Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Anybody know about Astronomy telescopes?

[Fordie]

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

[Foxy]

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 !

[Melnie Mouse]

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.

[Jasper]

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

[Ains.]

Just bought an 8" reflector with tripod that has fine adjustment controls so you can manually adjust out the Earths rotation for The Evster (youngest daughter). Mega Chrimbo present, can see fights after Christmas to look through it. Might be able to see if men are from Mars and women are from Venus.

Ains.

[Jasper]

now looking at some Celestron "go to" scopes"

[Melnie Mouse]

yeah they're good. and mine is only a cheap one, the Meade Cassegrain would be nice, but i've got a tasco 5.5" reflector, but it does the job, altho with tripod little awkward get it out house each time..

the one you're talking of would be good, or just invest in ace pair of bins 10x50 to start off with and see how you get on...

get the planisphere, red torch and a book from waterstones you'll be well away.

I tell you something pretty to look out, The beehive cluster which you'll find just above cancer and along from gemini. The Gemini twins are called Castor and Pollux and is lovely sight when you see them all together with Libra too, my fave constellation is Orion though, and you can see M42 the nebulae hanging off his sword by his belt...

Once you've trained yourself in bins or scope you'll be able see fuzzy patch with naked eye when you know where to look.