New Beginner help!

[jayconnor]

hi everyone

i really am a freshman with this sort of stuff, i have a national geographic telescope right now worth about 250!

Im wanting to upgrade to something a bit better and maybe computerized
to make it a bit easier for me to find objects in the night sky! also would love to get a dslr camera to take some sweet pictures!

i was looking towards a Celestron Nexstar 4 se computerized cassargrain telescope! but really i have no clue what direction to go?

any help would be great thanks!! :)

p.s looking to spend around the 1000 to 1500 dollar mark for a new telescope! 2nd hand or brand new is no issue!

p.p.s sorry and thanks alot for your help you most likely get annoying people like me all the time :D :lol:

[Akwestland]

Jay,

Welcome to Ice In Space.

I am also a very raw newbie. I will try and offer some of the advice that I have been offered.

Go to a star party or an open to the public viewing night. These nights allow newbies to try various equipment but, more importantly, to talk to other users that have started somewhere.

Spend lots of time on here, search the threads, read and then read some more, ask questions. The people here are a great source of user based information.

The 4SE, I bought one of these (our first scope) late last year. It is a nice bit of gear but I have already realised how limited it is. The GOTO is easy to use, providing you do a reasonable alignment. Remember that you may want extra eyepieces and filters as well, so factor that in to the purchase.

I am already upgrading to a 8" Newtonian. I now realise that the "best bang for buck" is a reasonable sized Newtonian. Unfortunately I am not in an area where I can visit a start party or open night, I have learnt this the hard way. Check out the classifieds on here, some great bargains to be had if you are patient.

As for astrophotography, that is also where I want to head. Maybe think about today's purchase with that in mind. At the moment I do not want to start that game too soon, there is a lot to learn before that.

I hope that this helps.

Cheers,
Andrew.

[TechnoViking]

Hi Jay, and Welcome!

Astronomy is the most mind expanding and exciting hobbies that i think you could ever get into. I'm still a newbie myself, and for the next 20+ years i guess i will still be a newbie, that's the joys of the universe you'll never know everything :D

Telescopes, all have their pro's and con's and I don't want to sound like a downer but as soon as you bring astrophotography into the mix you need some very deep pockets, although in saying that I have seen some nice images produced with entry level gear, hacked webcams and home made mounts!

A Dobsonian would be a good starting point you can get 8 inch dob's for about $600, or you could invest in a goto dob like this one http://http://www.bintel.com.au/Telescopes/Dobsonian/Orion-SkyQuest-XT10G/1472/productview.aspx

Some questions you also want to ask yourself before buying a telescope.
1. Am I in a light polluted area? Will I need to transport it to darker skies? Is the telescope transportable, and easy to setup with one person?
2. What do I want to see? Planets? Binary Stars?
3. What kind of Photography, Planets, Nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, stars or all of them?
4. Do I want to do more visual or more photography? or a mixture of both?
5. How much am I willing to spend

Some of these questions are hard to answer, but be 100% honest with yourself and the answers will help make the decision for you :)


In saying all that I completely agree with Andrew, try and get to a Star Party, or join an Astronomy group, if you have facebook, search for groups in you area, have a look through some telescopes to get a "Feel" for what others use. Make sure you ask as many questions as you can, even write them down and rattle them off like a machine gun. This forum is fantastic for information, with so many helpful people more than willing to give advice, we were all beginners at one stage!.

Have a look at other new members posts in the beginners section, you will find a wealth of information about choosing the right telescope.

Good Luck and Clear Skies :)

James

[raymo]

Welcome from me too. If you are looking to take some sweet pictures,
then the 4SE and all it's stablemates are not for you. They have
altazimuth mounts which suffer from a thing called field rotation, which
limits their suitability for imaging. Your best compromise scope/ mount
setup would be a used Skywatcher 8" Newt on a SW HEQ5 Pro Goto
mount. They come up at around $1000 to $1200 quite often.
Be aware that equatorial mounts such as the HEQ5 are not as easy to
use as altazimuth ones are, but their bark is actually worse than their bite.
raymo

[Visionary]

In all the"Newbie" talk there is little discussion about mounts, lots of talk about OTA and eye pieces, yet little discussion about mounts. Being new to astronomy I purchased what I thought was good scope, a Celestron 130. Well the OTA is really very nice, but the mount was a pile of c$&p! The mount is so poorly constructed that it's almost impossible to use the scope.
I mention this as I was fortunate enough to secure a beautiful Mizar mount from the IIS classified. I placed the Celestron 130 atop the Mizar..... Magic! The scope performed flawlessly now it had the benefit of a superb Japanese mount.
My suggestion is this..... don't worry about what scope you want, as there are many great scopes on the market. Focus on the mount, spend 2/3 of you total $1k - $1.5k on the mount then everything else will sort of look after itself. Keep an eagle on the IIS classified and flea-bay remember flea-bay is littered with a 1001 duds. Spend the greater proportion of your time in enthusiast sites. On the other hand if your comfortable with retail, give the guys at Bintel a called.

