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Kato
08-27-2009, 02:50 AM
Wife and I were both huge astronomy fans as children. Been to planetariums and looked through the big telescopes and looked at stars. We both miss it. And we both agree that we want our kids to be interested in astronomy as well. What's a good way to do it? Buy a cool telescope!

We don't live in a big city. Our town is around 50k in population and we live on the very very edge of town. So driving 5 minutes to get a few miles outside of town is easy for us if we need to do so, but I think we will have good results in the back yard.

But I admit...I know next to nothing about telescopes. I have done some reading about them and tried to educate myself some. Been thinking about a purchase and we are considering this as a first time intro buy. But can anyone educate me on what type of lenses we need or want to see good color and just...really get the best out of it?

Orion SkyQuest XT4.5 Classic Dobsonian Telescope (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000XMSNO?ie=UTF8&tag=michaeledelman00&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0000XMSNO)

I read the reviews and it seems like something we want. Our kids are 8 and 4 right now...and this appears to be easier for them to view and won't need a ladder or chair. But it also claims that it will give some really good views of the sky. Any experienced star gazers out there?

I am also considering the XT6 as well...Just a little more money and a 6 inch aperture for a 300x magnification. Should provide some vivid views...

Andy Williams
08-27-2009, 04:08 AM
Buy a cool telescope!

...

But can anyone educate me on what type of lenses we need or want to see good color and just...really get the best out of it?

...

I am also considering the XT6 as well...Just a little more money and a 6 inch aperture for a 300x magnification. Should provide some vivid views...

I live on a pretty dark piece of land on the outskirts of a town of 25,000. I also own part of a 130 acre piece of land in a very dark rural location where the Milky Way is not only visible but striking on a good night. I also own an 8" Newtonian Meade reflector and very large astronomical binoculars.

You will never see color with the size scope you are contemplating. It's a black and white experience. M57, the Crab Nebula, for instance, looks like a smoke ring in the sky. You should really borrow, rent, do whatever is necessary to get an idea of what to expect. You're certainly not going to see the blue and pink images of M42, the Orion Nebula, that are so famous. It looks faintly green, if anything, visually. But again it's mostly black and white. At the light levels we're talking about, the human eye does not see color. The images you see on magazine covers (Sky & Telescope, Astronomy) are all photographs, of course. Cameras see in color regardless of light level and are additive over time. They just keep adding photons to the image for minutes or hours. The human eye has to work in real time.

What you will see with a small scope is stunning lunar detail and invisible planetary features. Just seeing Jupiter and Saturn as discs rather than points and some details is very interesting - not to mention Saturn's rings and the four Galilean Jovian moons.

Another thing is not to get hung up on magnification. 300X is probably at or beyond the limit for a scope of the size you're talking about. Once you get into it, you'll probably find that wider fields of view are what you'll be using most. In any case, buy the best quality eyepieces you can afford, then use a quality Barlow lens to double the magnification. High quality eyepiece lenses can cost almost as much as the rest of the scope.

Trying to get color out of a small scope ventures into the realm of astrophotography, which is a subject onto itself. I've done it, but it's a very difficult, demanding and expensive (for the necessary hardware) practice.

The best advice is again to borrow a scope to get an idea of what you're getting into.

Cripplefish
08-27-2009, 03:07 PM
You will never see color with the size scope you are contemplating. It's a black and white experience. M57, the Crab Nebula, for instance, looks like a smoke ring in the sky.

I think I read somewhere that those amazing colour photos we see are actually multiple photos in one. They use different telescopes to pick up radiation, thermal imaging, infrared and such and put them all together. I may be wrong but it's something like that.

Kato
08-27-2009, 07:22 PM
I'm not expecting to see radiant colors and stuff :) I at least know that much...but I do want some crisp, clean views. I want to be able to point out individual stars and possibly catch traces of the gas and stuff. I want to be able to clearly see the rings of saturn and the big red spot on jupiter. I want to see venus and mars...that kind of stuff. From what I can tell, the XT6 is a good beginner scope that can do this?

I am also going to talk to the local astronomy club in my town...consists all of 8 or 10 people. ahahahaha Got any good suggestions on a good beginner telescope? We don't want to do pictures...just view the good stuff and show it to our kids.

Andy Williams
08-28-2009, 12:50 AM
I am also going to talk to the local astronomy club in my town...consists all of 8 or 10 people. ... Got any good suggestions on a good beginner telescope? We don't want to do pictures...just view the good stuff and show it to our kids.

Consulting the local astronomy club is the best thing you can do. Get an idea of what their scopes can do and decide what you need. A "beginner" telescope is so hard to recommend. One of two things will happen. 1) You become more interested in the sport and want something better, or 2) You lose interest and wish you had never bought it in the first place. Having said that I suppose a 6" Orion is in the middle ground. But your astronomy club is your best resource without a doubt.

If your kids have scientific curiosity, they'll love anything. Just looking at the moon through a telescope is mesmerizing.

Andy Williams
08-28-2009, 12:56 AM
I think I read somewhere that those amazing colour photos we see are actually multiple photos in one. They use different telescopes to pick up radiation, thermal imaging, infrared and such and put them all together. I may be wrong but it's something like that.

They generally are not multiple telescopes, but the same telescope with different filters applied to the raw data. For instance, almost every image you see published from the Hubble Space Telescope has undergone many digital tweaks, separating the RGB values to show maximum detail. It is nothing like what you would see if you looked through a telescope.

Kato
08-28-2009, 12:42 PM
The hard part about the local astronomy club? Seems to be getting anyone to contact me...I found listings for one that was about 10 years old. They are long gone. This "new" club had listings from earlier in the summer...but I can't get a hold of anyone. Frustrating.

phauli
08-28-2009, 08:28 PM
It must be a lot like winning ADOM the first time then :)
Persistence pays off at the end so keep trying and don't give up ;)

Andy Williams
08-29-2009, 01:25 AM
I agree. Persist. Unless you can afford $500 or so for a starter scope. The long-term investment will be far more if you get really interested.

grobblewobble
08-29-2009, 06:12 PM
A "beginner" telescope is so hard to recommend.
I wish I had seen your advices before buying one, a couple of years ago. As you say, about the only interesting things to look at with it are Saturn, Jupiter and its moons and the moon. After viewing those a couple of cold nights, I started to lose interest.

An additional problem is that I cannot stabilize it properly, because of the low quality standard.

Angelus
08-31-2009, 06:54 PM
I would recommend a decent size refractor. It's easiest to use and maintain. Try to avoid cheap light weight mounts, because they make the image wobble.