posted
I like the stars; always have. As a novice in the Big City, I started out the way many folks in books and the web recommended: start with binoculars. So I started with hand-holdable Celestron Ultima 8x56s, and then got the 20x80 lightweights from a place called Burgess Optica; (very good prices, and light weight, for rather large binocs).
That was a long and pointless preface, since I'm going to recommend that any of you looking for a cheap, yet reputable, telescope, go to the Hardin Optical web site and check out the price on the 6" Deep Space Hunter Dobsonian.
$99.
We're talking a truly decent, no frills telescope. Hardin has a good reputation, but has decided to get out of the retail telescope business, and has slashed prices dramatically. I don't know how long the supply will last (I am not affiliated in any way with any of the above companies), so I would say, do some research (Dobsonians seem weird to people used to telescopes on tripods), and decide if this excellent deal is good for you guys.
posted
That is awesome! I've long favored Dobsies myself. Fancy clock drives and mounts and all that stuff are for astrophotographers. Everyone else just needs to point and look.
And it's all about aperture, man. Six inches is quite respectable while still being fairly portable.
Why no linky? Reading the ad I'm struck by this claim.
quote: The range of objects that can be viewed with this scope is quite amazing. Travel from our next-door neighbor, the moon (only about 240,000 miles away), to gas-giant Jupiter (483 million miles) and beyond. Even Saturn's rings can be sighted 887 million miles distant.
You should be able to see WAY past the edge of the solar system with this telescope! Deep Space, indeed! The solar system has marvels to look at. Saturn's rings are fantastic. It's totally different seeing them in pictures as opposed to just pointing your instrument at the sky and looking at them! Please, please everyone do this some time in your life. But even cooler is the stuff out in the galaxy like planetary nebulas (exploded stars), and especially globular clusters, which are the jewels in the galaxy's necklace, and further out still, the other galaxies in all their variety. This telescope has enough light gathering capacity to let you get a glimpse, at least, of all these wonders. Please go outside, go to a star party, and look for yourselves. Nothing beats it!
I have my own recommendation to add for people new to the sky. Get H.A. Rey's classic book The Stars. This is an introduction to the constellations by the writer and illustrator of the famous books about "Jorge Curioso" (or in English, Curious George) .
I love his system! This book is engaging and fun, and really will help you find your way around in the sky.
posted
Not too many people know that H.E. Rey actually invented the way we draw constellations today. It used to be that they drew a picture of (say Hercules) around the stars, using the stars as reference points. (anyone who's been in Grand Central Station lately knows what this is like) Rey originated the idea of drawing stick figures from point to point, which makes it much easier to actually find the stars in the sky, but nowadays Sagitarius looks like a teapot to most people, instead of an archer.
BTW, that is a good price on a 6" dob, and with Deep Impact coming up it'll be nice to have a telescope, but... ah, my 10 Meade will do nicely, provided I get it collimated. So I bought a fancy shmansy laser collimator. Maybe I'll actually do some active stargazing for the first time in over a year.
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