I pulled my telescope out of storage the other day and set it up. The family and I had a great time with it. It is a relatively cheap telescope with a hand held controller and it tracks objects once you align it to a couple of stars.
When I was a kid, it was challenging to be interested with out the computer guidance, so I'd like to make it easier for them to stay interested. Being a number of years old, I think it is standing on its last leg as the controller is acting flaky and the motors seem to get lost when turning to an object. So I'm asking the nerds out there: who makes a decent telescope today? Where should I shop for one? I'd like something with similar features that I have now. Computer guidance and tracking is the must-have. Perhaps GPS. I would like to spend less than $600, but I'm open to more expensive options.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by CoolHand on Tuesday April 28 2015, @01:26AM
I'd get a "smart" dobsonian from Orion, if it was me..
http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/Dobsonian-Telescopes/IntelliScope-Dobsonians/Orion-SkyQuest-XT8i-IntelliScope-Dobsonian-Telescope/pc/1/c/12/sc/27/p/102012.uts?refineByCategoryId=27 [telescope.com]
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @01:49AM
Seconded, Orion makes some nice scopes that won't break the bank. The hand controller tells you which direction to move the scope to find the object you want, no motors/gears to wear out and no obnoxious noise or extra batteries to worry about.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @01:48AM
I do all my telescope shopping at http://agenaastro.com/ [agenaastro.com]
$600 may be a little low, if you want something decent. And the latest thing is a WiFi interface that allows your iPad to control the 'scope.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:12AM
What's an "iPad"? is that one of those retro Android phones I see old people using?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Michelle on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:03AM
I hope you are fortunate enough to live in a place with little light pollution (and such places are getting hard to find!)
I have a couple Orion scopes: 80mm refractor for photography and 10" dob for visual. And the dob is *huge*, at least by my standards, and pulls in quite a bit of light. The 10" works pretty well for me as long as I use a decent eyepiece (some of the Orion ones are good, most are kind of mediocre). Even with horrific light pollution (24-hour daylight) in the SF bay area, it's still somewhat usable. M13 just about explodes in my eyepiece!
There are a few sites out there that deal in used equipment - you might want to dig around for them or see if there's any local astronomy clubs in your area. The cost of equipment can be prohibitive, so best to get "previously loved" gear if you can.
Good luck - oh, and don't forget: http://cleardarksky.com/ [cleardarksky.com]
"Right now is the only moment you'll ever have; so why be miserable?"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:12AM
quick, grab the scope [bbc.com]
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @11:51AM
If you live near the New York/Pennsylvania border, there is always Cherry Springs State Park.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Springs_State_Park [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:56PM
I live nowhere near the border, but it is easily worth a 5 hour drive.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Tuesday April 28 2015, @08:41PM
I live on the Gulf Coast. Have plenty of areas to go, mostly out on the beach, at night. Can see the milky way out there.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday April 28 2015, @08:03AM
I ground three mirrors, a 6", 10" and 8". I wasn't happy with the 10 so I took it back to fine grinding then repolished it.
Mirror making is fascinating work.
There is some guy on the amateur telescope making list who sells kits.
Try making a travel scope - one that you can take in airline carry-on.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday April 28 2015, @08:30PM
A first-time amateur will take about a year of occasional spare time to grind, polish and figure an 8" mirror. A seasoned pro could do it in a couple 8-hour days but you really need quite a lot of experience. The main thing is you need a lot of patience, grinding a mirror is quite a lot like watching the grass grow. On the other hand it is peaceful, pleasant and meditative work.
The most thorough text is "Amateur Telescope Making" volumes I-III, edited by Albert Ingalls and published by Scientific American. However these cover a lot of material for advanced workers, and can be confusing. There is a revised two-volume set, I don't recall who the editor is, it has all the same material but in a sensible order rather than the organically-grown historical order.
For your very first scope "How to Make a Telecope" 2nd Edition by Jean Texereau is very, very good.
Mike's amateur telescope making volume 0: MAKE YOUR MOUNT FIRST! Use a cement steppingstone or something as a weight, where the mirror will later go. If, as the books imply, you make your mirror first, then your mount, you will be rushed in the end and won't be satisfied. If you start your first mount then try pointing it, checking how the balance goes, whether it vibrates in the wind &c. in the end you're likely to be far more happy. (I only figured this out recently.)
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday April 28 2015, @12:36PM
I pulled my telescope out of storage the other day
Post-transition to China production Meade ETX? Just guessing based on your description. I have one of those. I like the portability. The scope you haul out and use works much better than the theoretically better one that sits in the closet because its too big and heavy to bother hauling out.
