Re: Selecting a telescope

On Fri, 08 Sep 2006 08:31:56 GMT, in uk.sci.astronomy , Peter Lynch
<pete@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:16:06 +0100, Mark McIntyre wrote:
Also, how worthwhile (for a beginner) are the computerised GoTo systems.
They sound like a great idea, but they add a lot to the cost, and are they
accurate and reliable?

Waste of money. Learn to do it by hand first, its part of the fun.

Sorry Mark, I've got to disagree completely on this point.

Actually, you don't, I think....

When I first started I had a non-goto scope and after the novelty
of seeing something - anything wore off, I never used it again.

You missed my main point. For the extra $$$ you could get a
significantly larger dob, and see a heck of a lot more. As a beginner
you're going to be trying to see stuff, and you need aperture for
that.

And *ahem*... you're absolutely certain that you gave up purely
because it was a manual scope? Rather than because you had other
things to do of an evening...

Only after using a goto at a club were my eyes reopened. I got one
and found it indispensible, certainly worth the money and I'd say
the single thing that has kept me in the hobby.

The danger is that one sits with the controller and tells it to find
some star or other, and you never really know where they are in
relation to anything else.

Notice that I'm NOT saying you shouldn't buy one, just that as a first
scope its better to spend your cash on aperture than on gizmos. You
get hooked because you see stuff. Buying a 3" goto and seeing nothing
very easily won't get you as interested as buying a 6" scope and
seeing stuff with a little more work.

I'd hazard a guess, you) find as much enjoyment in the "journey" as
the destination. That's great. From my perspective, I simply didn't
have the time:

Me neither. My first scope back in 1979 was a 2.5" homemade job,
through which I saw Saturn for the first time. Entirely manual by the
way... NOW, after 30 odd years of playing with manually operated
units I'd be happy to spend money on a goto.

either to learn the sky in enough detail, or to actually
do the star-hopping. (Wish I did, but that's life)
Since my observing time was strictly limited by weather, local sports
floodlights and having to get up early for work, I found it invaluable
to just click on an object in Skymap and have the scope slew to it.

Yeah, when I get enough spare cash, I'm hooking my pedestal-mounted
goto up to the PC in my study and I'm observing from a nice warm
place... heck ,professionals do it that way so...
--
Mark McIntyre
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: star hopping [Ammendment]
    ... there are two very positive cases for GoTo. ... > mount that could automatically slew to an object. ... cool a larger scope. ... The 12.5" Dob is nice for sure, but frankly I'd rather have the 3" smaller ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Beginner - ETX 90AT vs. EC
    ... ETX90 AT was my first half decent scope since childhood. ... Without the GoTo, it was very hard to use indeed. ... > those messages claimed that the EC package is the same as the AT ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Buying a new telescope...LONG
    ... how do I setup my GoTo so I can see it?". ... I kept that little 4" GoTo for years, and at one time I even mounted a 5" ... the little GT scope used only on the rarest of occasions over the next three ... aperture F4 reflector. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: orion sky view pro 8
    ... the new GoTo mount or Intelliscope. ... I'd take Intelliscope with a clock driver over GoTo. ... Setting Circles (Intelliscope) allows _you_ to aim the scope by grabbing ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Long Term Reliability of Meade/Celestron SCTs
    ... > In reference to the LX200 and Nexstar series of scopes, ... the mechanical components used in the scope are ... You can get a new goto GEM, ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)