View Single Post
  #1  
Old 22-03-2019, 09:20 AM
PTZONE (Mario)
Registered User

PTZONE is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Sydney
Posts: 6
Finally my First Telescope

Hi,

I have often based at the stars and have been fascinated by what is outside our atmosphere. I have decided to buy a telescope so I can enjoy some of the wonders of our universe. I have been researching for a week or 2 and was surprised at the available options, every time I found a telescope I liked, up pops another one and have been going around in circles so I thought i would ask the experts.
One thing I am lacking is i have no reference as to how the images will look like for each type of telescope.

Here are my priorities, ( which have been constantly changing over the past few days) .

Priority 1: portability, I want to be able to take it with me in the car when I go away. ( due to go to south coast, Berry and Tilba Tilba over Easter and want to take one with me)
Priority 1a: I am interested in DSO’s but love to look at planets. I am guessing if I get great DSO views the planets will also look great.
Priority 2: Auto-tracking plus manual capability but will settle for manual only if i can get some great DSO views within my budget
Priority 3: Terrestrial viewing.

Here are the ones I have narrowed it down to ( in my budget - around AU$600):

1/ Skywatcher Heritage 130 Tabletop Dobsonian fl 650mm (collapsible)
2/ Skywatcher Virtuoso Mak90 tracking tabletop Dobsonian fl 1250, I like the upgrade path to a GOTO as well ( there is a 114P version fl500mm but I can’t seem to find one for sale)
3/ Skywatcher 6 inch Dobsonian ( not as portable as the others but the 6 inch aperture would give me clearer images and ability to look deeper into space ( did I get that right?)


No preference to skywatcher willing to look at others, I am also willing to upgrade the viewing lenses if I need to.

I think I got the handle of the aperture size importance, please confirm - the bigger it is the more light it will allow through which means I can look deeper into space also the larger the max magnification.
I still have trouble working out the role of the focal length on the quality of the images, eg the virtuoso Mak90 with fl 1250mm and the 114P with fl 500mm what differences can I expect from them ?

Thanks in advance for any advice that gets me started.
Reply With Quote