Telescope recommendations?
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I'm looking to buy a decent catadioptric telescope for the family. The aim is to see things well enough and get some good pictures. Also not crazy expensive or really big, so catadioptric seems to be the best bet, best of reflective and refractive telescopes. So that's the type I want.
My only question here is if there are any that you can recommend. Yes I can browse Amazon just fine myself but I'm wondering if there is anyone out there who has or came across any that you would recommend as a good buy and experience?
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@obsolesce the best telescope is the one that you will use. The biggest urge you need to fight is buying a larger scope as your first. What you want to do is get one that is a small light and you can setup fast.
One that is good for seeing and good pictures are kinda opposite ends of the spectrum. I do astrophotography as a hobby. (https://instagram.com/westtexasastro) I started off doing visual, the scope I started with is an Orion StarSeeker IV 127mm. It came with a motorized mount that points the telescope, once you set it up a couple times you can do it and align it in 5ish minutes. It is good for looking at the moon and planets, but you can see some of the brighter nebulas like The Orion Nebula. I’ve also hooked my DSLR to the back of it with a T adapter, but you could also get a mount to hold your smart phone over the eye piece to take pictures with as well.
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@brianlittlejohn said in Telescope recommendations?:
@obsolesce the best telescope is the one that you will use. The biggest urge you need to fight is buying a larger scope as your first. What you want to do is get one that is a small light and you can setup fast.
One that is good for seeing and good pictures are kinda opposite ends of the spectrum. I do astrophotography as a hobby. (https://instagram.com/westtexasastro) I started off doing visual, the scope I started with is an Orion StarSeeker IV 127mm. It came with a motorized mount that points the telescope, once you set it up a couple times you can do it and align it in 5ish minutes. It is good for looking at the moon and planets, but you can see some of the brighter nebulas like The Orion Nebula. I’ve also hooked my DSLR to the back of it with a T adapter, but you could also get a mount to hold your smart phone over the eye piece to take pictures with as well.
Thanks for the info. Nice pictures by the way! What's your setup for producing that kind of work? I'm interested, although I am not looking to do that now, but very curious.
I'm not looking to take thousands of pictures and layering them with software, just some simple ones via smartphone for the kids or easier viewing. By viewing well enough, I mean I'd like the kids to be able to distinguish what they are looking at from something else in the sky. For example, if I point it at Saturn, I want them to realize it's Saturn because it resembles Saturn, and not just because I tell them it is Saturn.
I was looking at this one: https://optcorp.com/products/celestron-nexstar-6se
It seems to be a good balance of everything I was thinking about, along with ease of use... and seems portable enough to get in the SUV and take into the desert during interesting events. What do you think of that one? Would there be a better option? Not too pricey, maybe around the 6se or less.
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A few people also just go for a massive, high quality camera lens (often with extender) which makes pictures easier, but telescopic options more limited.
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@obsolesce Thanks! That scope is a tad bigger than the one I use for viewing, but should be just as easy to setup. Celestron makes a pretty robust mount for a smartphone to take pictures from something like that.
Obviously this will depend on the COVID situation where you are, but find a local astronomy club and go to one of their star parties, then you can look/use several different scopes and figure out which one might be a better fit.
Also, All of the astronomy resellers have really knowledgeable people and are more than happy to answer questions to help you get started.
Most of the images I take (except for really bright objects like the moon) are imaged over several nights and I'm layering 60 - 100+ pictures to make it. For my photography setup, it is a smaller scope so it is a larger field of view of the sky, it has a dedicated astronomy camera on it. I've never actually looked through my photography setup with an eye piece, I just have a computer sitting out with it controlling the mount, focuser, filter wheel, and camera. Its a time consuming process.
If you are wanting to get in to some of the longer astrophotography stuff, the cheapest way to start is with a DSLR, a lens and a star tracker. You can take some pretty incredible wide field shots with just that.
