Quote:
Originally Posted by Starbright
Hi everyone, thanks so much for your advice 
To begin with, we were favouring the NexStar 130SLT Computerized Telescope because it sounded like it would be easy to find things with but we didn't know if it would do what we wanted or be any good.
Most of the responses here seem pretty much for the 10' dob so we are looking at getting the 10' skywatcher and the size would not really be much of a problem as we probably will just use it here at home. We live about 15 kms out of town and we could take a short drive onto a neighbouring property which has the moresby ranges on it which is about as high as we can get here in Geraldton.
The next question would be what is the best way to locate planets etc in the sky??  And also what about additional eye pieces?
Thanks
Anne |
Hi Anne
Hey to find the planets download this fantastic free software called stellarium, it'll show you exactly where everything is and it replicates the night sky from wherever you are eg Geraldton, the site link is this one
http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Download such a cool free programme, in fact i bought starry nights pro plus 6 and i prefer the free stellarium for ease of use.
With the telescope choice i would not go for the small celestrobn scope because 130mm of aperature just doesn't cut it.
As i was saying before the skywacher 10'' dob is small but has 254mm of aperature, this will resolve details on the planets, and show the nebula clouds very well especially in Geraldton, your lucky to have dark skies
.
I take successful images with a computerised mount and a 12'' scope that was off a skywatcher dob, but all my friends own 10'' dob and have put them on eq6 pro mounts that track and slew(go to) objects they want.