I've noticed there really isn't anything new in the last two decades or so in scopes.
I would like to see something done with high precision accelerometers. Also cell phone grade magnetometers. The development cycles for scopes are worse than cars, like 10-20 years, so it'll be awhile before this gets much traction.
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Tuesday April 28 2015, @04:54PM
It is a Celestron Nexstar GT. Parts are difficult to find now. Very entry level at $150ish, but I could find plenty of things to look at. Since I'm planning on replacing it, I figured an upgrade would, again, spark and keep the family's interest in it.
(Score: 5, Informative) by cosurgi on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:05PM
First you must make a conscious decision if you want to observe deep-sky objects or planets. Those two require very different telesopes. For deep-sky you need as big aperture as possible (cheapest are dobsonians for that), for planets the amount of light is not a concern, but rather the quality of the picture, in which case the best are apochromatic refractors.
Here's why big aperture is not universally the best: when you are looking through the telescope you are looking through a "pipe" through Earth's atmosphere of diameter equal to your telesope's aperture. Bigger aperture means that you get more atmospheric turbulences on the way. While also getting more light from the distant object. For nebulas and other dim deep-sky objects this is great: yes - you won't see them very sharp (due to atmospheric turbulences), but with smaller aperture you won't see them anyway. For planets which are bright, you will have enough light with much smaller aperture, but then you cannot use Newton (or Shmidt-Cassegrain) because secondary mirror will obstruct the view and unnecessarily increase your aperture and amount of atmospheric turbulences. Hence you must go with a refractor (because it has not secondary mirror). But refractors have another serious problem: they are chromatic, that is the refractive index of glass varies with the wavelength. This is not the case with mirrors. With mirrors the focal length is exactly the same for all wavelengths, while for refractors that use glass lenses have focal length wildly varying with the light wavelngth. The only solution is to buy a triple apochromatic refractor, which have special configuration of three lenses that are tuned to have exactly the same focal length for just three wavelengths that the human eye is sensitive to. All other wavelengths have wildly different focal lengths, but they are never seen by the human eye.
I made a choice to look at planets, because larger mirror (for deep sky objects) means higher weight of the telescope. And I cannot carry too much, because my back is a hurting when I carry more than 5kg. So my pick was Explore Scientific 127mm APO with very light fiberglass tube.
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @07:57PM
But this typically isn't an issue with the size telescopes one would build in their backyards. The isoplanatic patch is going to be larger than one's sub-meter aperture telescope.
(Score: 2, Informative) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:11PM
Speaking as someone who does own a GOTO scope, I bought it because when I was starting out and really did not know how to find stuff well. It really depends on how dark your site is. From my house, I still need GOTO as there are not enough naked=eye stars visible to easily star-hop.
However, for a decent GOTO scope, you are probably looking more at the $1000 price range for Celestron, Meade and Orion to get something good.
If you are in a nicely dark location (or have one that is a quick drive away), I would suggest not getting GOTO at all, as this means you can spend more on the scope itself instead of spending it all on the electronics of the mount. It takes some practice but once you learn where the constellations are, it isn't really that hard.
If you have a big enough vehicle, I suggest getting a Dobsonian. Much bigger aperture for the price. Skywatcher makes some very reasonably prices ones. They are a bit bulkier but the tradeoff is that
On the other hand, OPT [optcorp.com] is having a sale on Celestron Nexstar scopes. I wouldnt get the 4" or 5" ones, but for a bit more money they are wonderful. I have an EdgeHD 8" and it is easily my favorite scope of my collection. Great collecting power, nice flat field, small enough to fit in my little car. :)
Also, no matter what scope you get, get a Telrad [company7.com] or other reflex sight. Those things are easy to use and will help you learn the sky better. The Telrad looks horrible, but is the easiest to use. A Star Finder [amazon.com] will act as a nice cheat-sheet to remember which constellation you are pointing at. Also, there are plenty of phone apps that give a nice "guided tour" of the sky.
Another idea, is to get a decent pair of binoculars to start out with, you can get some surprisingly nice ones for under $50. Even experienced and advanced observers break out the binocs to scan things. They really look wonderful at a dark site. Also since they are easy to grab-and-go, you will use them more often. When I am driving to the countryside for whatever reason, I always through my Nikon 10x50s into the car to take a peek if the night clears up. Someone once told me, "Your best telescope is the one you USE."
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh