Vanity: Looking for First Telescope/Astronomical Binoculars (Under $200)

Vanity | March 11, 2013 | Me

[C19fan]

I am looking at buying my first astronomical instrument. I have a budget of under $150.

I was thinking of these two as possibilities:

1: Celestron SkyMaster 20x80 Binoculars

2: Orion SkyScanner 100mm TableTop Reflector Telescope

Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks.

[envisio]

Mine is very similar to post #3. Maybe even the same model. I have camera to go with it...

[dragnet2]

Meade ETX series is nice...Buy the best possible...If need be save up a bit more money and then buy..

BTW, I've bought used telescopes before and they worked well, but I inspected them first.

I am actually in the process of rebuilding my little observatory, which houses a 10" Schmidt Cassegrain - Catadioptric. The pier holding the scope is all homemade using scrap steel.

This is a pic of the old observatory location..It's been moved to a new location.

Here's a pic of my scope at the old location. Notice my junk yard steel plates used to bolt the equatorial mount to?

Below is one of the images taken not too long ago.

Eastern Veil Nebula NGC 6992 - Supernova remnant

Veil Nebula is an old supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus. It is the remains of cataclysmic explosion of star that exploded between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago. This nebula is about 1,860 light-years distance.

My first ever scope cost me 21 bucks!

BTW, Meade and Celestron have pretty decent optics.

It's OK to buy used, save money and many times you can get a great deal...Try astromart.com

[bicyclerepair]

I got this telescope from freecycle. It’s a Jason 60x700. Can see saturn’s rings, but very frustrating to find and keep on target.

And yes, cheap telescopes are more hassle than they’re worth. Bring out the huge tripod, try and find something. Then keep moving it. Gets old fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKqXN-UFra8

[knife6375]

1. How well do you know your way around the night sky?

2. Do you live around a lot of lights?

Binoculars on a tripod are probably your best buy for now. You will need to learn the night sky as far as the major constellations, a map from www.skymaps.com is free and can be printed for your use. Getting away from outdoor lighting will be the biggest help, you need to keep your eyes dark adapted. Also free astronomy programs are available to help learn the sky. If you do decide on a telescope a 114mm reflector would not be a bad choice if you find 1 on a dobsonian base. Hope this helps.

[knife6375]

http://www.skymaps.com

[barefoot_hiker]

This book is excellent:

http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Astronomers-Guide-Terence-Dickinson/dp/1554073448

[jboot]

Jason! I remember them fondly. My best friend had one circa 1980. 60x700 makes me lol, though. The highest useable power in a Jason 60mm was probably something like 90X. To get to 700X you'd need to stack a teeny little 1.5mm aperture eyepiece on the Barlow lens. At that point even the full moon would be dark as soot, assuming that you could line up your eye with the aperture! Eye relief would probably be measured in Angstroms. ;-) But if you stick with a lower-powered eyepeice you can see a lot.

If you want a quick MASSIVE upgrade that won't cost too much, get a hybrid diagonal and a modern 1.25" eyepeice like this one. Get one of these, too, just in case you need a bit more focal length. You will see a huge difference. Another cheap win is to set a 6' x 4" pipe in concrete so that 4' is above ground and affix the scope to that instead of the wobbly-azz tripod.