Beginner equipment dilemma, with a twist.

[EddieDog (Eddie)]

Hi, I know this is a bit late but here goes anyway. The our dollar is still very good v US. When in NY in Dec I bought a NexStar 6Se from B&H. Scope and with shipping cost just under $1000. Only prob was slow shipping. Had I paid another couple of hundred I could have had FedX far quicker. I also bought a 3 year warrenty which stands. But prob could be whether local repairer would honour it our whether we would have to send back to US. In terms of size, box far too big to take on plane though maybe other arrangement can be made.

Eddie in Perth

[lightning (Dave)]

amazing knowedgable people .i am a complete novice. have a cheap 4.5 inch reflector, becomming quickly addicted, any wisdom would be greatly appriciated

[Brian W (Brian)]

You are out of luck for wisdom in my case but I did start with an Orion4.5" short tube reflector on an EQ mount.

Keeping things inexpensive download some free planetarium software to help you see what is above you. Stellarium works for me but others have different favourites.

You do not say it but I am hoping you are at a dark site or have access to one. If you do your 4.5 with inexpensive eye pieces will allow you to complete most of the M-110. I say most not because your scope won't show them but they may be below your horizon.

Final bit of advice... develop your skills with the 4.5 and when you have pushed it to its limit then think about upping the aperture. There is nothing quite as good as modest aperture to develop your observing skills.
Brian

[Rob_K]

Great advice Brian! You seem to live in a very dark area by your signature Dave so you should get some nice dark skies. As you train your eyes on dimmer objects in the sky you'll find that you will see things that are beyond the view of city-dwellers with much bigger telescopes. The only extra advice that I would add to Brian's is that you stick to low powers for deep sky objects such as galaxies (say, around 20mm eyepiece, give or take), otherwise you will run out of light with 4.5" aperture.

You can crank up the magnification on bright objects like the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus though. For that, look for nights when the stars aren't twinkling - that's a good rough gauge on how turbulent the atmosphere is. To get good focus and detail on these objects you need still air (good "seeing").

Anyway, hope you have a lot of fun with it!

Cheers -

[Jerous]

Firstly, sorry for the post necromancy but I had to share.

I finally bought a telescope. I've been hunting around the used section for a few months and almost bought a scope a few times but held off. I came close to buying various OTAs and a Skywatcher GOTO mount but fear of the extra hidden costs stopped me.

I finally ended up forfilling my budget of under $1000.

I got a Meade LT 6" SC for $965 AU shipped via UPS. I was so close to buying an 8" goto Dob, even called for stock once but never got around to buy it, I feel like I was dragging my feet cause deep down, I knew it was not what I wanted. I feel like I've made a good choice for me, lord knows I thought about it for long enough... It's under $1000 so no duty or GST issues as well.

I think the Meade will be good, I am super excited so I had to share.

Now comes the search for accessories!

[Brian W (Brian)]

I am sure you will not be sorry. I am equally sure if you are not careful the accessories will end up costing more than the scope.
Brian