telescope for deep sky

[AnnaFer]

Hey guys!

Could you share your experience and ideas what telescope is the best for deep sky? I'm going to buy one. Don't really trust the reviews from manufacturers.
Thanx in advance

[ZeroID]

Hi Anna, are you talking visual or imaging ?
Visual would be a large aperture Dob, 8" - 12" or even bigger. Plenty of those around and best 'bang for buck'.
Imaging requirements are different and more specific.

[mental4astro]

Hi Anna,

:welcome: to IIS, :)

Lovely to see a new person join and ask about getting a shiny new scope, :D I love spending someone else's money... :D

The good thing about astro is you can spend as much or as little as you want, and still be satisfied. Doesn't matter how many $$$$ you spend, each level of $ presents its own set of challenges.

Another good thing about astro is you can make things as complex or simple as you want to take them.

Do you have any experience with scopes? This I feel we need to ask you first as it will help tailor our replies.

Your question, like Brent mentions, needs a bit more fleshing out for us to help you. Visual (looking through the scope) or imaging (astrophotography) are you looking to follow? For visual, usually this follows you want as large an aperture as you can get for money and ease of transport. Imaging aperture grunt is not as important, but the mount, cameras and associated gear is.

How much money do you want to spend?

If you don't have much experience, I'd suggest you try to get to a local star party, organised by an astro club or an informal gathering, and spend some time seeing the type of equipment there, how simple or complex it is to set up or use, how large things are, the myriad of bits and pieces that there is, and what each type of scope is capable of doing, visual and imaging wise.

There is plenty of info here in IIS on such gatherings. Just ask, :) Australia's largest star party is happening this weekend near Mudgee in NSW, the South Pacific Star Party (SPSP), and there is a thread discussing it in the Star Parties forum. An informal gathering at the same time is happening at Katoomba Airfield closer to Sydney. These are just a suggestion as we don't know where you are, :)

Cheers,

Mental.

[barx1963]

Anna
Welcome to IIS!!:welcome:
There is a simple answer, albeit not very helpful, and that is the Hubble! But more realistically, the answer depends heavily on a wide range of factors. There is, for the amateur, no one "best" scope. It really depends upon what you want to see, what your budget is, are you into visual or imaging use (these two uses are largely incompatible) how technically minded you are, what DYO skills you have, how much storage space you have, where you live, where are you proposing to use the scope, do you want to travel with it, how comfortable you are with heavy weights, what car do you have, are you a solo observer or is this a family activity etc etc.

The overall answer is there is no best scope, just the best scope that will suit you and that YOU will use. There are lots of wonderful scopes sitting in people's houses not being used whose ownere bought the best scope that they could and only found out later it was not the best for THEM.

Anyway, a bit more detail, and we may be able to give a better answer.

Cheers

Malcolm

[kens]

Welcome to the forum Anna. Good advice above and all I can add is that there are, however, some scopes that are no good for anything and must be avoided. Often found in stores that don't specialise in astronomy nor anything else for that matter. And usually set up pointing at the ground because they don't even know how they are supposed to work.

[Nungers]

Hi Anna, I probably cheated a bit, I bought a very good package off a mate who was selling and getting more into astrophotography. Worked out great for both of us

[cometcatcher]

Scopes start getting heavy over 8". Something to keep in mind. Hard to beat the good "allrounder" 8" F6 dob.

[NewinWA]

Hi anna -- The scope you want is the one that is easiest to move around and you can see yourself using


off topic:-


Which one did you get Graham ?? from someone in town ??

[Nungers]

Which one did you get Graham ?? from someone in town ??[/QUOTE]

Bought Paul Di Loreto's 11" Celestron, love the goto, much better than the Dob