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telescopes

Submitted by Deleted Accounts on October 22, 2007 - 9:55pm.
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Does anyone on here know much about telescopes?  my desk is perfect for star gazing, and I'm completely nocternal these days, so I'm looking at buying one.. 

I've been thinking about this for awhile, but after last nights meteor shower and planets as visible as they were, I'm really considering this..

what should I look for in them?  any recommendations from other star gazers?  brands, models, retailers etc.. ? 

are there any that can hook up to a computer at all so I can take stills with them? 

 

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Trev McNaughton's picture

quick way to figure out max mag

Submitted by Trev McNaughton (not verified) on October 24, 2007 - 10:27pm.

I found a quick way of determining the maximum magnification of any telescope based on the diameter of the outer lens.

this is handy for either purchasing a telescope, or an eye piece.  

50x the diameter of the out lens in inches..  so if you have a 4" lens, you can have a 200x maximum useful magnification.

the reason for this, is sometimes a telescope will boast crazy amounts of magnification on the box, and will include eye pieces that will allow for such magnification.  however, telescopes are only able to take in so much light (which is what a telescope actually does, not make things bigger).

I thought this was kind of handy to know, saves me from buying a telescope thinking it could do 675x magnification, when its only a 4.5" lens, and can only have a 255x useful magnification.. despite what the box said..

cool eh? 

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[#londoncommonsnet] /me is 1337
Trev McNaughton's picture

findings

Submitted by Trev McNaughton (not verified) on October 23, 2007 - 9:31pm.

since no one seems to be interested in this, I'll have to do it on my own..

I looked up a  bunch of review sites for some computerized telescopes.. seems the ones in my price range are rather shotty, and don't actually make things easier to a n00b.. so thats basically out.

I did however discover it'd be easier to just find a decent model, whether it be a refractor, reflector, or compound scope, and hook it up to an SLR (or if I had a disposable income a DSLR).  

there are also imagers that you can hook up to your computer via usb, but they seem to be a bit pricey for just jumping into.  and for something that would get the resolutions I'm interested in taking would cost more than I'm willing to spend right now.

so my plan, is to get a reflector telescope (since its capable of both planetary and deep space viewing), and a cheap SLR camera from a pawn shop or something (should be really cheap, since I won't need a lense!), and take long exposures that way, until I can afford a more suitable rig.

hopefully in a year or so, I'll have some good images to use as wall papers and eye candy for the nerds on here.. 

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[#londoncommonsnet] /me is 1337
Trev McNaughton's picture

haha wicked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Submitted by Trev McNaughton (not verified) on October 23, 2007 - 4:28am.

this is awesome!! I guess there are telescopes that are easily controlled via computer software.. meade ones look pretty promising to start my research with.. perhaps I'll find others..

I also found a few pieces of opensource software that work with telescopes in linux, so I won't have to dual boot to use it with my laptop..

infact, there's a huge astronomy meta package in the repos of ubuntu just aching to be installed by me tonight!!! 

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[#londoncommonsnet] /me is 1337
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