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Just reading a book about the sun, it talks about the techniques you need to use to not Nelson yourself, and I'm struck by an impulsive urge to get a telescope, probably for the moon and stars and planets and ting. I know nothing about them - does anybody have any tips what to look for, where to buy, or recommendations for My First Telescope (That Might Well Get Lots Of Use For A Week Then Sit In The Garage To Hang Things Off Of For Years)?
Get on here and fill your boots with all you need; https://stargazerslounge.com/
Buy yourself some 10x50 binoculars first, get familiar with what’s up there and where to look for it and then start spending thousands on telescopes once you know you’re really interested.
Have a look at the Celestron Firstscope. I have one and it's great for the very modest outlay (£50ish). I've Seen Jupiter and it's moons several times.
Buy yourself some 10×50 binoculars first, get familiar with what’s up there and where to look for it and then start spending thousands on telescopes once you know you’re really interested.
All you’ll see are pinpoints of light swirling around the wobbly lenses. You’ll then try leaning up against a wall (squashing a slug with your chin in the process) or a broom handle, before realising that all you can see are poorly defined pinpoints of light. Or the moon. You’ll then google the cost of a tripod before realising that the money would be better spent on a decent small telescope. They are not expensive. Not even vaguely expensive. I had an excellent 200mm dob which cost less than £300 - compare the price of decent binocs and tripod.
And this is pretty much the same advice as telling a new cyclist to buy a BSO ‘to see if they like it’. They won’t - they’ll get frustrated by using crap or inappropriate equipment. But ‘buy binoculars’ is advised in every STW post about telescopes.
Things you can see with 10x50s:
Stars - they still look like stars. What did you expect?
The moon. But bigger.
Birds.
Peoples’ bedrooms.
Things you can’t see:
Everything else..including anything to make you go wow, like Jupiter’s moons or Saturn’s rings, or the gorgeous M57 in Lyra. All of which are easily achievable with an inexpensive scope.
And after what feels like three months of clear skies, I’m very bad tempered that I haven’t still got my 200mm dob, and now only have a pair of 10x50s. So apologies.. 😁
as mentioned above stargazerslounge is the place to go.
if you think cycling can be expensive you've seen nothing yet
Always check the eyepiece for black boot polish 😉
My experience consists of buying a massive scope from the local auctions for about £40
It had various mag eyepieces and all sorts of things I had no idea what they were.
The moon was amazing to look at, craters within craters etc. But them bright spots in the sky were just bright spots moving a damn site faster than I thought possible whilst looking through the scope.
End result was back to the auctions as its a lot more involved than I was preparing to get involved with.
Mega interesting but not quite as simple as it seems.
I have two scopes - a 70mm refractor ( a quality kids toy) and a 150mm reflector. The refractor is good enough to see planets with and even the main bands on Jupiter and the 4 main moons as well as saturns rings so you don't need to spend a lot to have something worth using - IIRC it was £40 secondhand. The bigger one does not add a lot of magnification but a better field of view and brighter - and has a much better mount. Looking at the moon thru it with the right filters is astonishing - its almost like flying over it. It was £300