Important MessageYou are browsing the archived Lancers Reactor forums. You cannot register or login. |
Griffon and the deep sky objects - Griffs telescope thread
This is where you can discuss your homework, family, just about anything, make strange sounds and otherwise discuss things which are really not related to the Lancer-series. Yes that means you can discuss other games.
22 posts
• Page 2 of 2 • 1, 2
Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:18 pm
Prices:
(are in Australian Dollars)
I got my six inch for $600, second hand....you could go for a small 30MM for about 20 dollars, but I wouldn't use that if you PAID ME. Go for a medium sized scope, around 4-8 inch Reflector, (price range 200-800) or a bit smaller refractor. Second hand might be good, get one that hasn't been used much....Ebay has a wide range. If you have alot of money to spare, you could go for a motorised, computerised one, that counters the earths spinning, and goes to objects when you type their coordinates in. They are over $1000 though, usually.
What can I see?
Well, it all depends on Aperture and eyepeice size. Aperture is usually measured in inches and is the width of the end of the telescope, the bigger the ap, the more light it can collect. Ap isn't very apparent when viewing close objects such as planets, but you try viewing a galaxy with a 30mm. My 6 inch can see pretty much everything, you can't really go wrong with it. Eyepeice size is what governs how big the image is. The smaller the eyepeice the bigger the object will be. 20MM will magnify a peice of sky the size of a tennis ball, 9MM and you will see a golf ball sized peice of the sky. I recommend you have at least one medium, 20MM, for finding things, and one high power, 9MM for seeing small things.
Ok, say you have a 6 inch reflector with a 9mm eyepeice, and you live in light polluted sydney (thats me!
)
Ok, I find jupiter, center it, and......you can see a bright disc 5mm across, you can see the gas rings and the great storm, you can see its moons orbiting it and casting shadows on it.
Next stop, saturn. It is a bit smaller, but still bright, yellow, you can see its rings clearly but thats all.
Mars...not much detail here, except for the polar ice caps.
Venus...its the biggest, but not much detail, just an orange circle.
Anything smaller....just dots.
Moon, you can see about a quater of it through the eyepeice, thats how much it magnifies. See lots.
Now, DEEP SKY OBJECTS!!
Stars...coloured points of light, some times you can see double stars, the most beautiful being Alpha Centauri, a blue and orange star orbiting each other.
Galaxies...if its an edge on it will look like a faint cigar, however if its face on you will be able to see a brighter nucleus with very faint spiral arms....however I recommend going to the country to see this, light pollution really stuffs with you.
Nebula/other stuff...Nebula are just dark clouds, you can make out some sort of formation, but no colour.
Clusters...really cool balls of thousands of stars, can see them well.
What telescope to get?
*yawn* Ok, Let me introduce 3 main types. Reflector, a telescope that uses a mirror, Refractor, a telescope that uses a lense, and Catadrioptics (or schmidt cassegrain) that uses both, and has the advantages and disadvantages of both.
Lets start with the Reflector. The Newtonian reflector can be made in large enough sizes to satisfy the requirements for serious lunar, planetary and binary star observing without having extremely high costs. Refractors become insanely expensive in sizes over 6 inch. Refractors have a better quality image, but are troubled with colour distortion, and the main disadvantage with them is aperture. Even a 3.5 inch will cost you alot.
Catadrioptics, is sort of a mix between the two, the schmidt cassegrain is slowly emerging as the king of telescopes, claiming the title from the Newtonian Reflectors. The king cats are a bit more expensive than the newts, but less than the refractors, with a reasonably good aperture. They are the type that are usually computerised, they can also be quite compact too. I prefer my reflector though.
Lastly, enter - the Dobsonian reflectors, or, the dobsonian light buckets. Think - an insanely large reflector tube, mounted on, instead of a tripod, a sort of wooden cradle, that sits on the floor. And there you have it. No fiddly instruments, no polar aligning, just up down left right. Thats it. The advantages? They are the most steady, balanced telescopes, and you can get an insanely big one for an insanely small price. A 10 inch for the same price as my 6 inch, for instance. You can even get an 18 inch!!!....Disadvantages? Well, they are BIG, very big indeed. Two, they lack any fine tuning options n' ****e, all the good little instruments the telescope usually comes with...you just point and aim.
