New to Astronomy

Astro-boy (Matt) · #1 30-10-2008, 08:01 PM

Hi, i am new to astronomy and i currently own a celestron powerseeker 127 telescope, i am looking to purchase a practical, lightweight telescope with a go-to system. Lately i have not had many clear nights for observing, and am looking forward to getting some in the near future.

Miaplacidus (Brian) · #2 30-10-2008, 10:03 PM

Hi Matt,
No doubt everyone will leap in momentarily to suggest you buy a dobsonian. This is good advice, but to answer your particular question, nowadays I would probably look first at the Celestron SE series. The 6 inch seems a nice compromise with respect to aperture and yet remains reasonably compact. Having said that, I don't have one. I still like my ETX 105, by the way.

The SE is a single arm fork. The chief disadvantage I see with that is relative instability, you know, if you're considering imaging (but then, none of these portable gotos is suitable for that). The advantage is the fact that you can swap in a different telescope OTA if you buy one, and rebalance easily. None of these scopes allows you to easily push the tube around manually if for some reason you want to (e.g. terrestrial views). And you need to think about getting a portable power source, of course, because using the batteries simply is not a long term proposition.

Good luck.

Brian.

Jen · #3 30-10-2008, 11:04 PM

to IIS

Cheap Astronomy (Steve) · #4 01-11-2008, 08:06 AM

It all sounds a bit expensive

acropolite (Phil) · #5 01-11-2008, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve

It all sounds a bit expensive

I can't ever recall anyone saying they wished they'd bought cheaper equipment, buy the best you can afford, if you can't afford what you really want, wait until you can.

Matt, if you look around you should be able to get something like an 8 inch LX90, second hand, for around $2000. 8 inches is a very useable aperture allowing you to see a lot of faint stuff and light and portable enough to transport, together with tripod, in the back seat of a small car.

stephenb (Stephen) · #6 01-11-2008, 10:31 AM

Matt, I agree with Brian's opinion. The Celestron range of single fork scopes are well regarded - more so overseas than here. I would have no problem recommending a 6SE. For a tad under $2000. This is a great GOTO scope.

Yes, dobs are beneficial to your starhopping skills and you do get "more bang for your buck", but they are not everyone's cuppa tea.