Hi everyone. I'm very new to star gazing. A friend got me hooked on the International Space Station and I've been obsessed since. That was only about a month ago. I'm watching live feeds, YouTube vidčos and have the live tracker. My wife reckons it's an addiction but I can think of worse ones. Even my children are asking about it.
Anyway, I am looking at the Skywatcher 450 telescope, well I've asked santa, and was wondering what sort of things one could expect to see with it. I'm certainly an amateur so please go easy on the lingo.
I am interested in the moon etc as have always wanted to check it out.
Does anyone have any experience with this one to give me some guidance.
Welcome to IIS. Think about a Dobsonian design first up. They are cheap, allow you to push the scope such that you can "drift" over the sky, and can be used easily with star charts. No need for polar alignment and have very little that can break or jam.
You can get a 6" for a few hundred dollars and even cheaper second hand - try the IIS classifieds.
Tell Santa that a DOB WILL DO THE JOB... A dobsonian will give great view and are simple to use. The moon is a great target, but with say an 8" DOB you will be also able to see some deep space objects and Jupiter, as well as the bands on Saturn etc. you get more scope for your money rather than the money being used on lower quality goto electronics. In some lower priced scops they sell the electronics as the main feature of the scope and compromise on the image quality.
Just keep in mind if you have not used telescopes on sky objects before. You will not see colour like you see in those nice pics they show on the box. You will see objects in shades of grey only. Still very very cool. To get colour you will need to take photos and will need more expensive setups etc.. You can take simple images on a DOB using a computer webcam or even an iPhone..
Thier is no do all telescope, and your choice is still one that will be great for the moon and would be great fun. I would purchase a DOB if it was my money as I think you will grow out of the other scope pretty fast. My first scope was a 10" dobsonian.. Bit large to carry around. An 8" would be better.
