Posted: 12/14/2002 4:02:09 AM EDT
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Hello all Are there any Amatuer astronomers out there?? I want to buy my little brother a telescope for christmas.He is fascinated with the stars and i think a telescope would be a nice present for him. What is a good brand of telescopes?And i would spend at the most one thousand dollars for a telescope cuz i think i would be watching the stars also[:D] and can anyone give me some pointers on buying a telescope and what brand? -Thnx |
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I have an 8" Dobsonian telescope. We used it quite a bit before the numbnuts at the end of the street decided to put in a streetlight! GRRR! We live out in the country. If I blasted my music so loud that he could hear it, I would be wrong. But he can illuminatethe neighborhood all night long, wash out the sky and prevent me from enjoying a night on my porch without the glare of manmande light! But I digress... The telescope I have is a Celestron, Star Hopper. I saw my first, not in a picture book, galaxy with it one night from my backporch. Very memorable. [img]www.tvcc.edu/faculty/ballen/images/photos/starhopper.jpg[/img] Review: [url]http://www.scopereviews.com/page1g.html#4[/url] I don't use mine anymore. I have a starguide, solar shield (so you can see sunspots) extra Plossil (sp?) lens, etc. It is bulky, so shipping might be a little high, but let me know if you are interested. TRG ps. Mine has the black base. The link I included reviews several telescopes. enjoy. |
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For a first telescope I'd say to look into a mass-produced 4.5" reflector on a manually operated equatorial mount. The magnification will depend on the eyepiece you use: Magnification = focal length of primary mirror divided by focal length of eyepiece. Don't both with eyepieces that give you more than about 150x magnification with this size telescope, unless you live on top of a mountain blessed with still air. Using just such an inexpensive outfit, my wife and I were able to see a dark splotch on Jupiter the night it was hit by the Schoemaker-Levy 9 comet fragments (back in 1994). We went back outside three hours after our initial observation and the splotch had moved due to Jupiter's rotation. My point is that you can have some good fun with a modest telescope (under $200); that way your brother can figure out if he likes standing around outside in the dark while everyone else is nice and warm inside watching TV. |