[Alchemy]

As per andrews reply, get to look at someone else's equipment, so much more can be understood in a hands on session, let people know roughly where you live and your availability, and maybee someone can offer a bit of help.

Astro gear is such a minefield, there's lots of options, good choices and bad.

[MattT]

Hi Jay,
As you in Melbourne the first step is to get into Bintel on Bourke Rd in Camberwell. There you will see all sorts of scope s set up and can see the difference between 6 8 10 12" and bigger dobs plus EQ Alt az mounts and eyepieces. Thats all brand new at brand new prices. Then check out what you get second hand right here on IIS classifides.

Matt

[Camelopardalis]

+1 can't emphasise enough how useful it is to touch, feel and pick up prospective future scopes :thumbsup:

[barx1963]

And the other way to see a few scopes, and get to see them in operation under a dark sky is to pay a visit to the upcoming Snake Valley Astro Camp. Casual visits (ie. not staying overnight) are free and there are lots of scopes and brains to pick as well.

Camp starts Friday week and runs for 3 nights (20-22 March), info is here http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=130984

Malcolm

[jayconnor]

wow so much feedback! loving it! well ive been just looking at the moon taken photos and time lapses with my iphone!! bloody loving it!

so targeting the moon and maybe mars would be my mission and anything else is a bonus!

[sil]

I would add another question:

6. How much effort are you going to put into learning/using what you buy?

If you think you just buy a scope and a camera, push a button and get great photos then you are so very far from the mark. Having a dodgy copy of photoshop won't help either. Most people dont make the most of what they have nor understand it.

There is no single solution. Different types of scope have pros/cons to match main areas of interest and usage. You can enjoy and learn astronomy at any budget (just avoid those cheapie scope from dick smith or aldi though). you can do astrophotography with any camera you have (you do not need a scope). the main factor is the "you" part. the gear wont do things for you if "you" don't contribute. but if you put in the effort you can gain so much from astronomy and there are many areas to contribute or just enjoy it.

[jayconnor]

I'm looking into getting the BINTEL BT200 f/5 HEQ5-Pro!

Thoughts?

[Misplaced]

I have that scope and mount with GoPro. It is a very good scope in my opinion and the mount is very sturdy and holds the scope well.

Bear in mind they are very bulky and heavy items when set up.

I'm still getting to grips with mine and learning how to get polar alignment for taking photo's.

All in all though I would definitely recommend but I only have experience of this scope and mount.

Others will certainly pitch in with their views.

Enjoy! Whatever you get.

Mis

[jayconnor]

How heavy is it roughly mate?

[jayconnor]

I ended up getting this setup!

http://www.bintel.com.au/Telescopes/Reflector/Bintel-BT200-f/5-HEQ5-Pro-GOTO/1006/productview.aspx

Pick up in a few weeks just waiting on stock to arrive! so excited!

[BeanerSA]

The 4SE is one of the few that actually has a built in wedge.

[Visionary]

As a fellow Newbie my advice is current. Don't waste a single moment of your time agonising over what scope to purchase, instead focus on the mount! Buy the BEST mount your budget can afford then double that figure! The scope will look after itself. Once paired to a GREAT mount even an average scope will perform well.
The "mount effect" can be seen within the Astrophotography crowd, very, very, good refractors paired with "out of this world" mounts. In truth much of the very best and coolest tech in astronomy resides in the mounts that hold our scopes.
Focus on the mount, then everything else will happen.
Cheers David

[raymo]

You got a good rig there Jay.
Yes Paul, it has a wedge, and is a nice scope visually, but it's
relatively small aperture, and the fact that it is very very slow photographically [f/13]when combined, make it a poor choice for imaging anything but the brightest of objects. [IMHO].
raymo

[jayconnor]

Ok awesome news I have my scope and mount setup! Can anyone point me in the right direction so that I can polar align my scope? it's going over my head a bit at this stage haha

[raymo]

Hi Jay, Go to the SW website and download the Synscan user's guide;
print it out and get a 65cent plastic spine, and make it into a book
you can have with you at the scope. The set up and polar alignment
procedures are a bit long winded to post here in detail.
raymo

[jayconnor]

do you know of any tutorial videos that are about?

[raymo]

Just Google " how to polar align an HEQ5 mount".
raymo

[jayconnor]

Thanks Raymond! I'll be having a crack tomorrow arvo again!! and hopefully the clouds stay away!