Look at Dobsonian telescopes for the best magnification for the dollar.Does anyone know which is the best telescope to see the moon and planets with a real close up to be able to see craters, rings etc? I am new to this so I have no clue. I have a budget of $300. Can I get anything good for that amount?
Oh thank you I will look in to them, do I need a specific magnification?Look at Dobsonian telescopes for the best magnification for the dollar.
The most important feature, assuming equal quality, will often be considered to be aperture - the diameter of the main lens (refractors) or mirror (reflectors).Oh thank you I will look in to them, do I need a specific magnification?
Oh, that’s another question I had and you just answered it. So reflectors are better because they have a larger aperture. Thank you so much for all your help, I really appreciate it.The most important feature, assuming equal quality, will often be considered to be aperture - the diameter of the main lens (refractors) or mirror (reflectors).
Large aperture gives both more light-gathering ability (brighter for a given mag.) and resolution. A 4" aperture has twice the resolution (detail) of a 2". As a result, reflectors can usually give you more aperture for the dollar, especially as you get larger.
When you get into the higher dollar scopes, our atmosphere can really diminish resolution, but some nights are far better than others.
For you price range, I think this is correct. Refractors can be argued to be better for planetary work due to their better focal ratio, but for the most bang for the buck, get a quality Dobsonian. If you can afford it, spend a little extra for a better eyepiece. A low-cost laser collimator can be very nice, as well.Oh, that’s another question I had and you just answered it. So reflectors are better because they have a larger aperture. Thank you so much for all your help, I really appreciate it.
I built a 10" Dobsonian for ~ $300 under supervision of SideWalk Astronomers at NM Space Museum> Took days to polish 10" blank pyrex but my SECRET TRICK was in final polish used a 7.5 lb bar bell weight on top of a 4" slab of foam for a PERFECT final polish to get an accurate spherical surface out to the edges of mirror> But IF U buy a REFLECTOR U gain the advantage of NO COLOR aberations as light is reflected NOT refracted A lens behaves as an infinite series of wedges or prisms where light of different colors R bent at different angles w/a resulting error> NOT so w/a Reflector scope so even IF U have less aperture, U get precise sharp imaging> Looking at the moon to cut down on light I use an auto air filter to stop down mirror size to 8"Does anyone know which is the best telescope to see the moon and planets with a real close up to be able to see craters, rings etc? I am new to this so I have no clue. I have a budget of $300. Can I get anything good for that amount?
The links to telescope.com are broken (seems the URLs have changed format). I've tried to get the updated URLs and post them below, if they're the wrong pages, just let me know.Does anyone know which is the best telescope to see the moon and planets with a real close up to be able to see craters, rings etc? I am new to this so I have no clue. I have a budget of $300. Can I get anything good for that amount?
Thank you for your advice, yes I already went through that! I had bought one from walmart. At night I can’t see anything and if I try it in the evening I just see light but it’s all blurry I can’t see any specific object etc. It is so hard to focus, pretty much it is worthless. Do you think I will be able to find those scopes you mentioned in Amazon? I live in a small town and Walmart is the best place to go to. So I would have to order online.Stay away from the ‘Department store cheapies’, especially ones that advertise the scope is ‘so many power’.
Probably the best bang for your buck would be a Newtonian reflector. Refractors tend to get expensive for the same objective size.
Meade, Celestron, Orion make some good scopes with electronic ‘go to controls’. That way once you do a two star alignment, you just type what you want to see and it goes there, you don’t have to be a sky expert. There are many other brands of good scopes, these were just a few. Read up on alt-am versus polar mount, and Dobsonian mount. That’s for finding stuff yourself, Goto scopes know how to find stuff whatever the mount
Read up how scopes work, what to look for and ask more questions here. We’ll be happy to help. Happy gazing.
Get the biggest objective and eyepiece selection you want to spend.
Try your binoculars, they’re great for sky gazing.
Right now, low in the Southwest close to sunset, the bright object is Venus, up and to the left is Jupiter, and in between is Saturn.
i had to read your post a few times to understand. All of this is new to me. Ok so let me see if I got this right. So for the eyepiece the lower the number the more magnification and the bigger the number the less magnification.The advertising should give the focal length. The focal length of the objective(the main lens or mirror) divided by the focal length of the eyepiece gives you the magnification. The max practical magnification is maybe 60 times the diameter of the objective, so one might stay away from those 4 mm eyepieces which seemingly would give you hundreds in magnification. A small assortment of eyepieces say from 25 or 40 mm focal length to maybe 10 or 12 would be good. You can always add eyepieces as money is available. Try for a 2 inch eyepiece adapter, more versitile than the 1-1/4. My SCT came with 2 inch and with 2 to 1-1/4 adapter. The big numbers give you low magnification and wide view, lower numbers give narrow view and higher magnification. Low powers are good for galaxies, some nebulae, etc. Higher numbers are good for planets, double stars and the like.
I will look in to them. Thank you so much!Look at Dobsonian telescopes for the best magnification for the dollar.
So no matter what scope I have I won’t be able to see it?The moon will be really bright foe all scopes, just cut a piece of cardboard to put over the front to cut down how much light comes in.
I am definitely not used to aiming, this is my first time trying to use a scope. I will try to focus it on a far object today. What eyepiece should I use the 25mm or the 40mm? The scope does have a scope on the side but I do not know how to use it.If you’re not used to the aiming, it can be hard to aim for a star or planet, out of focus. During the day, try focusing on a faraway object, then leave the focus there, it should then be close to infinity focus. At night look at the farthest light you can see on the ground. Then try for something bright in the sky, perhaps moon or Jupiter, then you can fine tune. If you don’t have a spotting scope on the side, just try looking down the barrel of the main scope, that could get you close I believe Amazon May carry some scopes. Try the websites for Meade, Celestron, Orion, Bushnell, good start, Google search will get you others.
If you can access the Sky and Telescope magazine site, you may find ads for several. Internet search should get you many ads.
Telescopes make nice spotting scopes, but, the image is upside down and backward. I sometimes spot birds or high airplanes with mine.
Does anyone know which is the best telescope to see the moon and planets with a real close up to be able to see craters, rings etc? I am new to this so I have no clue. I have a budget of $300. Can I get anything good for that amount?
Use Binoculars unless you are going for more intensive viewing or photography.Does anyone know which is the best telescope to see the moon and planets with a real close up to be able to see craters, rings etc? I am new to this so I have no clue. I have a budget of $300. Can I get anything good for that amount?