Orion constellation

berth

Well-known member
My friend has a 10" Celestron that I borrowed this year.

Boy that was a mistake.

Just way too big, WAY too heavy, I was never able to set up the go to mount properly. I only dragged it out twice. Mind, I had no instruction. I had the manual, but, that was it. No experience. Having all this dropped in your lap all at once, not a good way to go.

I did manage to see Saturns rings, which was very cool, and some banding on Jupiter.

The rings was extra amazing because I thought I was looking at Jupiter. >.<

I can see Interesting Things with my 50mm (I think) binoculars. You can see the moons of Jupiter with those. I got a nice look at the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter last year.

My friend has a pair of stabilizing binoculars, those are GREAT for sky viewing.

I will look at the videos, the deep sky photo stacking has been a casual interest of mine for some time.
 

ctwo

Merely Rhetorical
A decent pair of 10x50 bins is probably the best place to start.

I rarely wheel out my 13.1" dob. I have this pipe dream of building an EQ mount for it.
 

Indio

Indio
My friend has a 10" Celestron that I borrowed this year.

Boy that was a mistake.

Just way too big, WAY too heavy, I was never able to set up the go to mount properly. I only dragged it out twice. Mind, I had no instruction. I had the manual, but, that was it. No experience. Having all this dropped in your lap all at once, not a good way to go.

I did manage to see Saturns rings, which was very cool, and some banding on Jupiter.

The rings was extra amazing because I thought I was looking at Jupiter. >.<

I can see Interesting Things with my 50mm (I think) binoculars. You can see the moons of Jupiter with those. I got a nice look at the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter last year.

My friend has a pair of stabilizing binoculars, those are GREAT for sky viewing.

I will look at the videos, the deep sky photo stacking has been a casual interest of mine for some time.

Yup SCTs are heavy and huge. I personally like refractors because upto a certain aperture size(130mm) they are still portable and compact.

Always a good idea to start off with a small refractor or dobsonian/reflector. Big aperture telescopes take fun out this hobby unless they are mounted permanently on a pier.

One can easily get a decent quality setup including mount& telescope for up to $1000

https://explorescientificusa.com/collections/reflectors
https://explorescientificusa.com/collections/refractors
https://www.astronomics.com
https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Telescopes/Refractor-Telescopes/rc/2160/pc/1/10.uts
https://www.vixenoptics.com/Vixen-Telescopes-s/100.htm

OR used gear on cheap at astromart.com and cloudynights.com
 
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