[Chaos-l] Buying a scope

[Mark South]

Ditto to everything Michael and Robert have said.
Congrats on getting the Orion XT10i.    I think these are good scopes  
to start.
however, I would like to also emphasize what Michael said about star- 
hopping.   With the "push-to" capability on the scope, it might be  
easy just to dial up stuff and find it.  The downside of not star- 
hopping would be that you won't learn the sky as well.  I have found  
great benefit in "treasure" hunting for objects.  The reward is great  
and you can learn a whole lot about astronomy doing this.    
Again...just a suggestion!  Enjoy your scope!
Mark



On Apr 19, 2009, at 11:02 AM, Matt Lochansky wrote:

> Hi everyone -
>
> Hope you had fun at Farrington or Medoc on Friday.  It was one of the
> best nights I've had in the 10 months I've been observing - I made it
> to my backyard about 9:30 (hence why I wasn't able to get to
> Farrington - a 30 minute drive).  It did get a bit chilly later in the
> evening, but I was exhausted by 11:30pm and came inside.  I had such a
> good time, but so limited by my aperture, that I decided now is the
> time.  I've been talking about buying a nice scope for quite a while
> now, but wanted to tool around with the Meade ETX-90EC I've been
> loaned.  It clearly has some limits with deep sky objects I enjoy
> finding, but I have been able to see some of the common fainter
> objects, even if they are just dark smudges in the eyepiece.
>
> Looking for comments, tips, or suggestions...
>
> I've pretty well decided on the Orion XT10i (with the intellicope
> add-on).  Great value for the price and the "intelliscope" feature is
> just what I want.  What accessories would you recommend for someone
> who has never owned a newtonian previously?  On my list I have a laser
> collimator, variable polarizing filter, a single 2" eyepiece (the
> scope comes with an adapter so I can use my 1.25" eyepieces and
> filters) - even going to buy a solar filter.  I have a few other
> things on the list, but not related to the telescope directly.  Any
> other must-have accessories for a first-time buyer?  I"m sure this is
> in the archives somewhere, but they are hard to search!
>
> Thanks,
> -Matt
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