Good luck...
(are in Australian Dollars)
I got my six inch for $600, second hand....you could go for a small 30MM for about 20 dollars, but I wouldn't use that if you PAID ME. Go for a medium sized scope, around 4-8 inch Reflector, (price range 200-800) or a bit smaller refractor. Second hand might be good, get one that hasn't been used much....Ebay has a wide range. If you have alot of money to spare, you could go for a motorised, computerised one, that counters the earths spinning, and goes to objects when you type their coordinates in. They are over $1000 though, usually.
What can I see?
Well, it all depends on Aperture and eyepeice size. Aperture is usually measured in inches and is the width of the end of the telescope, the bigger the ap, the more light it can collect. Ap isn't very apparent when viewing close objects such as planets, but you try viewing a galaxy with a 30mm. My 6 inch can see pretty much everything, you can't really go wrong with it. Eyepeice size is what governs how big the image is. The smaller the eyepeice the bigger the object will be. 20MM will magnify a peice of sky the size of a tennis ball, 9MM and you will see a golf ball sized peice of the sky. I recommend you have at least one medium, 20MM, for finding things, and one high power, 9MM for seeing small things.
Ok, say you have a 6 inch reflector with a 9mm eyepeice, and you live in light polluted sydney (thats me!
)
Ok, I find jupiter, center it, and......you can see a bright disc 5mm across, you can see the gas rings and the great storm, you can see its moons orbiting it and casting shadows on it.
Next stop, saturn. It is a bit smaller, but still bright, yellow, you can see its rings clearly but thats all.
Mars...not much detail here, except for the polar ice caps.
Venus...its the biggest, but not much detail, just an orange circle.
Anything smaller....just dots.
Moon, you can see about a quater of it through the eyepeice, thats how much it magnifies. See lots.
Now, DEEP SKY OBJECTS!!
Stars...coloured points of light, some times you can see double stars, the most beautiful being Alpha Centauri, a blue and orange star orbiting each other.
Galaxies...if its an edge on it will look like a faint cigar, however if its face on you will be able to see a brighter nucleus with very faint spiral arms....however I recommend going to the country to see this, light pollution really stuffs with you.
Nebula/other stuff...Nebula are just dark clouds, you can make out some sort of formation, but no colour.
Clusters...really cool balls of thousands of stars, can see them well.
What telescope to get?
*yawn* Ok, Let me introduce 3 main types. Reflector, a telescope that uses a mirror, Refractor, a telescope that uses a lense, and Catadrioptics (or schmidt cassegrain) that uses both, and has the advantages and disadvantages of both.
Lets start with the Reflector. The Newtonian reflector can be made in large enough sizes to satisfy the requirements for serious lunar, planetary and binary star observing without having extremely high costs. Refractors become insanely expensive in sizes over 6 inch. Refractors have a better quality image, but are troubled with colour distortion, and the main disadvantage with them is aperture. Even a 3.5 inch will cost you alot.
Catadrioptics, is sort of a mix between the two, the schmidt cassegrain is slowly emerging as the king of telescopes, claiming the title from the Newtonian Reflectors. The king cats are a bit more expensive than the newts, but less than the refractors, with a reasonably good aperture. They are the type that are usually computerised, they can also be quite compact too. I prefer my reflector though.
Lastly, enter - the Dobsonian reflectors, or, the dobsonian light buckets. Think - an insanely large reflector tube, mounted on, instead of a tripod, a sort of wooden cradle, that sits on the floor. And there you have it. No fiddly instruments, no polar aligning, just up down left right. Thats it. The advantages? They are the most steady, balanced telescopes, and you can get an insanely big one for an insanely small price. A 10 inch for the same price as my 6 inch, for instance. You can even get an 18 inch!!!....Disadvantages? Well, they are BIG, very big indeed. Two, they lack any fine tuning options n' ****e, all the good little instruments the telescope usually comes with...you just point and aim.
Good luck...
Fri Feb 06, 2004 4:09 pm
Jeebus I didn't think you could see that much with one and $600 shouldn't be hard to come by. I'm a third owner (with bro and pa) in a beach property 3 hours out of adelaide and on a moonless night the sky is bloody stunning. I've always wanted to get a good telescope to use up there.
22 posts
• Page 2 of 2 • 1, 2