Looking to get a telescope.

I live pretty high up and have a nice open area in the back yard. All wooded with little to none ambient light. No street lights or anything. It gets pretty dark up here. I figured that was a good thing for celestial observation.

Was looking at a dobsonian type scope. 10".

I have heard a good pair of binoculars is best for newbies, but i am in the buy once cry once type of thought.

It would be for me and the wife and our kids to use. Mostly adult use though.

Any thoughts?

What are your long term plans?

Dobs are great for home viewing if all you want to do is look.  If you plan on doing in imaging you will need an EQ mounted telescope.  

I have had both.

I currently use an 8 inch dob and enjoy it.  It is a quick set up and the glass cools quickly so you are viewing fast.  If you get much bigger they become a handful to set up and tear down.  My dob just gets pulled outside whenever I want to use it, all in one trip.  It is a handful though.  If I was unfit it would be a pain.  

So, for a first scope, an 8 inch light bucket is a good place to start.

Thank for the reply.

I saw the sizes and thought holy crap those dobsonians are huge.

I dont care about portability. The walk from inside to outside for viewing is only a few feet. My only concern is stability. It will be on a 16x14 deck about 9ft off the ground. I can always keep it on the lower level and walk out with it.

Long term wise i dont want to be buying a new scope every few years or get bored with it because if its limitations. I guess i dont know what to really expect out of it. The only thing i keep reading about is about people being glad they went with 10".

I would also be fine with a refractor or cassegrain. Just not sure what would be best for us. 6-800$ is all we want to spend. Looking for a summer purchase. Nights get way to cold to hang out outside for a few hours.

Resolution beats 'power' all the time.

Resolution is what permits magnification.

What you run into with more glass is it goes to waste if you are in an area with light pollution.  Most of us are.  

A 10 dob is getting HUGE and heavy.  You are gonna want to move it off the porch or patio to see beyond your home and you can't leave it outside like Walmart bike.

You will get good resolution with it but there comes a break even for most home users.  8/10 seems to be about it.  

I would go with an 8 and get good eyepieces and filters with the extra money.  

Get a telrad spotter too.  They make star hopping much easier.

Resolution is what makes magnification useful.

http://www.discoverytelescope.com/discovery/pdhq.html

I have the 8" scope on the top of this page and have been pretty happy with it.  I would think that would be plenty of size starting out.  Looks like they come with a tetrad now which mine did not.  I haven't been reading up on astronomy and scope reviews near as much as prior to buying my scope but when I made the purchase about 10 years ago Discovery had a pretty good name.

I would save some money and pick up some good Tele Vue eye pieces which have been my favorite but other posters might be able to help you out more on this.
http://www.televue.com/engine/TV3b_page.asp?id=27

Anacortes (http://www.buytelescopes.com) used to have fair prices on whatever accessories one might need and always has had pretty good service in my opinion.

Let us know how things go for you.

I learned that telescopes are like boats.  The amount you use them is inversely proportional to their size.  

You can resolve most of the Messier Objects with GOOD binoculars.

Probably a very good suggestion.

Higher end field glass style from Pentax (roof prisms).

Better than Porro prism typical binoculars with the huge offset.

The 10 x 42 set of Pentax ones I use are like standing closer.
On a clear night it almost makes the moon to bright to look at.

Whatever scope you get, get a good pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars anyway.

Good forum for amateur astronomy is CloudyNights.com.
They have a beginners subforum where you can get good advice (and some not so good - everyone has an opinion).
There is also a Binocular subforum to get the scoop on binos.
I have a 20 year old pair of Celestron 10x50s, and am not up on what current models are considered good for astro use.

A DOB is good bang for the buck, but you will have to track down fainter objects yourself, using a star chart and a technique called "star hopping."
Another option is alt/az setting circles and a tablet or laptop running an astro program that will give you the current alt and az coordinates of the object you are looking for.
They do make DOBS with computerized "GOTO" mounts that will locate objects for you, but that starts getting out of your price range.
Also you will need to learn to collimate the mirrors - not hard to do.

I like these guys for DOBS - very good reputation:
opticsmart.com


Caveat - I do not own a DOB. I borrowed one from my astronomy club and decided I didn't care for it.
Ended up with an 8" SCT on an GOTO equatorial mount as well as a couple of small refractors on alt/az mounts.

Speaking of clubs - see if there is a club in your area and if they hold public "star parties" where you can look through different scopes.
They may also have a scope loner program for members where you can borrow a club scope for a month or so to try out.

OP, did you ever make a decision? Just curious how things turned out for you.

What you 'heard' about binoculars is correct.

I've been into astronomy since childhood and after a lifetime of observing, teaching, and introducing literally thousands of folks to the night-sky (I do fieldtrips & workshops) I can safely state that 99% of people who buy scopes are disapointed afterwards while 99% of bino-buyers are more than satisfied. The best way I can help you is to suggest you seek out a few nearby star-parties, once you get used to the darkenss and goobers playing mystical synth music you can do some observing through an array of optics.

Setting up, adjusting, using, observing, tearing down, and storing even a 10" gets old quick, and the rewards are disappointing to 99% of first time users (things never look like they do on magazine covers or sales ads).

I believe I can safely state (with 99.99% certainty) that you will get more use, fun, enjoyment, and education with a soild pair of binoculars then you will with a scope. And best of all, what you 'see' with the binos will actually impress you more than a scope. I have set up many a field trip/workshop where we had both scope and bino stations, without a doubt the binos get more use by a wider array of people.

You didn't give a budget which is absolutly needed to give any sort of decent advice on either platform.

With that said, your 'buy once, cry once' statement with regard to a scope will be more likely 'buy once, cry until you forget you spent all that money on that dust covered thing in the attic'. On the otherhand, for less than $300 you can get binos that even if you get bored with for stargazing, you can still get plenty of use out of during the day.

Suggestion to get you or anyone else reading this started:
Nikon 7245 Action Ex Extreme ~$150
Manfrotto 679B ~$70
Bino adapter -$25
Go Sky Watch app -free to $5
Sputnik! app -free
Tons of other cool apps

You won't 'buy & cry' at all, you'll have fun, see tons of cool stuff, learn a bunch, teach a bunch, and even make use of it during the day. Don't forget to attend some star-parties to put things in perspective, while you may not be one of them, most folks quickly change their mind about buys a scope after attending.

Forgot to update this thread.

So for fathers day i came home to a brand new set of binos.

Oberwerk Ultra series 15x70s

They are so clear and sharp, it is amazing. The past few weeks on the clear nights i have used them and i still am amazed everytime i look through them.

I am now in the market for a counterbalance or some sort of small mount. As i zoom in they get pretty shaky. Its hard to keep them still.

Wife did a bit of research on her own and basically said to me what you guys said, try these out before we have a 5ft telescope sitting in our living room collecting dust. Haha.

Not to hijack; but what about spotting scopes or monoculars?

I've been looking into this as well lately.

A nice set of astronomy binos will get more use than a telescope if you are not ambitious.  Granted you can't see as much as you can with a telescope but you can still see a lot:  clusters, a few Messier objects, the galilean moons of jupiter, and you are almost guaranteed to see meteor streaks while scanning the skies.  Plus you can use them for non astronomy tasks.  A spotting scope works too, it's just not as handy for astronomy.

 

A long time ago I made a 10 inch reflector.
To 1/10 wave.
Unless it was stored outside and at ambient temp it took many hours to stabilize from 'inside' to outside temps if it was more than about 10F different.

Really good eyepieces help a lot.
Apochromatic is good (3 color correction)