Telescope

[Night]

Anyone here look at the stars and the moon? I want a telescope powerful enough to see the moon and even rings on Saturn. Does such a thing exist for an amateur?

[rover]

http://www.telescope.com/mobile/cata...Fc5bfgodIZsNCA

http://www.telescope.com/mobile/home.jsp

[Mayaca]

Anyone here look at the stars and the moon? I want a telescope powerful enough to see the moon and even rings on Saturn. Does such a thing exist for an amateur?

Whew! I thought this thread meant you had seen me across the street!

[rover]

I joined a amature astromony club years ago. But went to the wrong meeting one night and ended up at a collage class that was using the observatory and that class was way better. Maybe you could audit one.

[Night]

Thanks for the links rover and your info Harry. So I need one that says its at least 40x? Would 50x be even stronger or do the numbers not work that way?

I wish we had astronomy club or observatory here. This is such a fucked up place. Lots of dark areas to see the sky though

[sde]

I teach a adult ed class at the local CC for astronomy and astrophotography. Even a cheap Celestron 70mm will give you decent view of Saturn, its rings, and even its moons with the right eyepieces. But if you think its something you would really enjoy, skip the entry level scopes and jump to Orion telescopes dobsonian style 8" with a couple of their plossl eyepieces. You'll be able to see Saturn but also the Cassini division in the rings, Jupiter's Red Spot, polar caps on Venus, and all 100+ items on the Messier Catalog. It'll set you back $500 or so but it will be the last scope you'll need for years.

[duke nukem]

My buddy's dad likes to smoke a big bowl and break out the huge telescope. Good times.

[rover]

There's some really nice FREE apps for your iPhone now too. They're very helpful.

[sde]

There's some really nice FREE apps for your iPhone now too. They're very helpful.

The two I like are heavens-above (which also tracks the ISS, other satellites, iridium flares, and few other things but doesn't list a lot of the DSO's) and Stellarium (which costs a whopping $2 and some change on the Play store but will pay for its self the first time you use it when you find Andromeda or Bode's). And freestarchartsDOTcom has tons of great info right on the front page, from things going on to what Messier items can be seen.

[rover]

Stellarium is the one I had. Haven't got to loading it on this phone yet.
If you want to track satellites get on your PC and check out J-Track. If it's back up, it will list about every known satellite and realtime orbit, I can watch Geoeye sats. There and go outside and see them when they go overhead. But I haven't checked it in a while....you need JAVA tho. To watch it. Really cool site back in the day.

[mattmuttsmith]

Henry Henderson with a telescope.

Yea. Someone's Windows will be penetrated.

[Night]

I teach a adult ed class at the local CC for astronomy and astrophotography. Even a cheap Celestron 70mm will give you decent view of Saturn, its rings, and even its moons with the right eyepieces. But if you think its something you would really enjoy, skip the entry level scopes and jump to Orion telescopes dobsonian style 8" with a couple of their plossl eyepieces. You'll be able to see Saturn but also the Cassini division in the rings, Jupiter's Red Spot, polar caps on Venus, and all 100+ items on the Messier Catalog. It'll set you back $500 or so but it will be the last scope you'll need for years.

thank you so much -- these are exactly the things I want to see. I've been haunting Craig's List looking but I needed to know what I should be looking for.

I have several apps on my Ipad that help me locate constellations, planets and satellites in live time. I think it's SkyWatcher or something like that. It was a lot of fun using it last summer.

[sde]

If you liked SW, you'll really enjoy Stellarium. A few other things to look for if you get one off CL is:

1. The larger the aperture, the better. A 70mm aperture means only a couple inches or so of light gathering on the scopes opening. So the higher the number, the more light from the item you are trying to view will make it down the scope. A nice 100-150mm runs about $125 new. A really good entry is a 4.5" Dobsonian that runs a couple hundred.
2. Eyepieces are expensive. Ideally, you should look for plossl or at the very least kellner designed. A decent kellner set can be gotten off Amazon for under $50 but you will eventually out grow them. You can find entry level plossl's for about double that. Try to avoid anything listed as H or R on the eyepieces.
3. Alt-az mounts are easy to learn and adjust to track things as they move out of view but wobble and cause the scope to "jitter". EQ mounts are more stable but are more difficult to adjust to track items. Dobsonian scopes use a special mount that is both easy to use and allow for easy tracking but they come with more expensive scopes.
4. Magnification = Focal length (either listed on the scope or by a simple google search) divided by eyepiece focal length (will be stamped or printed on the eyepiece as 20,12.5,4,9,etc.)..Never exceed what your scope can handle because it will just turn fuzzy and blurry. Avoid anything that brags about high power or x amount of magnification.
5. Anything over a 8 or 10" is going to be massive, heavy, and a pain in the ass to haul around. My 8" looks just like a fucking pirate ship cannon. Weighs about 60 or so pounds with the base. My 14" has to sit in the garage on a roller because it weighs almost a couple hundred pounds. A cheap 70mm refractor with stand weighs maybe 5 pounds.
6. Refractors will never need work unless you completely jack it up but reflectors require collimation quite a bit. I had a friend score a $2000 scope for 200 all because the idiot selling it thought something was broke when it just needed collimated.

[swampbilly]

sde

you rock

[Night]

Ok, sde you are a wealth of information and I sure appreciate this.

No. 5 on your list -- to get what I really want it's going to be very heavy? 60 pounds? I want to take this camping. Camping for me means a motorcycle with a clamshell trailer. Weight is s major factor. Am I SOL?