Anyone here into telescopes? I want to purchase my first soon hopefully, I was browsing telescopes.com and saw some interesting ones. I want it to be at least 1000mm focal. Would also like it to be wide enough to see the large parts of nebulas not just pieces, so i can understand what im seeing. Just seeing if anyone on modified can give me some tips on shopping for one.
Also how hard it is to find stars and planets? Am I going to be spending hours looking for em? Oh and I also heard that it was possible to view the sun without scourging your eyes, how is this possible?
So how bout it any astronomers up in here?
Telescopes.
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smokefree
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Telescopes.
Anthony
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I'm not sure about sizes for lenses and what not, but I know when my family used to be interested in telescopes and such we found objects after searching for a few minutes, you just need to know where to look.
Int he Philly area there are colleges and museums nearby where you can go to scheduled events and the staff sets the sight of the telescopes on certain objects.
It's usually free, as like a promotional thing for astronomy, not sure how you'd find places like that in your area though, but museums such as the Franklin Institute, they've an incredibly powerful telescope that is often open to the public at night.
hope I helped
Int he Philly area there are colleges and museums nearby where you can go to scheduled events and the staff sets the sight of the telescopes on certain objects.
It's usually free, as like a promotional thing for astronomy, not sure how you'd find places like that in your area though, but museums such as the Franklin Institute, they've an incredibly powerful telescope that is often open to the public at night.
hope I helped
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Pyroman924
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I'm definitely not too experienced in this area but as Drew said, you just need to know where to look. Normally you can find a website that will gie you the degrees or whatever they use and you just set your telescope to them. Unless you have one of those telescopes with the built in computer that automatically sets itself or whatnot. As far as looking into the sun you need some intense filters to do that. They sell those probably on the same website you are looking at. There are different filters for different things. That's all I know though.
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NotHisRealName
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You can start with this site, here.
Basically you can enter your town and it will give you details on where and when celestial events are happening. This includes space shuttles and ISS, comets, meteor showers, etc.
With this site, you don't even need a telescope to see cool stuff!!!
Next stop is Astronomy.com. This is the website for the magazine that is dedicated to... you guessed it, Astronomy.
I would suggest (if you haven't already) you start reading reviews and 'field tests' of telescopes to see what will be enough, and what is just too much.
Essentially, you don't want to spend too much money on something you're going to get bored with.
Besides, you can always build your own larger one if you really get into it.
While you're there, check out the GROUPS section and see if there's one near you. There's no better way to learn astronomy than from the people that do it.
Finally, I'd also suggest you get yourself a pocket guide to stars and planets.
I have THIS ONE myself and have found it very useful.
With (or without) my telescope, I'll use the star charts to see what's worth looking for and in what constellation it's in. Then I look for the constellation... learn it's shape, it's story. It's great!!!
However, it's been a while since I did any star gazing... I'm living too close to the city now. I can make out some constellation, but not many... Scorpio, Orion (Both have galaxies within them) and Crux are the main ones I find easily.
Anyway, go forth and explore!
You can start with this site, here.
Basically you can enter your town and it will give you details on where and when celestial events are happening. This includes space shuttles and ISS, comets, meteor showers, etc.
With this site, you don't even need a telescope to see cool stuff!!!
Next stop is Astronomy.com. This is the website for the magazine that is dedicated to... you guessed it, Astronomy.
I would suggest (if you haven't already) you start reading reviews and 'field tests' of telescopes to see what will be enough, and what is just too much.
Essentially, you don't want to spend too much money on something you're going to get bored with.
Besides, you can always build your own larger one if you really get into it.
While you're there, check out the GROUPS section and see if there's one near you. There's no better way to learn astronomy than from the people that do it.
Finally, I'd also suggest you get yourself a pocket guide to stars and planets.
I have THIS ONE myself and have found it very useful.
With (or without) my telescope, I'll use the star charts to see what's worth looking for and in what constellation it's in. Then I look for the constellation... learn it's shape, it's story. It's great!!!
However, it's been a while since I did any star gazing... I'm living too close to the city now. I can make out some constellation, but not many... Scorpio, Orion (Both have galaxies within them) and Crux are the main ones I find easily.
Anyway, go forth and explore!
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NotHisRealName
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No problem.
Sometimes it's good to look deep into space and realize how totally insignificant you really are. Kinda puts things into perspective.
It's like looking at the moon... I think people often forget that is ACTUALLY IS a giant rock floating in space!!! Looking at it across the void, it's very humbling.
Sometimes it's good to look deep into space and realize how totally insignificant you really are. Kinda puts things into perspective.
It's like looking at the moon... I think people often forget that is ACTUALLY IS a giant rock floating in space!!! Looking at it across the void, it's very humbling.