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Telescopes.
I’m going to be 35 soon and I don’t own a telescope, and to be honest I think I should. I’ve always wanted one and had a quick butchers on eBay and saw that you can get a Tasco one for about £50 all in.
Here are some examples:
I want to do a bit of stargazing, looking at the surface of the moon, seeing Mars and spying on neighbours so this type of telescope (refracting) seems to fit the bill. I’m also naive enough to think I’ll be one of those dads who’ll make learning fun, with my amazing tales of the cosmos or what that twat on Station Road was doing. However, I know sod all about telescopes and was hoping that a few boffins here might impart some sage-like wisdom about what I should buy. I don’t even know if Tasco are a decent brand.
So any advice?
i dont know anything about telescopes specifically but i do know a bit about tasco telescopic sights. they are not the best optics available but then again unless you are planning on making this a major hobby i guess it wont matter too much.
That’s kind of what I thought Hippo. I used to have a Tasco scope on my old El Gamo Magnum, and that wasn’t bad at all. If I’m just looking at stars every now and then, rather than five times a week at 4.49am, then I doubt it’ll matter too much.
However, a lot of the sites I’ve visited trying to read up on this stuff say you need to spend £200 to get a decent telescope. I was thinking more in the region of £50 😉
Article on buying your first telescope .
http://physics.weber.edu/planet/telescope.html
This is a superb free bit of software ,
http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.It’s funny you should mention this Neon as I’m also coming up to 35 and I’ve always had a great deal of interest in cosmology and the universe. You know, how the universe was formed, our place in the grand scheme of things, whether mankind will ever explore other galaxies and the far reaches of space. I’d be very interested to know what you manage to find out.
Nah! Not really of course, I’m pulling your leg! Eeeh lad, give your head a shake – what’s wrong with you today? Stop all this silly talk and get yourself down the pub you big Jessie.
you’ll definatly get what you pay for, and 50quid might get you little more than a kids toy. When they say “amazing x240 magnification”, you’ll actually be lucky to get x10, because anything above that will just be too blurry.
i’ve had this beast for 5 or 6 yrs http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/acatalog/Europa_200_f6.html , though for the last 3 it’s been gathering dust in the garage. It gives great views of the inner planets (saturns rings and jupiters spot) but to get the best out of the scope you need to transport it far away from the city’s lights, which i just don’t have time for anymore.
By all accounts get a cheap scope, but don’t expect “OMFG!!!”234” views with it. It’ll be great for lunar viewing, but not much cop for anything else, you might just get a faint blur of saturns rings, but it’ll be enough to keep you interested if thats your bag.
I’d actually suggest buying some decent binoculars, you still get some great lunar viewing, it’s amzing how many more stars you can see compared with the naked eye and you can use them for other things 😉
AS a bit of an amateur astronomer I would recommend stellarium as mentioned above mainly because it is the only one I know of that has a night viewing mode, meaning you can take it out side on a laptop and it will display in a red tint so as not to ruin your night vision. Genius in my mind. It is also bloody accurate and will give you the right information from your area (you need only click your position on a map to give it the right co ordinates too!
I would also recommend a reflecting telescope similar to Beer_Monsters, the clarity is often much greater (it’s easier and cheaper to make a perfect mirror than it is a perfect lens) and the viewing position is a lot more convenient. They are also much shorter for the same focal length (as the light beam is reflected back on itself the light travels almost twice the distance in the same length of tube).
AS Beer said you need to spend a decent amount on it, no less than £150, but I would recommend at least £200, or else buy binoculars. Did you know that 75% of the British people didn’t realise it was possible to see the moon during the day? I foyu need any help to find stuff you could always get in contact with your local Astronomical societ, there will be one near you, but you will need to make an effort to get out of the city, it’s less than pointless to do observations there, especially London.
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