Stargazing - Any recommendations on a good telescope?

[Logisch]

So I learned something about my wife last night. She actually enjoys space! She has never brought it up and almost never talks about it. She's really more of a hands on person than a talk about it type.

I was playing some video games with an old high school buddy and we were conquering some massive monsters in Terraria. My wife comes home and runs in my room and goes, "Hey! Does that telescope still work?" and I told her of course. I told my friend brb and she said she wanted to go stargazing. PERFECT night for it, super nice out.

We found some clusters and focused in on them and she had a blast. It was actually the first time she'd used a telescope.

Anyway, mine is very outdated and is a refracting telescope. It does "ok" but it's cheap, doesn't adjust easily, nor hold adjustments ok, the lenses are made out of pure crap. But I've had it since I was a little kid.

I don't want to spend a ton on one, but it would be cool to have a decent telescope that is easy to use that her or I could use. Any recommendations on a "good budget telescope"?

[Logisch]

This looks good:
http://www.amazon.com/Orion-StarBlast-4-...ab_pd_mw_2

[cheapthrillseaker]

Amateur stargazing can be done with binoculars. I'm not saying do that, but I can say it is fun, and is a good step for beginners.

[Chas]

(07-12-2012 09:07 AM)Logisch Wrote:  So I learned something about my wife last night. She actually enjoys space! She has never brought it up and almost never talks about it. She's really more of a hands on person than a talk about it type.

I was playing some video games with an old high school buddy and we were conquering some massive monsters in Terraria. My wife comes home and runs in my room and goes, "Hey! Does that telescope still work?" and I told her of course. I told my friend brb and she said she wanted to go stargazing. PERFECT night for it, super nice out.

We found some clusters and focused in on them and she had a blast. It was actually the first time she'd used a telescope.

Anyway, mine is very outdated and is a refracting telescope. It does "ok" but it's cheap, doesn't adjust easily, nor hold adjustments ok, the lenses are made out of pure crap. But I've had it since I was a little kid.

I don't want to spend a ton on one, but it would be cool to have a decent telescope that is easy to use that her or I could use. Any recommendations on a "good budget telescope"?

First off, a refracting telescope potentially gives the best images, but is the most expensive per inch of aperture.

Rule 1: Don't buy a cheap telescope or binoculars; you will be wasting money.
Rule 2: What do you want to observe, how often, when, and where?
Rule 3: Do a little research: Try here.

I have a 11" SCT (Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope) on a German-equatorial mount with computerized guiding.
It's big, but I have it on wheels.

This replaced my 8" SCT on a wedge mount.

I am currently looking for a good apochromatic refractor for planets and photography. This will be more portable than my SCT.

I use binoculars for observing more often than a telescope; they are convenient and good for casual observing.

These are just some quick thoughts; please feel free to ask some questions.

[Logisch]

(07-12-2012 09:57 AM)Chas Wrote:  

(07-12-2012 09:07 AM)Logisch Wrote:  So I learned something about my wife last night. She actually enjoys space! She has never brought it up and almost never talks about it. She's really more of a hands on person than a talk about it type.

I was playing some video games with an old high school buddy and we were conquering some massive monsters in Terraria. My wife comes home and runs in my room and goes, "Hey! Does that telescope still work?" and I told her of course. I told my friend brb and she said she wanted to go stargazing. PERFECT night for it, super nice out.

We found some clusters and focused in on them and she had a blast. It was actually the first time she'd used a telescope.

Anyway, mine is very outdated and is a refracting telescope. It does "ok" but it's cheap, doesn't adjust easily, nor hold adjustments ok, the lenses are made out of pure crap. But I've had it since I was a little kid.

I don't want to spend a ton on one, but it would be cool to have a decent telescope that is easy to use that her or I could use. Any recommendations on a "good budget telescope"?

First off, a refracting telescope potentially gives the best images, but is the most expensive per inch of aperture.

Rule 1: Don't buy a cheap telescope or binoculars; you will be wasting money.
Rule 2: What do you want to observe, how often, when, and where?
Rule 3: Do a little research: Try here.

I have a 11" SCT (Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope) on a German-equatorial mount with computerized guiding.
It's big, but I have it on wheels.

This replaced my 8" SCT on a wedge mount.

I am currently looking for a good apochromatic refractor for planets and photography. This will be more portable than my SCT.

I use binoculars for observing more often than a telescope; they are convenient and good for casual observing.

These are just some quick thoughts; please feel free to ask some questions.

