Planning to buy a first telescope? - Comments

[sophiecentaur]

I am very impressed

I'm well jell (as my daughter would say).
SW work to a price and where would we be without them? The extra that you have to pay to ensure no inadequate bits follows a fairly high order Inverse Power Law,
On the same lines, I bought a seriously chunky and firm camera tripod some years ago. Using it with my 250mm Pentax Zoom has revealed an increasing slop in the neck, under the mount. Everything is built big enough but the plug / spigot that fits into the top of the vertical tube is held in place by a single 4mm pin through the tube and the spigot which is the weak link. How did that creep into the design? Design costs are cut long before advertising costs. I can, at least fix it. I am cinsidering welding!

 

[davenn]

I'm well jell (as my daughter would say).

I had a hint of that too when I saw what awesome images other guys have been producing with the SW ESPRIT 100 or 120mm
Tho I had been having good success with the Canon camera and top end telephoto zoom lenses, I really desired a decent scope
on an equally decent tracking mount so that I could get exposures of more than 30 sec. The 100mm scope and the HEQ5 Pro mount
will achieve this goal.

SW work to a price and where would we be without them? The extra that you have to pay to ensure no inadequate bits follows a fairly high order Inverse Power Law,

That's so true. This scope is leaps and bounds above that AU$525 scope that I pictured on the previous page of this thread

I would have loved to get the 120mm version but it is AU$1000 more expensive - just affordable. But on top of that, with its extra weight,
I would have to go to the next mount up, the HEQ6-R with a 20kg max load ( for astrophotography) higher if you are just observing.
But that is AU$2400 and that put the whole BIG upgrade out of range.

The 100mm scope is 5.5kg plus another 2-3kg of camera gear etc gives around 8.5kg on a 13kg mount and that is about the right
ratio ( gear weight ~ 2/3 max load rating of the mount when doing astrophotography.

On the same lines, I bought a seriously chunky and firm camera tripod some years ago. Using it with my 250mm Pentax Zoom has revealed an increasing slop in the neck, under the mount. Everything is built big enough but the plug / spigot that fits into the top of the vertical tube is held in place by a single 4mm pin through the tube and the spigot which is the weak link. How did that creep into the design? Design costs are cut long before advertising costs. I can, at least fix it. I am cinsidering welding!

One wonders, huh ... I even see silly things like that in the top end GPS gear I deal with every day. Another WTF moment haha
So often shaking my head wondering what the hell the designer was thinking of when he/she "put pen to paper"

I have purchased several el cheapo <AU$100 camera tripods over the years. And yeah, their performance leaves a lot to be desired

When I lashed out of the Canon 5D3 and 6D cameras around - 5 -6 yrs ago, I also finally got a decent Manfrotto tripod. Never regretted that expense.Dave

 

[sophiecentaur]

I had a hint of that too when I saw what awesome images other guys have been producing with the SW ESPRIT 100 or 120mm
Tho I had been having good success with the Canon camera and top end telephoto zoom lenses, I really desired a decent scope
on an equally decent tracking mount so that I could get exposures of more than 30 sec. The 100mm scope and the HEQ5 Pro mount
will achieve this goal.
That's so true. This scope is leaps and bounds above that AU$525 scope that I pictured on the previous page of this thread

I would have loved to get the 120mm version but it is AU$1000 more expensive - just affordable. But on top of that, with its extra weight,
I would have to go to the next mount up, the HEQ6-R with a 20kg max load ( for astrophotography) higher if you are just observing.
But that is AU$2400 and that put the whole BIG upgrade out of range.

The 100mm scope is 5.5kg plus another 2-3kg of camera gear etc gives around 8.5kg on a 13kg mount and that is about the right
ratio ( gear weight ~ 2/3 max load rating of the mount when doing astrophotography.
One wonders, huh ... I even see silly things like that in the top end GPS gear I deal with every day. Another WTF moment haha
So often shaking my head wondering what the hell the designer was thinking of when he/she "put pen to paper"

I have purchased several el cheapo <AU$100 camera tripods over the years. And yeah, their performance leaves a lot to be desired

When I lashed out of the Canon 5D3 and 6D cameras around - 5 -6 yrs ago, I also finally got a decent Manfrotto tripod. Never regretted that expense.Dave

I bit the bullet and put two extra pins through the tube and plug. Everything is fine now. I should have done this a long time ago instead of whingeing about a basically reasonable tripod (by Ioptron, I now realize).

