Posted: 2/24/2012 5:37:42 AM EDT
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I always wanted my parents to buy me a telescope as a kid but I never ended up with one.
lately i have been walking at night and the area im in is beautiful at night so its rekindled that desire to have a telescope. The problem is I know nothing about them  ... any tips on a decent one for the average guy ?
I cant afford some $2000 rig...just something to mess around with in the $200-$600 range...maybe more if there is a large different in viewing with a more expensive rig but cant go over $1000 or my fiancee will really kill me. open to ideas |
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dan,
i went thru the same thing about 8 years ago. same questions as buying an AR apply, what do you want to use it for and how much money do you want to put into it. a couple of recommendations: check online for a "star party" near you, these are get togethers with local astronomers who display their setups and let you use them; check out Orion Telescopes, they have excellent prices on intro scopes; pickup a few copies of astronomy magazine. for new and casual user i highly recommend a 4-6" dobsonian telescope. with this scope you can begin to see the fuzzies (nebula and galaxies) and still have great view of the planets and moon. the dobsonian mount is not a "go to" mount so you will have slight learning curve on geting the scope onto what you want to see, but this is half of the fun (equates to buying an AR or building one yourself). also, the entire telescope isnt so big that it cant be moved. your next question will be what eyepieces, i recommend a 40mm, 26mm, and 10mm . email me if you have more questions. cheers, fatkid |
Check here too Dan. Great site filled with more info then you'll be able to look at! Happy looking bro! 
Click me |
I'm in the market to get a new scope too, I was thinking about a 10inch dob, I don't need a go to to find my way around but then I got this idea in my head that I want to do astrophotography so now I'm really screwed because that shit isn't cheap. 
any recommend a decent scope that I can do photos with, even if I just piggy back the camera and just photography star fields. |
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Quoted:
I'm in the market to get a new scope too, I was thinking about a 10inch dob, I don't need a go to to find my way around but then I got this idea in my head that I want to do astrophotography so now I'm really screwed because that shit isn't cheap.
any recommend a decent scope that I can do photos with, even if I just piggy back the camera and just photography star fields. Ciraxis, astrophotography needs a guided scope and wide aperture, the most you can afford. i had a orion 10" goto dobsonian that gave good results using a canon dslr. fatkid |
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Quoted:
I always wanted my parents to buy me a telescope as a kid but I never ended up with one. lately i have been walking at night and the area im in is beautiful at night so its rekindled that desire to have a telescope. The problem is I know nothing about them ... any tips on a decent one for the average guy ?
I cant afford some $2000 rig...just something to mess around with in the $200-$600 range...maybe more if there is a large different in viewing with a more expensive rig but cant go over $1000 or my fiancee will really kill me. open to ideas Get some 10x high quality binoculars and start looking up. |
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Get out the spotting scope yuou use for shooting and start looking up. It's AMAZING what's up there to be seen through a spotting scope - the Pliedes, the middle "star" in Orion's sword,...
Then, by a camera adapter for your spotting scope. Then, the real question is this,... where do you go to get away from the light pollution enough to do any decent viewing and photographing. |