(meteorobs) OT: Telescopes

[Peter Brunone]

    Never tried telescopic meteors, and since I actually built my own, I may not be much help....

    Even so, my homebrew 8" reflector was the result of surprisingly little work -- probably ten hours total to get it working.  You can see how simple it is at http://peter.brunone.com/telescope .

    How good are your shocks?  I stick this thing in the back of our minivan on occasion, and the only time it's ever had a problem is when I had to slam on the brakes to avoid rear-ending someone.  If the spider holding the seconary mirror had been attached securely, it wouldn't have been a problem.  A store-bought one should be considerably more sturdy, and possibly easier to collimate in the event of a particularly jarring event.

Clear skies,

Peter

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From: meteorsga at bellsouth.net
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 6:13 AM
To: meteorobs at meteorobs.org
Subject: (meteorobs) OT: Telescopes 

It's OT time of year!

I'm considering (strongly) buying my first decent telescope within the next month. I had some experience using the Celestron nexstar goto scopes last year, which sort of lit the fire to own one myself.

But a bit of looking around has shown me that I could get much better aperture for far less money if I forget the computereized slewing functions and go with a dobsonian mount. Right now I'm considering a Celestron 12" dobsonian. 

My concern is portability (among other things). The thing is big. Am I going to be able to easily (and safely) load and carry such a beast out to my observing site(s)? Is it going to get jarred and unaligned riding back there in the bed of the pickup? Should I be looking at something else? 

Any and all responses would be appreciated in guiding me towards buying the best scope. My only caveat is I'm not willing to attempt to build one...

Oh, and to get us back on topic, I'll probably try my hand at telescopic meteors...

K. Youmans

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