Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian W
Strangely enough the most crucial limiting factor you will face is your skill level. A decent 4.5" reflector will show an experienced observer an awful lot.
A 12" may not show a newbie all that much. fact is that whatever you start with, if you stay interested is probably not what you will end up with.
If i may suggest... if there is a club near you get acquainted with them, look through some scopes and then decide what to get.
I started with a 4.5 and now am happy with an 8". Everyone finds their own comfort zone.
Brian
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Wise words Brian.
It might be of interest to quote the words of Bob Dudley in a recent AAVSO discussion on attracting new observers (my bold):
"
Used to belong to a club in Philadelphia that did a lot of outreach to the community. One of the things that we stressed was one needed only a modest scope to observe many objects in the night sky. We generally had only modest scopes at our star parties. The people that attended the star parties were always amazed at what they saw through the eyepiece but were always disappointed when we showed them things like m-31. They, for the most part, felt that the object should look like the picture from Hubble. Despite this we always managed to recruit a few members and we spent time in teaching them how to find objects in the night sky and viewing techniques. The real problem came when they went to purchase a telescope for themselves, as the only store in the area was the Big Telescope Store. Their showroom was full of big telescopes and they denigrated smaller scopes. They tried to talk me out of buying an 8" Dob! Yes a 12" was wonderful, but not as portable as an 8". I had looked through a 16" Obsession; wonderful scope but too pricey for me. So one had amateurs with pricey scopes and an inability to find anything with them. And we are competing with Hubble. We found that most telescope purchasers seldom take their scopes out more than 10 times the first year and never the second year."
http://www.aavso.org/pipermail/aavso...er/025832.html
The best scope is the one you use the most. I don't doubt there are many enthusiastic observers on IIS who were 'first-time' big scope buyers, but they would be the success stories.
MILD, even if you are in the more heavily light-polluted areas of Wodonga, dark skies are only a very short drive away. Join the Astronomical Society of Albury-Wodonga - they're a terrific mob and they'll be happy to show you views through a variety of scopes. Check any post by Spacezebra (Petra) on Ice In Space and she has a link to the society in her signature. Or pm her. I'm in Bright and if you're ever down this way I'd be happy to show you how a 4.5" scope performs in dark skies.
Good luck!
Cheers -