After a lot of searching and reading today in my spare time I found this as a recommendation:

Dobsonian 8XT SkyQuest.
http://www.telescope.com/Orion-SkyQuest-...d=skyquest

I wanted to see some deep space objects, good detail of the moon and being able to see out a bit for other planets.

I read a bunch of reviews and it has the ability to do hookups for my digital SLR which is cool. On top of that, the lense is nice and big. Though it isn't a refractor style, I read that the optics are very nice on it and bang for buck is great to get into.

So I did a bit of digging and checked around, found one out of our local astronomy club, guy has a bunch of goodies, extra lenses and he only used it maybe 3 times. $250. Killer deal. So I'll go that route and then if I want to move up I can easily sell it for the same and move up.

[Chas]

(07-12-2012 09:20 PM)Logisch Wrote:  

(07-12-2012 09:57 AM)Chas Wrote:  First off, a refracting telescope potentially gives the best images, but is the most expensive per inch of aperture.

Rule 1: Don't buy a cheap telescope or binoculars; you will be wasting money.
Rule 2: What do you want to observe, how often, when, and where?
Rule 3: Do a little research: Try here.

I have a 11" SCT (Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope) on a German-equatorial mount with computerized guiding.
It's big, but I have it on wheels.

This replaced my 8" SCT on a wedge mount.

I am currently looking for a good apochromatic refractor for planets and photography. This will be more portable than my SCT.

I use binoculars for observing more often than a telescope; they are convenient and good for casual observing.

These are just some quick thoughts; please feel free to ask some questions.

After a lot of searching and reading today in my spare time I found this as a recommendation:

Dobsonian 8XT SkyQuest.
http://www.telescope.com/Orion-SkyQuest-...d=skyquest

I wanted to see some deep space objects, good detail of the moon and being able to see out a bit for other planets.

I read a bunch of reviews and it has the ability to do hookups for my digital SLR which is cool. On top of that, the lense is nice and big. Though it isn't a refractor style, I read that the optics are very nice on it and bang for buck is great to get into.

So I did a bit of digging and checked around, found one out of our local astronomy club, guy has a bunch of goodies, extra lenses and he only used it maybe 3 times. $250. Killer deal. So I'll go that route and then if I want to move up I can easily sell it for the same and move up.

That's a decent deal for a decent scope.

Newtonian reflectors are a good bang for the buck. The Dobsonian mount is simple and reliable.

You won't be able to take photos with exposures longer than a few seconds without motion blurring.

[Logisch]

(07-12-2012 09:36 PM)Chas Wrote:  

(07-12-2012 09:20 PM)Logisch Wrote:  After a lot of searching and reading today in my spare time I found this as a recommendation:

Dobsonian 8XT SkyQuest.
http://www.telescope.com/Orion-SkyQuest-...d=skyquest

I wanted to see some deep space objects, good detail of the moon and being able to see out a bit for other planets.

I read a bunch of reviews and it has the ability to do hookups for my digital SLR which is cool. On top of that, the lense is nice and big. Though it isn't a refractor style, I read that the optics are very nice on it and bang for buck is great to get into.

So I did a bit of digging and checked around, found one out of our local astronomy club, guy has a bunch of goodies, extra lenses and he only used it maybe 3 times. $250. Killer deal. So I'll go that route and then if I want to move up I can easily sell it for the same and move up.

That's a decent deal for a decent scope.

Newtonian reflectors are a good bang for the buck. The Dobsonian mount is simple and reliable.

You won't be able to take photos with exposures longer than a few seconds without motion blurring.

Yeah that's ok. There is a tracker kit that is computer run should I ever want to get serious that I can add on. Mostly I want it for viewing, I just thought it was nice that it has the option if I want it.

Seems like a pretty good deal so I'm excited.

Hell of a lot better than what we have now (an OOOOLD Tasco super basic telescope that was probably $40-50).

[Chas]

(07-12-2012 09:44 PM)Logisch Wrote:  

(07-12-2012 09:36 PM)Chas Wrote:  That's a decent deal for a decent scope.

Newtonian reflectors are a good bang for the buck. The Dobsonian mount is simple and reliable.

You won't be able to take photos with exposures longer than a few seconds without motion blurring.

Yeah that's ok. There is a tracker kit that is computer run should I ever want to get serious that I can add on. Mostly I want it for viewing, I just thought it was nice that it has the option if I want it.

Seems like a pretty good deal so I'm excited.

Hell of a lot better than what we have now (an OOOOLD Tasco super basic telescope that was probably $40-50).

You'll be able to take great moon photos - those are usually much less than 1 sec. exposures.

There's a comet coming next year that might be spectacular.

[Logisch]

Sweet! Thanks Chas