[Chaos-l] telescope recommendations

[Jeff Wright]

Whew. Thanks for all of the thoughtful replies. I will try to fill in 
all of the blanks in one message.

I have used dobs, maks and sc scopes at various times, but it has been a 
long time since I have observed. My initial inclination was to go with a 
Mak because the models I have used in the past always had superior 
optics. Plus they were extremely easy to lug around and set up. They 
were great for giving an initial tour of the sky for folks who had never 
observed before, and I was just more comfortable with them. Plus, I want 
something that will be easy for my 7-year-old daughter to use.

Besides being a bit more cumbersome to haul, I like Schmidt-Cassegrains 
too, for similar reasons.

Thinking about it more, I probably won't have the opportunity to go to 
many dark sky locations until my kids are a little older, so this will 
be primarily used near home. I live on a fairly light-polluted street in 
Hillsborough. We have a lot of trees, which limits us to the front yard, 
near the street. This puts us right in line with a street lamp about 50 
yard down the street. How much will I benefit from having a larger scope 
with such terrible light pollution to contend with?

I have only used dobs that belonged to friends and I always felt that 
they were more difficult to use. That said, this was 10 years ago and 
none of the scopes had computer-assisted navigation tools.

I don't plan on doing any photography at this point.

I will be at the MASP with my daughter. I am hoping to go for one night 
during the week and again on the weekend. I was thinking that it would 
be great to have my new scope there, but now I think it is probably 
better to wait until I get a chance to talk to others. I can show up 
"scope-less", I guess.

Jeff


matted wrote:
> 
> I bought my first bigger scope a few months ago - an Orion 10" dobsonian 
> (XT10i).  I wanted the aperture in a small pricetag.  Very happy with it 
> - easy to use and surprisingly portable for the aperture.  I have a 
> corolla, and can get the scope in!  Plus, It's guidance system, the 
> "intelliscope" is the computer, but no motor.  You align it, and it 
> tells you which way to [manually] point the scope to find what you are 
> looking for.  I've had some trouble with the intelliscope, but it is 
> probably my fault.  With a bunch of accessories I've dropped about $1k.
> 
> Any reason you were looking at a Mak?  Were you looking to do 
> photography as that is a whole different game (and I imagine tough to 
> set up in your price point - but I'm not sure)
> 
> Let me know if I can help any further!
> 
> -Matt
> 
> 
> On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 12:43 PM, Jeff Wright <jwright at cs.duke.edu 
> <mailto:jwright at cs.duke.edu>> wrote:
> 
> 
>     I am thinking of buying a new starter scope, something in the $1000
>     or less range, that I can also use as a decent portable scope at
>     dark sites. I have found a few Maksutov models in the 5" range that
>     look fine. I am leaning toward a Meade or Celestron, just because of
>     previous experience with them, but am open to other suggestions.
> 
>     Anyone have any experience they can share? Thoughts on 5" scopes in
>     general? I have considered going with an 8", but of course, now we
>     are talking $2000.
> 
>     BTW, I don't mind manual polar-alignment either.
> 
>     Also, any recommended dealers/web-sites? I am familiar with ORION,
>     but don't have experience buying from anyone else.
> 
>     Thanks!
> 
>     Jeff
>     _______________________________________________
>     Chaos-l mailing list
>     Chaos-l at rtpnet.org <mailto:Chaos-l at rtpnet.org>
>     http://rtpnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chaos-l
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Chaos-l mailing list
> Chaos-l at rtpnet.org
> http://rtpnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chaos-l