Any telescope people out there

[Kangum]

About 2 years ago I picked up a Meade ETX 80AT telescope. I had a great time stargazing with it until it literally fell apart in my hands a couple months ago.

I was thinking of getting something. bigger. better.. something like a dobsonian 10 inch lightbridge.

Anyone out there in to star gazing. what do you got for a scope. see anything good?

[Jdurg]

I've always been interested in stargazing, but the light pollution from the local casino pretty much nixes that idea.    Still, the lunar eclipse a short while ago was fun as Saturn was visible to the naked eyes.   

[MustardTent]

This is a pretty good place to look for suggestions & info:  http://www.scopereviews.com/

Also, when I was purchasing my last telescope I got a few copies of Astronomer & other related magazines to check out any articles they had about selecting a scope.

Do you have a good place to go stargazing?  I live in the Chicago burbs and I have to train my telescope away from the city to get any real darkness.

[Kangum]

This is a pretty good place to look for suggestions & info:  http://www.scopereviews.com/

Also, when I was purchasing my last telescope I got a few copies of Astronomer & other related magazines to check out any articles they had about selecting a scope.

Do you have a good place to go stargazing?  I live in the Chicago burbs and I have to train my telescope away from the city to get any real darkness.

I live in mass so the new hampshire white mountains are not that far away. well within driving distance. ive gone camping there before with my scope. no ambiant light from the surrounding area. its really really dark. usually stargaze at night then hike in the morning.

that is rare though usually just in the backyard. I want to get more serious about it this summer.

[skim36]

Wow, a 10 inch dob?  Not really practical for carrying up the white mountains.  A have a 6 inch dob from orion, (hey, it was cheap)...but does the job.  I haven't used mine in years.  I live in the city now and the ex still has it at her place.  I should get back into it though.  You read and learn about the planets in school, but it's nothing compared to actually seeing them with your own eyes for the first time.  I remember seeing saturn for the first time, was blown away.  10 inch dob?  I envy you....

[mpm32]

I built this a while ago.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jabui/RRO.htm












Not really me, but someone did.   

[shardian]

I need to try this out some day. I like looking at the stars on a clear night, but I could care less about constellations and stuff like that. Can one of you guys post a link that might have some images of what I would see looking thru a telescope like you are talking about?

[mpm32]

Well, the images that I get from looking through my scope, I post in my other thread.  All of those celestial bodies.

[shardian]

Well, the images that I get from looking through my scope, I post in my other thread.  All of those celestial bodies.

Now THOSE are some constellations I could stare at all day!

[SithMaster]

I'm actually in my last semester of Astronomy at college and the telescope the teacher had seemed good.  I forgot the name but it can be found on amazon.com for around 200 dollars.  It had a built in computer that would find the constellations for you.

For sky charts I could just send the ones from my text book to you.

[Singapura]

That was one of the first things I built myself. I was 13 and a member of the local Geek club (we called it "young researchers") I found this book in the library, saved all my money for a year and built the parts. It wasn't very good but it did the trick. I'd love to have one again but here in Singapore you rarely see more then one or two very bright stars.

[ErikRuud]

MustardTent,  I am out in St. Charles. Try these links if you haven't already.

http://astronomer.proboards23.com/index.cgi

http://www.nsaclub.org/

http://www.geocities.com/harperastronomyclub/hcastroclub_henizeschedule.htm

[MustardTent]

Very cool.  Are you involved in any of those?  I'm located in Carol Stream, pretty close to St. Charles.

[ErikRuud]

Not exactly.  I am on the The Chicago Astronomer fairly often.  I was just at the "Northwest Suburban Astronomers" astronomy day at Harper College last weekend. 

During the summer American Science and Surplus has astronomy nights.  I haven's seen this year's schedule yet.  Last year I went to one of the ones at the Geneva store and it was pretty cool.

I don't have a very good scope. It's a decent 70x800 Bushnell refractor.  It's best feature is that it was free.  It's really good for the moon and I can see things like Jupiter and 4 of it's moons.  I was also able to see comet P17-Holmes with it last fall.

[jasonbar]

Just found this thread while searching for my old scope thread to add a new post to that old thread.

Question: where to get a scope?

Answer: make one!   

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=73343

Thanks,
-Jason

[Vanguard]

Ive got a 6" Meade Schmidt-Newtonian with the motorized mount (Autostar).   It's a nice mid range scope.   I bought some additional eye pieces with higher magnification which really increased the performance. 

[Loafmeister]

I've got a Celestron CPC800 (8" Schmidt-Cassegrain) with lots of investment in it via eyepieces, focal reducers, electronic focuser, dedicated Astro-cam's (DSI 2) and have just picked up a Canon Digital Rebel.  I use my scope mostly for astro-photography.

I named my scope Seymore, cause you know, it allows me to "see more" but I should have called the SOB Audrey II, because I swear to god, every now and then she says "feed me" and my wallet gets empty within 5 minutes. How does she do it?!?

[jasonbar]

We in the Robot Combat community have a joke:

"How much money does it take to build a combat robot?"

"All of it."

 

-Jason