Another Noobie!!

[oziemouse]

Hi All

My name is Steve, and I have been browsing through your fantastic site / forums for a while now. You should all feel pretty proud in the way your community behaves, and the way that the site portrays amateur astronomy, especially when taken from the perspective of an outsider looking in.

I don’t own a scope as yet, but some day…………!

I suffice at the moment with a pair of 7 x 50 binoculars. And I’ve got to admit, I get lost at times with those! I can only imagine the fun I will have with something bigger.

My question, however, is to try and put some perspective on the sorts of views attainable through a good quality scope. I know I should attend a meet, but distance is a bit of a problem. Any way, how small an aperture (lets say a Newtonian) will pick up the comet Tempel? Can the image of it be made out? Could any of you detect an appreciable increase in light source from the impact a few months ago?

Cheers

Steve

[slice of heaven]

:welcome: Steve

I viewed Comet Temple in a 12" newt, no probs and the brightened core stood out after impact . I know xreckor also viewed it in an 8" newt.

The bigger the ap the more your going to see and the brighter the image.How big depends on your budget and how transportable it needs to be.

[janoskiss]

New here? No scope?? get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob get the dob :P :nerd: :)

:welcome: Steve!

Seriously, I don't know about the comet, but here (http://www.twcac.org/Tutorials/limiting_magnitude_table.htm) is a table of limiting magnitude as a function of aperture, which might help.

[Soldant]

:welcome:!

I started with an old pair of military 7x50 binoculars, before getting my 10x50s. I love scanning the sky with them, there are some views where only binoculars will do :)

Clear skies :)

[elusiver]

janoskiss i thought u left the dob brigade to jump on the ED bandwagon? :P ;) :D

having said that.. get a dob.:D ;) :P As for what you'd expect to see it would also depend on what kind of skies your viewing from. But.. as a rule.. get the biggest aperture you can for you budget.

el :)

[acropolite]

Don't listen to all those dobbers, come over to the dark side....get a goto.....:jump:

[cahullian]

I have a Dob but want a Goto...My 8" has shown me (in a very light polluted area)centaurus A , omega cent.47tuc, dumbell neb, ring neb, the views of the planet Jupiter still blows me away, and many maany more sights. I even saw Uranus and Neptune last week. All for under $400 cant beat that.

[elusiver]

"once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.." :P :D

el :)

[Starkler]

Comet Temple was a rather dim one as far as comets that attract a lot of attention go. Brighter ones are easily seen in a pair of binoculars from a dark site.

[toetoe]

G'day Steve and welcome aboard.
There are lots of avenues which you can take to get yourself a telescope. Just watch out for all the dobbie boys in here :D:D:D. You can still have lots of good veiwing with the binocs until a scope comes along. :thumbsup:

[seeker372011]

get the dob!
(i own two GoTo's but still think my first telescope should have been a dob)

having said that you are doing just the right thing-getting hold of a pair of binos and enjoying the night sky

do you know skymaps..that will be useful in planning a nights observing..once you have found all the binocular objects -or most of them -you will be ready to thoroughly enjoy a dob

http://www.skymaps.com/

[RAJAH235]

Hi Steve, Welcome. It seems that your questions have been answered, so I'll just suggest that you get a Chandler 'Planisphere'. They come in 2 sizes, the large 1 is best @ about $22.00 from > www.bintel.com.au/ < It will help you get your bearings..... Oh, & a red LED torch to save your 'Dark Adapted' eyes. :thumbsup:
HTH. :D L.

[iceman]

Hi Steve!

How did you hear about us? And next time don't lurk so long before signing up and saying hi! :)

[rmcpb]

Steve,

Welcome to the madness. Don't be in too much of a hurry to get a scope. Take your time and get what you really want instead of what you can afford at the time.

Enjoy the sky with your binocs, have you got a planisphere and red torch? They will let you make some sense of what you are seeing and set you up really well for when you finally get a scope.

In the meantime have a look at this site:
http://www.lightandmatter.com/binosky/binosky.html#about

Ask any questions, remember, the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

[oziemouse]

Thanks for the welcome. How did I find my way here, you ask?

Iceman and Ving posted on the forum at astronomy online. I just happened to be passing through, looking for general info on scopes and things, preferably related to the oz way of life (read here affordability without huge freight cost and import duties, southern hemisphere…….). Their comments made it obvious that they knew each other at another forum. I just followed iceman’s link, and here I am.

Glad I did. :thumbsup:

[Exfso]

Steve, we are having a get together at Mount Barker on Sept 10, if you are interested contact Rumples Riot. See section on star parties etc.

[davidpretorius]

Welcome Steve,

as a 3 week old newbie owner of a 10" dob from andrews commuincations, I can honestly say i have made the right decision. in my signature, i have outlined costs etc of what i have bought and what i intend to buy next. At the moment, there is nothing i have bought that i have regretted. Balance up the comments over the next few weeks and then jump in! I have been looking at galaxies and clusters and jupiter and mars and it blows me and any of my friends away.

This is a guide for what you can see in different conditions

http://astronomy.trilobytes.com.au/martin-lewicki/jupiterseeing.htm

to get this magnification 400X ie with a 10" dob, i would have to put my 6mm eyepiece in and then use another eyepiece called a barlow to magnify the image x2. at the moment, i can get around 200X.

The main point is to compare the sizes as the aperture gets bigger to give you an idea of what telescope does what as a rough guide.

have fun

[iceman]

It's also worth noting that you'll rarely use magnification like that. The "seeing", or atmospheric turbulance, is rarely good enough to be able to support that magnification and still get an acceptable view.
In bad seeing, pushing the magnification will just give you a blurry disc that you feel isn't coming to focus.

Most times you'll use between 100-200x magnification depending on the object you're looking at. Viewing star clusters or wide starfield views, you'll even use as low as 39x.