 

[thalacker]

I own an 8" schmidt cassegrain and it is fun to use, however, I would encourage first users to buy a great pair of astronomical binoculars, a book to help find objects and a great lawn chair. I believe they would have more fun and spend less time setting up. I think you could buy a capable/quality set of binoculars for near $350.

 

[berkeman]

I would encourage first users to buy a great pair of astronomical binoculars, a book to help find objects and a great lawn chair.

Welcome to PF! Which lawn chair do you recommend?

 

[enorbet]

Lately I've been wondering if there is any practicality in using CCDs transmitting telescopic images to a PC/Laptop and Monitor especially at longer exposure times since the more dim and distant objects appear to us with relatively small displacement that would make for fuzzy imaging. Has anyone here experimented with this?

 

[Drakkith]

Welcome to PF! Which lawn chair do you recommend?

The kind you sit in and that goes on the lawn, of course!

 

[Drakkith]

Lately I've been wondering if there is any practicality in using CCDs transmitting telescopic images to a PC/Laptop and Monitor especially at longer exposure times since the more dim and distant objects appear to us with relatively small displacement that would make for fuzzy imaging. Has anyone here experimented with this?

Haven't tried it myself, other than when finding and framing my astrophotography targets, but I know they make cameras specifically for this. I think it's a great idea. You'll never see hubble-like images, but it will be better than your eyeball for deep sky targets.

 

[DaveC426913]

Welcome to PF! Which lawn chair do you recommend?

Well I can tell you Bruce Cockburn wishes he had A Rocket Lawn Chair

 

[russ_watters]

Lately I've been wondering if there is any practicality in using CCDs transmitting telescopic images to a PC/Laptop and Monitor especially at longer exposure times since the more dim and distant objects appear to us with relatively small displacement that would make for fuzzy imaging. Has anyone here experimented with this?

As far as I know, that's the most common way astrophotographs are taken, unless I'm misunderstanding what you are asking.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Lately I've been wondering if there is any practicality in using CCDs transmitting telescopic images to a PC/Laptop and Monitor especially at longer exposure times since the more dim and distant objects appear to us with relatively small displacement that would make for fuzzy imaging. Has anyone here experimented with this?

It's what 'everyone' does these days. Long exposures allow us to record very faint images and also 'see' the colours.
Star Trails are present for even quite short exposures and gets worse for high magnification. We need Tracking.
Equatorial ('polar') mounts allow the scope to move around a polar axis and you can follow a star manually by moving the scope with just the one control.
Clockwork motors replaced the operator and that's what the very best observatories used to achieve tracking. Nowadays, the tracking is done with an electric motor and, of course CCD or CMOS sensors.
There's a limit to how good tracking can be and now we use Guiding, which involves servo control to keep a chosen 'guide star' at a given position on the sensor. It's usual to use a smaller guide scope, locked onto a bright enough star and a main scope to image small / faint objects that couldn't be used for guiding.

Don't go buying anything until you know enough to know what you want - you can spend much more than you can afford unless you are really well informed although there are some very good low cost solutions.

 

[chemisttree]

Transmitting camera images to a PC is fairly routine nowadays. See, for example, the ASI Air product. It interfaces a tracking mount with camera control and broadcasts the images taken to your iPhone. It doesn’t have a lot of range but there is a work around for that. You can sky surf from your recliner and upload to your living room TV!

 

[collinsmark]

Lately I've been wondering if there is any practicality in using CCDs transmitting telescopic images to a PC/Laptop and Monitor especially at longer exposure times since the more dim and distant objects appear to us with relatively small displacement that would make for fuzzy imaging. Has anyone here experimented with this?

