(meteorobs) OT: Telescopes

[lunro.imo.usa at cox.net]

Wes and All,

Until recently I have been a "star hopper", finding objects I wish to view in atlas's and using a large finderscope to hunt them down. This method is a great way to learn the sky but it is time consuming. Now my trips to dark skies are few and far between and I wish to take advantage of every minute so I have purchased a computer controlled SCT. I find them to be  a great advantage as I can find objects instantly plus brighter objects during daylight. It certainly helped me find Comet McNaught during the day last January. 

Each of us has our own preferences and these can also change during ones lifetime. The main thing goal is to buy a telescope you are going to use and not one that will gather dust.

Bob Lunsford


---- Wes Stone <howard048 at centurytel.net> wrote: 
> Kim,
> 
> If you're the kind who likes to find objects by yourself, the Dob is the way 
> to go. I've never been able to stomach computer-controlled telescopes. On 
> the other hand, you also lose the automatic tracking, which means you'll 
> have to keep pushing the scope to keep the object in the field of view. 
> Astrophotography is also out. There are equatorial platforms available, but 
> they cancel out the cost advantage of a Dob.
> 
> The portability is mainly whether your back can stand lifting two heavy 
> pieces in and out of your truck bed and carrying them to their ultimate 
> destinations. As others have noted, it should be easy to cushion the ride. 
> Checking (and often adjusting) collimation is something that needs to be 
> done after a trip, but that also means that the jarring doesn't do any 
> permanent damage. Get a combination sight tube/Cheshire collimating eyepiece 
> and learn to use it. Schmidt-Cassegrains like the NexStar 8, etc. also need 
> collimation (in fact are very sensitive to miscollimation), but it's easier 
> to do since only the secondary mirror usually needs to be adjusted. I've got 
> a 10" Dob, and could probably handle a 12" except that I have a narrow 
> hallway and doorway to negotiate.
> 
> As far as meteors, this would be a strictly casual pursuit with the Dob. 
> You'll see more meteors when you glance up from the eyepiece than you will 
> see in the eyepiece. But they're certainly a nice surprise when you see 
> them. Satellites are another matter... You're not going to put a wide-angle 
> converter on the Dob to get a wider field of view; generally these scopes 
> are already f/4.5 to f/5. Telescopic meteor studies are probably optimally 
> done with binoculars or small, wide-field telescopes. You want the Dob for 
> what its large aperture can do on the deep sky (dark skies required for best 
> results, of course) and planets.
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> --
> Wes Stone
> Chiloquin, OR
> http://skytour.homestead.com
> 
>