Telescope

[recman]

Always fancied one but know bugger all about them.
So, is this gonna be a heap o shite, i.e. you get what you pay for etc?
Or will it do to see if the lunar landings were legit?

[Lord Percy]

Might be worth it for a fuckaround. 40 quid is basically the price of two cheap nights out, so balance it out by saying you're forfeiting booze in the name of intellectual pursuit.

I'm actually doing a pretty cool astronomy course at the moment, so I tried to explain stuff to do with the viewing angles of stellar objects from earth, and the various finicky features of stargazing telescopes, but a quick google/wikipedia search showed me how complex it actually is, and I know fuck all about it

Basically, yeah, that telescope might be a bit of fun for looking at the moon, but it'll lose its novelty pretty quick. Similarly, if you invest in a really big one, that'll lose its novelty quickly too unless you spend some time learning all the mathematical stuff to do with arc lengths, radiation wavelengths, and other stuff that affects the things you can actually see with it.

[Islander]

Sorry but that's tosh. I know several people that own large telescopes and have no interest in the maths. You don't have to know anything other than what you want to look at and where to look for it. I've got a 16" reflector as well as an 8.75" and a couple of refractors too. When I set up I just point them where I want to look and enjoy. I've done some serious stuff too but that's a personal choice. You don't need to know the theory to be continually amazed.

To the OP:

The planets are fascinating as are deep space objects. the Aldi telescope is a basic reflector with a pretty small aperture and the eyepieces supplied are as basic as they come - for an extra few quid this one would be better:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-76-mini-dobsonian.html

A bit more will get you something like this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-eq1.html

And a bit more still will get you this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

The last one is a pretty reasonable telescope for the price and will give you hours of amazement - UK weather permitting of course.

One thing you should realise, you've probably seen pictures of nebulae and galaxies in amazing colour and detail - that's not how they appear even through a large scope. The eye can't see colour unless there's plenty of light - those are photographic images. Nebulae and galaxies are known as grey fuzzies for a reason

If you want to have a bash without spending any money, then get yourself along to a local astronomy club meeting and have a chat - they'll usually have star meets and there will be usually be a few assorted scopes that you'll be able to have a look through - plus plenty of people to show you around. We're a friendly bunch us amateurs.

[Lord Percy]

Fair play, I lose

I do want a very big and super amazing digital space telescope now though.

[temeluchus]

The optics in the aldiscope might be questionable. It also includes two of the worst types of eyepieces going-huygens and ramsden.


Spend a little more and get the Skywatcher Heritage 76mm-these have decent mirrors and supplied with acceptable Kellner eyepieces. This can be had for 50 quid or so.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-76-mini-dobsonian.html



Spend some more, around 100-150 quid will get you a much better telescope.


Bigger mirror so you can see dimmer stuff:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html

Decent Reflector with a more capable, but more complicated mount:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-skyhawk-1145p.html

Refractor- tougher than a reflector but more expensive for the apeture:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-eq1.html

Biggish reflector, bargain at this price:
https://www.365astronomy.com/celestron-astromaster-130eq-reflector-telescope-p-300.html
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[temeluchus]

There are only a few little bits of maths that are needed to get the best out of a telescope.

The very helpful Chuck Hawks has a guide here:
https://www.chuckhawks.com/telescope_formulas.htm
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[temeluchus]

[recman]

Good answers fellas, very helpful.
I hadn't realised that I could get hold of something half decent for a reasonabe amount of dosh.
I'm sort of willing to give the maths side of this pass time a go if it means getting more out of it, although its not my strong point.

[cimbian]

Lunar landings, my arse! OP wants this for perving on Mrs. Robinson in the shower.
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[map]

Interesting thread.
I've always thought of doing this but thought the local light pollution would be an issue.

When I was young my father pointed out some of the constellations and it's something I wish I'd followed it up to pass onto my kids. I think Orion is the only one I regularly pick out now.

As a side issue the 'scopes mentioned are good for astronomy but would they also be useful for looking in on your neighbours? ...thinking Rear Window or Disturbia
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[pa_broon74]

We were always told a decent pair of binoculars were a good start.

With a pair of 7x50's (7x mag, 50mm objective lenses) you can see the orion nebula, Jupiter's Gallilean moons, Venus as a disc (if its up, I never time it right,) the pleiades (or seven sisters, an open cluster in Taurus) is good to look at and your next door neighbours breasts if you so choose to do so.

They're a lot more portable and you can always get a set with higher magnification if you wanted to look at 'other stuff'.


Been ages since I did any astronomy, I went to a club for about 20 years. Handy for pub quizes, romantic walks in the evening or for appearing more intelligent than I actually am.
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Didn't catch anything.

[Alpha-9]

Bet you can get some nice peeping in if you find some high ground

Always wanted a telescope, but I think it'll be one of those things i'd buy, use about twice, then would just take up space forever, occasionally using it to perv at neighbours or down the road
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[recman]

[map]

[Dave-the-rave]

My neighbors are a bunch of perverts. I know this because I watch them closely through my binoculars.

[Walloper]

£100+ should be entry level.
Then you can get adaptors to connect camera's to the scope and bore the fcku out of friends and family.

I'm going for a one I seen in Amazon for £153.

Celestron 00149855 C90 MAK Spotting Scope

Start with the moon then the planets before zooming in on the bedroom of burd across the road.
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[Harold_Shand]

I've got a pair of 10x50 binoculars. Plus points with binoculars is that you have a big field of vision, you can just pop out to the garden for a quick 10 minutes when the cloud has cleared, you don't need a tripod, you don't get much shake and they are cheap ( mine were £35 ).
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Harold_Shand's theory might be the best explanation.

[Tarmacsurfer]

[Harold_Shand]

It won't fill your view but you can easily make out the craters, especially nice is at the edge where light hits the craters and the centre of them is in the shadows. Better than I thought they'd be which is good because I couldn't be arsed faffing about with a telescope. You won't regret getting them, put it that way.
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BCF's 6th favourite poster 2009-2010

Harold_Shand's theory might be the best explanation.

[Spudly]

[Frost]

I've been considering a 6-8" reflector, webcam adaptor, home made star tracking system.
It'd let me take some long exposure and hopefully very clear pictures.

[Spudly]

[Islander]

[Islander]

[Frost]

I've got a couple of the SPC's kicking about somewhere. They aren't the 900, they're a different model that runs has the same hardware and I've flashed them to run the 900 firmware.

I was going to make a massively down geared pan and tilt system, then configure it by aiming it at the pole star then have it track whatever it's pointed at. I was then going to post process the images and correct for any positional shift using auto generated tracking points.