Planning to buy a first telescope?

Millacol88

Well since it doesn't seem there are any enormous differences between the two, and I found my original one for cheaper and with better eyepieces, I think I'm going to pull the trigger on that one. Thanks everyone for your help!

DaveC426913

It is highly dependent on what you want. Dobs gives you great bang for your buck at the cost of awkwardness. For someone like me, who likes to haul his scope down to the lake where there's darker skies, it's not the best. Dobs have no tracking controls on their mounts, so you're freely wheeling the thing around the sky by the seat of your pants.


But for light-gathering ability (which is what you want in order to see dim objects), they cannot be beat.

chemisttree

If you find the mount vibrates too much, you might try to improve the tripod legs as was done here. I did it on my son's '102 with great results. Looks a whole lot better too!

BadBrain

Wouldn't do me any good. I live in the middle of a major city, and, the last time I looked at the night sky at my true local astronomical midnight, it looked like God had turned out the lights.

DaveC426913

As do I. But I prefer planets to stars. And it's not too bad for planets.

I'm lucky - I live right on the lake, which is to the south, so at least half my sky is relatively dark.

Drakkith

I'm attempting to do exoplanet transit light curves with two streetlights about 100 ft away in both directions. I can't even see M31 near zenith here.

DaveC426913

You will fail. Exoplanets are very far away. Much too far to transit in front of a streetlight.

Drakkith

Unless it's planet Mothra.

CowedbyWisdom

Hey ya'll. I just ordered up this telescope and am waiting for it to come in the mail now.
http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/...335/p/9024.uts
What do you guys think? Any good? I thought 90mm was pretty big for a refractor. What do you think i'll be able to see best with this?

turbo

90 mm is OK if the optics are good. My finder scope is 90 mm and my main scope is 150 mm. I'll take the 90 mm Vernonscope out on the deck from time to time. In these dark skies, you can pick up a lot of faint objects with 90 mm.

I should mention that the mount illustrated in the ad is very light. If the wind is very light or non-existent, you can probably squeak by, but you might have to stiffen that mount somehow. Good luck.

CowedbyWisdom

Thanks I appreciate the advice! What would you suggest I do to stiffen up the legs? Do you think velcro ankle weights would do the trick?

russ_watters

For a first scope that's a good choice. My first was the standard 60mm x 900mm. With your larger lens, you'll get brighter and higher resolution images. Manual equatorial is also a good choice, but make sure you really put in the effort required to learn to use it properly. It makes observing a lot easier and you'll also learn about the sky more.

Regarding stiffening the legs, I don't consider that a priority. Yes, it may help but you've got a lot of other fish to fry before that becomes a significant issue for you. Heck, my rig weighs 150 lb and I still find the best way to keep it steady is simply not to touch it when looking through it.

chemisttree

Turbo is right about the mount being very light for that scope. My son's C4 (Celestron 102mm f9.4) refractor sits on a CG-4 very stably. That is likely the best inexpensive mount for your scope. You can modify the legs of your CG-2 as was described here if you want to try that first. It is a great modification to replace those aluminum legs with wooden ones and it requires very little in the way of tools. (drill, sandpaper, rasp or jigsaw, adjustable wrenches) It's not necessary to replace the round stainless steel legs that come with the new CG-4 mount.

You may find that the view bounces around in a light breeze and blame the legs for that. What I have found with lightweight mounts and long tube scopes is that the backlash on the RA is the biggest culprit and that can't be addressed by stiffening the legs. You can help it a bit by tightening the mesh on the pinion/RA gear and eliminating as much as possible the pinion axis play (thrust-type play). Diagnose the play by placing your fingers on the pinion axis and slightly tap the OTA. You will definitely feel the play.

90 mm is a pretty nice apeture for grab and go and the 1000mm focal length is the sweet spot for pretty good magnification and moderately wide field. You should be able to have great lunar and planetary views as well as globular clusters and double stars. With wide angle eyepieces like the Meade SWA 28 or 34mm (used) you will have fantastic views of globulars, larger nebula like M-42 and most of the open clusters like the Pleiades or the Double Cluster. You might find that there is a little purple color at high magnification for bright objects but that can largely be eliminated with a minus violet filter or the Baader Contrast Booster which is also a fine Mars filter.

CowedbyWisdom

Thanks for all the great advice everyone! I have gotten pretty good at finding stuff with the telescope. So far I have seen Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Pleiades, Luna (can't wait for the harvest moon), Vega, Deneb, Altair, Aldebaran, Polaris (obviously), and a few others I don't know the names of yet.
I just ordered a 3x Barlow and a Nebula Filter from Orion. I'm hoping that these will allow me to see Andromeda Galaxy. Does anyone have any advice for spotting Andromeda Galaxy? Also I believe I can see some smudges on the screen of the star diagonal. Anyone have any tips on cleaning that bit? Also could ya'll give me some advice on which one of these Orthoscopics is better?
http://agenaastro.com/kokusai-kohki-...piece-7mm.html
http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/...----Kasai.html
All your advice is appreciated!

-Jack

chemisttree

The Andromeda Galaxy is huge. Much larger than the full moon but the outer edges are probably going to be difficult to see. You don't need any magnification to see it at all. The best view with your scope will be at 25 mm to 35 mm with as wide a field of view as you can get. The nebula filter won't work on the Andromeda Galaxy but it will work on planetary nebula like M27 or emission nebula like M42 in Orion. You really don't need one IMO.

Chronos

I agree, aside from perhaps a moon filter, they are a waste of money for the vast majority of amateurs. The money is better spent on accessories like dielectric diagonals.

Drakkith

Hmm. I need a spectrograph!