Like others have pointed out, controlling the telescope and camera remotely is nothing new. As @chemisttree mentioned, the ASI Air (a couple of different versions) is pretty popular among amateur astronomers these days. But it only supports ZWO cameras, so it sort of locks you into ZWO products.

PrimaLuce has the Eagle4 and Eagle Core, which are competing products.

I took a different approach and attached a Mini PC to a Pegasus Astro Ultimate Power Box V2, which doesn't tie me down to any particular manufacturer, and allows me to upgrade the mini PC at my own discretion. I have it attached directly to the OTA of my fork-mounted telescope.

It has no monitor or keyboard attached, but since it's a PC, I just "Remote Desktop" into it from inside, either at a desk or even while sitting comfortably on my sofa. I can then control my telescope that way.

It also functions as a counterweight of sorts.

 

[Drakkith]

@collinsmark Geeze, I've heard amateur astronomers say they've nearly wasted away waiting for a new piece of gear to come in, but you really take it to a whole new level.

 

[collinsmark]

@collinsmark Geeze, I've heard amateur astronomers say they've nearly wasted away waiting for a new piece of gear to come in, but you really take it to a whole new level.

Ha! No, but seriously, that's not me. That's Talus Jones, a PVC skeleton, and the newest member of the Shady Crypt.

 

[Drakkith]

Ha! No, but seriously, that's not me. That's Talus Jones, a PVC skeleton, and the newest member of the Shady Crypt.

You tell him that if he starts any funny bone business he can PVC his way out the door! Alright, I'll stop now.

 

[aliceiii]

Hope this will be useful here.
I was looking for a telescope recently. Spoiler, I found it here (link removed by mentor)
I needed a portable and light one because I want to travel and take it with me. The ability to connect to the phone was also very important to me. So, I've ordered Celestron NexStar Evolution 8
If you guys know anything about it, please share your opinion.

 

[sophiecentaur]

I needed a portable and light one because I want to travel and take it with me. The ability to connect to the phone was also very important to me. So, I've ordered Celestron NexStar Evolution 8
If you guys know anything about it, please share your opinion.

Two or three club members have bought the mount with a couple of different scopes. It seems to work pretty well and will interface with iPhone apps. You don't have to get involved with the dreaded Synscan system, which is sooo dated these days.
The setup is very quick and you can be in business with no hassle. Only time will bring out any downsides.
Enjoy.

 

[chemisttree]

That’s a good telescope but it’s pricey for a first scope.

 

[sophiecentaur]

That’s a good telescope but it’s pricey for a first scope.

That’s a good point and there’s no way I would have ever spent that much as a beginner. But a comfortably off adult wouldn’t find the price ridiculous and the resale value of an unwanted nice scope could hold up well.
My best choice ever for a scope was an 8inch Dobsonian from Skywatcher. It was second hand and, with some nice 2” eyepieces, it gave breathtaking views for not too much money. No good for my creaky old back and neck, though.

 

[DennisN]

I saw a new video by Nico Carver (Nebula Photos) which I think fits this thread like a glove .

I like for instance that he is emphasizing that you don't have to be rich to start with the hobby, i.e. you don't have to start with very expensive things. He also has a number of videos on his channel about doing astrophotography with quite cheap equipment.

Busting Five MYTHS About Astrophotography in Ten Minutes (Nico Carver/Nebula Photos)

 

[sophiecentaur]

I like for instance that he is emphasizing that you don't have to be rich to start with the hobby,

He's dead right.

However, our astro society has a Young Astronomers' section and you'd think they' love to own one of the slightly elderly club scopes (for free). However, it seems that neither they nor one of their parents seem to want to get involved with the messy business of handling Manual scopes and mounts. We have several scopes, cluttering up peoples' garages and it's a 'shame'. We seem to have moved on from the generations which made their own radio receivers and their Dobsonian mounts to Gamers with consoles. They are missing out on the first steps towards the sort of Hobby that appealed to so many young people.

Nico Carver clearly made it through the cut.