Posted: 12/8/2008 4:21:28 PM EDT
| mom wants one for christmas. can I get something for $250? |
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Here toy go
Im a big fan of Dobsonians. This is a very small dob but I think it is the best you will get for the money. |
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Bare minimum for a usable telescope is a 6-inch Dobsonian. Orion has one for $250 but it only includes one cheap eyepiece. You'd be MUCH better off spending a little more for an 8 inch. Also figure a few hundred dollars for various do-dads.
http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=telescopes/~product_id=08942 |
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not really for that price..
unless it's a used Newt or SC you'll be hard pressed to find a decent refractor for even close to that price checkcloudynightsforum for more info thats if she's somewhat serious. if she doesn't have a clue and just might be a passing fancy.. ... naw, I can't tell you in good faith to do that.... a decent pair of bino's would be best for that price (better than any of the crap you'll find at chinamart) |
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Well I do believe it is more of a phase thing, but she has been talking about one all year long. We are at about 7000 and up in elevation here so the atmosphere is pretty thin. I think if she can get something that she can look at the moon with and maybe some other things like mars or something she will be entertained.
I was just looking at that orion model when I refreshed this page. Is telescopes.com a good vendor??? |
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Quoted:
not really for that price.. unless it's a used Newt or SC you'll be hard pressed to find a decent refractor for even close to that price checkcloudynightsforum for more info thats if she's somewhat serious. if she doesn't have a clue and just might be a passing fancy.. ... naw, I can't tell you in good faith to do that.... a decent pair of bino's would be best for that price (better than any of the crap you'll find at chinamart) Binos are probably a better bet. Give her a year to get into it and learn the sky, then next year if she's really into it she'll know more about what she may want. Also +3.14159 for Cloudy Nights (Arfcom of the amateur astronomy world). |
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mom wants one for christmas. can I get something for $250? No. In that price range, you are better off with a good set of binoculars. Go to www.cloudynights.com and study up if you really want a telescope. The telescope is just the beginning, by the way, then there is the whole issue of eyepieces...a sub-hobby of their own, and then a mount. My advice is to start small, and always stay with high quality optics. |
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Quoted:
Well I do believe it is more of a phase thing, but she has been talking about one all year long. We are at about 7000 and up in elevation here so the atmosphere is pretty thin. I think if she can get something that she can look at the moon with and maybe some other things like mars or something she will be entertained. I was just looking at that orion model when I refreshed this page. Is telescopes.com a good vendor??? That just happens to be the perfect elevation for visual observing. Much more than that and the decreased oxygen can deteriorate your visual acuity. I would love to be where you are! |
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Quoted:
Well I do believe it is more of a phase thing, but she has been talking about one all year long. We are at about 7000 and up in elevation here so the atmosphere is pretty thin. I think if she can get something that she can look at the moon with and maybe some other things like mars or something she will be entertained. I was just looking at that orion model when I refreshed this page. Is telescopes.com a good vendor??? I only dabbled with astronomy for a couple of years, but I'll tell you what I found: You quickly tire of the moon, and planets suck. If you spend any time at all with a telescope, you begin looking for "deep sky objects" –– DSO's or better known as fuzzy blobs of light. For this you need APERTURE –– the bigger the telescope the better. That's why the 8 inch dob is a much better bet than the 6 inch. And yeah, Orion (Telescopes.com) is like the Walmart of the telescope world –– they have the cheapest prices and everything is made in China. But their stuff is decent for the money. There are better brands, but she'll do OK with an Orion product. BTW, she can look at the moon –– and some of the larger deep sky objects –– with a good pair of binoculars. |
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Too be honest, even if binoculars would be better, she would still be happier with a telescope on christmas. If she really starts to like it then she can buy a good one. does this orion xt6 have some legs or something? I am not getting the bottom of it. Do you have to mount it to something???
