New and looking to purchase

[churto]

Hi Guys,

I'm new in the market for a telescope for me and my partner. I have been looking at the Celestron NexStar SLT range. But I'm not sure which is best.
Could someone help me out.

Thanks :D

[bmitchell82]

The standard response will be to get a Dobsonian aka, you pay for optics not electronics. questions you need to ask yourself.

-Where do i live? will i be going into dark skies?
-How much are you looking to spend?
-Storage/Transport
-Are you just keen to hvae a bit of a look or are you serious about getting in?

Let us know and we can give you some ideas.!

[churto]

Thanks Brendan
I live between Taree and Wingham (Kolodong (http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=kolodong&sll=-31.878651,152.429209&sspn=0.041399,0.061884&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Kolodong+NSW&t=h&z=13)) so there isn't much city light interference.
I wouldn't be transporting it and storage isn't an issue.
I've always had a drive to learn more about astronomy and really want to get more involved. I'm looking to spend up to $1500.

[bmitchell82]

if your in that range are you looking purely for visual and you cant see yourself going to photography or do you think you might want to slap a camera to the telescope?

[churto]

At the present I'm looking more for just visual, I've been reading a few threads about photography and it sounds quite complex for me at this stage. I use photoshop but most of my work is void because I have a colour deficiency.

[barx1963]

Repeat after me.....I will get the biggest Dobsonion I can afford!
For those $ you can get a very nice 12" and still have money for a premium eyepiece. Remember, aperture rules.
As a comparison the Nexstar 5SE is $1649 at Bintel, but it is a 5" scope, Bintels version of the GSO 12" is $999 with $500 to spend on a nice 13mm Nagler and a couple of atlases! And you WILL see more with this than the 5".
But (there is always a but!) these are big units so go and have a look at one, or prefereably through one before committing.

[Paddy]

I agree with Malcolm - 10-12" dob would be perfect (more so the 12 if you're not going to transport it a lot by car). It is also worth being aware (if you haven't looked through telescopes at stars) that even with a large telescope that things won't look as they do in astro-images. Deep sky objects will appear in shades of grey, not colour (although you will see coloured stars and when observing planets. If you bear this in mind, a 12" will blow your mind.

[Rodstar]

I will chime in at this point with the usual comment about trying before you buy. Andrew - for such a big investment it is very very wise to have a look through a few scopes for comparison first. That will give you a much better idea of what you are getting yourself into. Start a new thread requesting info about observing nights that might be happening in your general area, and contact the nearest astronomical society and try to get along to one of their observing nights. Everyone is very happy to share and chat, so you will get a good sense of the different styles of scopes, and what you get for your money.

I am a dob man myself now, having initially gone for the computerised goto style telescope (in my case it was a Meade LX series). There is no doubt that the difference between a 5" and 10-12" is like chalk and cheese on deep sky objects, but if, for example, you were only interested in looking at the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and a few nice open clusters, then a 5" will be very satisfactory. If you were hoping to see galaxies and other deep sky wonders, then a 5" scope will prove rather unsatisfactory except under the darkest of skies. I found over time that I wanted more aperture so I could go deeper, and search out more distant objects. If you stay a visual observer, I think you will quickly experience the limitations of 5".

Good luck!

[churto]

Thanks guys, you have been all really helpful. The 10" or 12" Dobsonion definitely sound like what I'm looking for. I'll looking into getting a look through one before I order though.
:thanx:
Been just comparing the prices between ozscopes.com.au and bintelshop.com.au, and there is 3 kinds of Dobsonions(standard, not collapsible) - Saxon, Skywatcher and Bintel. Both the Saxon and Skywatcher have the same "specs" and all 3 look the same except for a branding sticker and the stand. So is there any advantages between the 3 brands?

[Rodstar]

Andrew, I highly recommend a purchase from Bintel as they can provide you with all of the support you need. They check collimation etc before you walk away with the scope, and all of the salestaff are experienced amateur astronomers, so their after sales support will be excellent. Having a physical store you can visit has its advantages over an internet based virtual store.

The value of the collapsable style dob is in the transportation of it. If you are mainly observing from home etc, then this is less of an important feature. Indeed, sometimes the collapsable style can create stability issues if the poles are not tightly in place. I would have thought in your circumstances a solid tube would be preferable. Again, however, I repeat, TRY BEFORE YOU BUY!!!