Anybody here into doing your own planetary and star sightings?
I'm looking into getting a decent beginner telescope for myself, probably a 200/1200 dobson. At first I thought about chosing a 150/1200, but the upgrade to a 8" seems a good choice if you also want to see some of the objects outside our solar system.
I think it's going to be one of these two:
Skywatcher Dobson telescope N 200/1200 Skyliner Classic
GSO Dobson telescope N 200/1200
I can get both for ~375€.
If /sci/ is not the board for this, sorry.
> ~375€
thats a lot dude :V are they any good ?
>>8201833
I'm not sure if you're trolling with that post, but I haven't actually bought one yet (let alone two).
My summer gratification money was ~3600€, so I got enough left to spend on something nice.
>>8201833
Dobsonian mount telescopes are usually the best bang for the buck
>>8201786
Forgot to mention. They have pretty much the same specks. Skywatcher has a slightly better finder scope, and a 2 inch eyepeace adapter, which offers comfortable viewing, wider field of view, which can be useful in certain situations.
>>8201846
how do they look ? can you see the nebulas yet ?
>>8201904
Are you serious...?
>>8201954
Is that a yes ? whats the point of getting a scope if you can't see shit
>>8201965
What the hell are you talking about?
Im thinking of getting into it myself, but not quite sure what level I should start at. If something like the 200/1200 dobson is decent for viewing stuff like Jupiter & the moons, and so on, then maybe that would be a good start?
>>8201982
Or wait, 200/1200 was the "deep space"-one, right?
>>8201983
Fromt what I read, 200mm (ca. 8") is considered the lowest diameter to get okay looking pictures from nebulaes etc.
a scope for planetary and deep sky object viewing should be an 8 inch reflector around 350 bucks. You're going to want an Equatorial mount
Too.
>>8202021
350 isnt that bad, tbf. I was picturing somewhere in the <1000 area
>>8202047
Quick tip: look on Craigslist for a telescope. If you aren't terrified of people it is a really great site. Often you'll find people telling their scope for cheap because they just don't use it too much anymore.
>>8202080
This. Astronomy is a lot like photography. People will buy in, and a year later realize that they've used it twice and are tired of it sitting in their closet.
>>8202080
Might try that. Norway isn't exactly mainstream Craigslist-territory, but Im spending the next six months in California so there might be some there.
>>8202090
true enough, I'd advise anyone actually thinking about buying a telescope to first visit their local observatories a few nights and see if the hobby's really for them
after all if you're going for deep sky objects, aside from the real easy ones, beginners will spend quite a bit of time just finding it and people quite often get disappointed that the majority of objects they'll find are just vague luminous spots.
>>8202097
dobson mounts are sufficient for what you're trying to do
unless you bother aligning an equatorial mount properly it doesn't actually offer any advantages
course they are necessary if you're going to be tracking objects for a prolonged period or if you're going for automated object finding (which I'd say is heresy) but that's out of your league
>>8202097
>That's not really an option for me, since I live in a quite rural area.
Give it a try. You might find one that's a good enough deal to make a couple of hour drive worthwhile.
>>8202099
>Norway isn't exactly mainstream Craigslist-territory
You have Finn. I just checked, fellow anon, and indeed there are many telescopes available there.
>>8204140
>>8202080
OP (not the skandinavian guy) here, I think I pretty much decided on the GSO Dobson telescope N 200/1200.
Also thinking about adding:
A 7-21 Zoom occular: http://www.astroshop.de/omegon-super-ploessl-zoomokular-7-21mm-apo-1-25-/p,5084
...and something to watch the sun.
This is the cheapest sun filter I found that (I think) would fit on my 200m opening:
http://www.astroshop.de/folienfilter-in-fassungen/euro-emc-sonnenfilter-sf100-groese-8-187mm-bis-221mm/p,45545
One last bump, for more suggestions.
I've got the Skywatcher you mentioned, bought it about a year ago. I haven't used it that much since I live in a region where cloudy nights are very common, but I think it's a nice telescope. It's very easy to use. Supposedly you can get a good look at both jupiter and saturn with it, I haven't used it that much so I haven't tried yet. You could also use it to look at the moon and get a closer look at the craters, mountains and valleys, but you'd need something to shield your eyes from the bright light, sunglasses worked fine for me.
Remember to buy a few different eyepieces.
