Anyone here own a decent telescope?

[Melkane]

As much as I've been into astronomy I've never owned one myself. I've always lived in the city and figured the city lights would prevent anything worthwhile from being seen. However I thought I'd ask, if you have one how much can you see where you live...and are you city folk or country folk?

[ChronicJoint]

i actually have a pretty decent telescope. though i havent used it in quite some time since i viewed most of the interesting things in the sky.....notice the dust all over it.

the 2nd pic is missing a lense....i know i have another one somewhere just cant find it....no it isnt the one on the telescope i took it out for the pics of the lenses. haha


hahaha it looks like a bazooka or some kind of missile launching placement in that pic.

[dragonrider]

I have a pretty decent telescope. It is a Meade ETX-125, which is a 125 mm (about 5-inch) obejctive lens, so it gathers a good amount of light. It is a Maksutov design, so it is fairly compact. And the entire ETX line has computer-controlled GOTO motion, so you can find objects in the sky fairly easily.

I live in a suburban area, but when I look up at night, I can see some bright stars and major planets with the unaided eye. I cannot see dimmer stars that easily. So there is some light polution in this area, but it is not as severe as in some cities. If you stand in a dark area, out of direct view of street lights or other artificail lights, on a clear night, and wait a few minutes for your eyes to adjust, can you see at least a few bright stars? Can you make out any familiar constellations like Orion or the Big Dipper? If so, you could probably have a satisfying experience with a telescope or other optical instrument.

If you are intersted in astronomy, I would not suggest running out and spending a lot of money on a telescope. I would suggest buying or borrowing a good set of binoculars. Good astronomy binoculars have large objective lenses, like say around 50mm, and they have large exit pupils, like around 7mm. A good size is 7x50. The first number 7x is the maginification --- things appear 7 times larger. And the second number is the objective lens size, 50mm. You get the exit pupil by dividing the objective lense size by the maginification, so 50 divided by 7 is about 7, whcih is a great set of astronomy binos! Magnification is not as important as objective lens size and exit pupil. Anything over 10x is hard to hold steady. Exit pupils less than 5mm start to get dim. You want a bright image that is easy to hold steady. I have a great pair of 9x63 astronomy binos, but that size can get to be a bit heavy. Sizes down to 7x42 are probably pretty decent. 7x50 is probably the most versatile, with good performance for astronomy, not too heavy, and good applications for terrestrail viewing such as birdwatching.

Take your binoculars out on a clear night and look up at the sky. It's great if you can set up a lawn chair, or patio lounge chair, or even a blanket with a pillow so that you can lay back and look straight up. You'll be amazed at how much you can see with just a pair of binos! Scan the Milky Way in summer, ans see thousands of stars. Check out the pleiades star cluster in fall and winter. See a bit of the Great Nebula in Orion. The andromeda galazy is just a smudge, but still kind of cool to see. The moon is cool, but I realy like using a telescope on the moon --- even small telescopes can reveal amazing features on the moon. Planets are a lot brighter, but no detail until you get to larger telescopes. Binos bring out the color in stars that is hard to detect with your unaided eye.

After some time of using the binos, you can decide if you would really use a telescope or not. I have a good telescaope, but I use the binos a lot more just because the telescope involves a bit of a rigamarole to set up. One of the things you hear over and over again in advice articles is that the best telescope is the one you will actually use. It's possible to spend a ton of money on a great telescope that is too inconvenint to use. I've found that to be true for myself. If you do decide to buy a telescope, see if you can go to an astronomy club star party and try out a few different kinds. Each kind has different strengths and weaknesses, so it is great if you can try a variety.

[dragonrider]

Pictures of the moon that I took through my telescope with my digital camera.