Telescope help

[anna]

Right one of you lovely people have to know a little about this kind of stuff...

I´m looking to buy a telescope, to view the fantastic stars and planets that you can actually see here in Portugal (as it hasnt been messed with by the light pollution ).

OK enough bragging about the lovely, sunny, warm weather and glorious skys here! ...

I`m also looking for something that can have the adaptor for a Nikon camera fitted to it.

Everything I have seen so far is bank breaking. I´m looking for something that wont cause me to jump of this lovely balcony, that I will be viewing from, with the weight of the debt that this item might cause

Any suggestions??

*runs away*

Just about any thing from Meade. http://www.meade.com/ But what's your budget? The sky's (sorry!!) the limit on costs.

[anna]

Thanks Paul, didnt have a price in mind just wanted to see what you could get for your money. Although having just checked that site I could get a new bike for that money!!!

El Saxo.. Black mark for you

Yeah- decent 'scopes are very pricey.

I got interested in it about 8 years ago- but shelved the idea when I realised how much a decent telescope is. Plus I live in the 'burbs. Lite pollution agogo...

[tigersaw]

Good pair of binoculars and a tripod.
Otherwise a meade etx90 with starfinder from ebay.

There are many types of telelscope and mounts you can get and all depends on what you want to do. If you are serious about taking photos then you will need a telelscope with a tracking equatorial mount this will allow you do long exposures which you will need to do if you want good results from anything other than the moon.

The other main thing is as in life, size is everything. The bigger your apeture the more light you will collect and the more detail you will therefore see/photograph.

I have two scopes, a 12" dobsonian and a 4.5" newtonian on a tracking equatorial mount. The latter cost me about £120 and while it cannot compete with the 12" dobby in terms of light collection it is an inexpensive way of seeing if you are into it and you will get wow moments from it despite its size. Its hard to desccirbe the difference but if you imagine looking at Saturn, you can clearly see the rings with both, however with the 12" dobby you can also see the cassini division (gap between the rings) easily where with the 4.5" you will struggle to tell its there on all but the best viewing nights. Same goes for mars, you can clearly pick out light and shade areas on mars with the dobby however with the 4.5" it is more difficult.


I could go on but my advice would be to buy some cheap binoculars first, start to get to know your constellations why things rise and set and when meteor activitiy is hihg etc.. and see if you like it. if you do you will have also by then have done some more research adn know your subject matter and can make an informed choice as to your next optics. If you dont,....well a good pair of nockers is always useful

Originally Posted by tigersaw

Otherwise a meade etx90 with starfinder from ebay.

Or a Nikkor 600 mm f/4 VR (hint hint!)

[anna]

Thanks Rog ... I think that´s probably the best way to go. Ive been interested in it for ages but, never had clear enough skys and somewhere to set up to be able to pursue it.

What is the min aperture that you would consider "decent" to be able to see some details through a telescope?

You will like this next line...

I would recommend atleast 6". but I would also say that decent tracking is the key. Put simple more light means more detail. When you have got yourself some nockers, join a local club. I know this sounds nerdy, but you will enjoy it and you will be able to see all sorts of scopes first hand. You will be able to play with 6" all the way upto to 30" (I know I just cant help myself )

Also you can get free software that shows the night sky on your PC (in graphical form) stellarium pretty good http://files.uberdownloads.com/apps/...rium/index.php

With this you can put in your exact location and it will show what the sky looks like from where you are with over 100,000 named objects. It will make finding interesting things easier as remember a lot of what is interesting is not necessarily viewable by the naked eye.

Oh and welcome to the amateur astronomers club