Hi There

[Harley]

Hi everyone great site just thought i would intraduce my self .I don not own a scope look at the sky with binoculars at this stage.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi, Gilbert.

Welcome.:welcome:

Binoculars are a good place to start, allows you to get familiar with the night sky.

Have fun:astron:

Cheers,
Justin.

[Harley]

Thanks Justin
now it say you are aLong time amateur astronomer all aspects i have been looking at scopes eg 8 inc Dobs or saxon m9012EQ what would you say is a good first scope

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Hi,

Can't help you much with off the shelf scopes, as I build my own.
But for value you can't beat an 8" dob, they are cheap at the moment.
They usually have great portability.
I think it's a good place to enter the world of telescopes.
An 8" f/6 = 1200mm or 48" is a good alrounder.
Gives the best of both worlds, good on deepsky objects (DSO)and not bad on the planets.
You could go for a faster f/4 which will give wider fields of view on DSO's but the faster the optics the more you need to pay more to get a good mirror.
I think most come with reasonable eye pieces (EP's)these days. You shouldn't need to upgrade on these for a while.

Of course you will come across many points of view on this forum, so it's ultimately up to you to way up the pro's and con's.

Hope this helps.

Justin.

[ZeroID]

An 8" (or 10") Dob as Justin says is a good place to be. Big enough to be useful, small enough to manage on your own. I don't know about the sales in Aust but check out second hand on here as well. You should get something thats been taken care of and probably some good advice.

[alistairsam]

Hi Gilbert

Welcome. As Justin mentioned, an 8" reflector on a Dobsonian mount is a very good start. It would usually come with a 26mm eyepiece, thats ideal for most deep sky objects.
I'd also suggest a visit to your closest astro society, people are helpful and you get to see a variety of scopes before you decide yours.
You could also think of an 80mm refractor on an alt az mount as a grab n go scope.
Star charts, planispheres are all useful but you could also use the website calsky to look up what objects you could see at what time and where.
Stellarium is also very handy.
Let us know how you go and with questions, ask away.

[Harley]

Thanks for that
Will try and get to one of the Astronomical Society of Vic meetings they have there monthly meeting on the 8th