Telscopes

[moonbouncer]

Dear Astronomer - I am looking to get a telescope for my husband this year for Christmas. I was doing some research and found there are two types of telescopes, reflecting and refracting. What are the differences and which one should I get?<br /><br />Thanks in advance.

 

[tfwthom]

Read the post<br /><br />http://uplink.space.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=askastronomer&Number=595&Search=true&Forum=askastronomer&Words=so%20you%20want%20to%20buy&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=595 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>

 

[bbrock]

Assuming your husband has no experience with astronomy and you are not looking to spend thousands of dollars, I would suggest you get him a 6" or 8" Dobsonian Telescope. Extremely easy to use with no advanced tracking or set up. Excellent light grasp and optics. The 6" will give usable magnifications around 200x to 250x with little problem under most conditions. A few good manufacturers would be Orion, Hardin, Celestron etc. The Orion XT6 or XT8 are priced around $300 to $400. Check locally to see if there are any astronomy telescope stores locally. Usually shipping for this equipment can be pretty costly. Local Dealers can preclude the shipping cost. <br /><br />I would shy away from GoTo telescopes. They work sort of OK, but generally they frustrate new users. Better to learn your way around the sky with star charts. This is much more rewarding. <br /><br />Bill