I think this is going to be the one if you guys say so. |
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Too be honest, even if binoculars would be better, she would still be happier with a telescope on christmas. If she really starts to like it then she can buy a good one. does this orion xt6 have some legs or something? I am not getting the bottom of it. Do you have to mount it to something??? I think this is going to be the one if you guys say so. Read me 1st Read me 2nd 
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All and all, amateur astronomy is pretty heady stuff . . . it sort of is like rocket science. There's a lot of knowing to do. From learning the sky to setting up your telescope to simply learning how to look through a telescope (averted vision), there's a lot to take in. I'm pretty smart about a lot of stuff, but I finally decided that my brain didn't work so good for astronomy. Not well enough to want to stay up all night or freeze my ass off in order to sort of see some fuzzy blobs. I even went to a couple of star parties and looked through some great telescopes. In the end, I sold my Discovery 8 inch dob and never looked back. I still have a small Stellarvue that I use as a spotting scope at the rifle range. Every now and then, I'll haul it out to look at the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy or maybe the moon but that's about it. |
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Orion telescopes has very good customer service. The six inch dob beats nothing at all, though at your altitude an 8 incher would do well (I got my first scope, a 6", when I was living at over 10,000 ft elevation, it served me for years, though I could've done more with the 8"). Then again, if your mother has to carry the scope out to use it the 6" might be better due to weight considerations. The base of the Dobsonian scope rests directly on the ground, there are no legs. A downside of the Dob, and Newtonian optics in general, is that they need to be collimated, that is aligned, on a more or less regular basis. They need to be kept covered and clean when not in use too.
Figure on the scope plus two or three eyepieces to vary magnification, from low to high power. A barlow lens is good too, it acts as a multiplier for the eyepieces. Read the tutorials at Orion's website, or get their catalog. |
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Consider a Schmidt-Cassegrain and get her a good star chart so she can find some gas clouds, globular clusters, planets, and so on. This is better than binoculars, but still portable, and if she gets tired of looking at the sky she'll have an excellent spotting scope for spying on the neighbors and the elk.
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I was thinking she'd be better off with a copy of Starry Night software than an inexpensive ($250) telescope. Heck, I have four times that invested in my spotting scope for shot hole spotting. For astronomical observations, that's a very light budget. I understand fiscal constraints but it is a very limited budget.
Starry Night is REALLY great! Really and truly. Are there any other software packages out that are as good or better? Starry Night will inspire her (and you) to take a closer look at astronomy as a hobby. Then, you can consider pooling your resources to get a quality optic. |
Drop by the local club and see what they're looking though ... and see if they've got any hand-me-downs. Most of the clubs around here set-up at the shopping malls from time-to-time to do demonstrations looking at the craters of the moon and such. There's some really big clubs here ... some group of folks up in Pasadena doing something with jet propulsion or something are members and grind their own lens and mirrors ... 
JPL/California Institute of Technology have some really smart telescope makers. |
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I was thinking she'd be better off with a copy of Starry Night software than an inexpensive ($250) telescope. Heck, I have four times that invested in my spotting scope for shot hole spotting. For astronomical observations, that's a very light budget. I understand fiscal constraints but it is a very limited budget. Starry Night is REALLY great! Really and truly. Are there any other software packages out that are as good or better? Starry Night will inspire her (and you) to take a closer look at astronomy as a hobby. Then, you can consider pooling your resources to get a quality optic. Stellarium.......it's free |
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depends what she wants it for, if just for the planets and moon, refractors are often cheaper and do well, and you could get a good enough sized refractor for 3 or 400$s.
I bought a 6 inch schmidt cassegrain while I was at oif and it was here waiting on me when I got back, it's a really good telescope but I realize after spending almost 800$s on it that it's to much for my very occasional use, and I really only have interest in seeing the planets and a star or 2, so I would have been better off with a cheaper refractor. |
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spend the little extra and get this one, I have it and it is awesome. http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=refractors/~pcategory=telescopes/~product_id=09024
I have seen Saturns rings with this that look just like a science book with this thing, great telescope for the money!! I perfer refractors myself. And Orion makes great telescopes, they are top notch. |