Stargazing Which are the top telescope producers

[Ahmadsh]

Which are the top telescopes producers ?
i want names of company

 

[montoyas7940]

Most?
Or best?

 

[Ahmadsh]

both

 

[russ_watters]

Most would be Meade or Celestron probably. Best...well, you have to define a price range. Perhaps Astro-Physics or RC Optical Systems. Above that, you're mostly talking custom observatory scopes.

 

[Ahmadsh]

thank you russ,thank you so mush i saw your website and i had surprised when i saw you with this monster telescope wow it is too big i think is celestron.actually,i haven't any idea about telescopes but i like it and i want to be an astrophotographer as a hobby but how can i choose my telescope?
i can't understand any thing when i read the specification of telescope.what is the start point and what are the books you recommend which talk about the telescope?
thank you again

 

[russ_watters]

Because of the amount of money and time involed in becoming an astrophotographer of even my level (not very advanced), I recommend starting pretty small, with a telescope that can help you learn the sky and learn about your own real interest level. I once spent a sleepless night in my car in a random parking lot an hours' drive from home in winter just to get good conditions for photography. And I assure you I'm not the craziest astrophotographer out there.

 

[turbo]

Look at the Orion Telescope web-site. They have a wide variety of instruments, and they tend to class them as to ease-of-use, experience levels, etc. Their customer service is highly regarded by consumers. Russ's scope came from here, BTW. My main scope is an Astro-Physics APO refractor and though they were fairly inexpensive (in relative terms) when Roland started his company, the high quality and resultant demand have pushed prices and wait-times to the point at which only the faithful need apply, and wait ... and wait. My wait from order to build to delivery was about 10 months - a miracle when considering high-end optics.

http://www.telescope.com/control/main/

 

[Adonis]

i recommend you to visit this:

www.findascope.com

 

[Zaith]

Relevant sites are available in the internet.

http://www.Besttelescope.co

 

[Astro_Dude]

To sort of echo what Russ says, we almost always suggest to people to start small at the local observatory when people ask us about telescopes. Here's the thing - you need to get a good one if you're going to buy one, good of course being defined by what you want to accomplish. If you're doing astrophotography, a Dobsonian probably won't work for you, you'll need a scope with tracking. So you're already talking about the cost of a mid-range computer for a scope.

The two mistakes people generally make are: (1) They buy a cheapo one that's essentially no better than a good set of binos. These are those Newtonian scopes you'll see in stores for only 100-200 or so. (2) They buy a good scope, but they are overwhelmed because they've never done anything with astro before. The telescope ends up sitting in the basement doing nothing because the person gets frustrated.

So I agree with Russ, if you want to do astro photography, start small. Go outside with a planosphere and your camera. I'd also suggest buying a good pair of binos (like 300$) to see if you're really going to invest the time into astronomy. You may think you are now, but if you find out you really don't want to do it, binos can be used for a lot of different things so it's not really a lost cost. If you find yourself really going out all the time and enjoying it, by all means, go get a telescope then.

EDIT: Just noticed that there's a whole thread on this subject. The OP goes into a lot more detail than I did here: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=391086

 

[Drakkith]

Guys, you realize this post is from December 2008 right?