craters and landmarks and unless your looking for a landing site would suffice
I have looked through a few "Profesional scopes " and unless you pay a hell of a lot more readies you will not get the results . As I say when I looked through one Pro scope with computer aided spotting at an object 4 miles away I could see more and a lot clearer with a good birding scope and with a lot lighter Tripod. Take the time to have a look throughone at night and see what you think. Regards 4D

One word of advice ....
The more powerful the faster the objects appear to move with the earth's rotation.

I asked foolishly for a large mirror telescope about five years ago, got a 400x magnification wrapped in tinsel.

Got outside on a clear night ... looked at the moon ... the surface flies past very fast !

ha ha Derek, thanks but i'm not that clever....

Best thing to do is get a book or borrow one about them, more complicated than it looks.

but definately get one with Equatorial mount, makes finding things so much easier, mine is a cheap one £225 at the time, for a 5.5 inch reflector, so i can see the 4 main moons of Jupiter and the shape of the rings around Saturn. The moon is ever so good so close you feel like you're on it! All the craters are so sharp especially if you look through at half moon or just waning. I got with it a moon filter too, as it can hurt your eyes so bright, the worst time to view the moon through a telescope is full moon, so you may need to get a filter anyway.

you also need a red torch, not white (so your eyes adjust quicker) and go and get for about 7.99 or 9.99 depending on size a planisphere from all good bookshops or Chichester Planetarium which is a twin disc and then you can line up and it shows you what you can expect to see for the time of night etc and where the planets are on the ecliptic.

You'll have lots of fun. oh and if you want something light, even a 3" refractor will do to see Saturn so you don't need to get huge as someone said using it more frequently being light is better than big and heavy and hard to carry. Unless you have room to make your own observatory which I wish i did.

Thanks Mel.I have replied to your PM.What scope do you have?