Anyone into astronomy?

[BolshieBastard]

Im thinking of buying a telescope to do a bit of gazing into the heavens!

Thought about something like this http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astrono...p=0_10_1_3_115

That's the best price I've seen although one or two places if you pay about 30 quid more, you get some extras worth up to 75ish quid ie night torch, another eye piece.

What I like is it is a GOTO telescope meaning once you have calibrated it to a known star you can then use the processor in it to search for a good few thousand (nearly 43000 but I guess half of these would be in the southern sky so not viewable?) objects and this I suppose will teach you where they actually are in the sky.

Any thoughts? Probably not what a 'serious' amatuer astronomer would pick but then again, I only want to look for fun!

[Cliphead]

Useful enough for looking at the Moon and planets, Saturn & Jupiter particularly.

Anything sub £1k won't give great results. Seems fine for a starter telescope.

[BolshieBastard]

Useful enough for looking at the Moon and planets, Saturn & Jupiter particularly.

Anything sub £1k won't give great results. Seems fine for a starter telescope.

Seriously!? I mean I know I wouldnt get to see anything with the clarity of Hubble but even Sir Patrick says Sky Watcher are decent scopes (I think!).

[Cliphead]

Seriously!? I mean I know I wouldnt get to see anything with the clarity of Hubble but even Sir Patrick says Sky Watcher are decent scopes (I think!).

”I have used a great number of telescopes; some are good, some mediocre and some bad. To me the Sky-Watcher range of instruments are very good indeed, and suited to amateurs of all kinds – and they are not priced out of the market! Excellent value. Use them and enjoy them.“

Sir Patrick Moore CBE FRS

[EternalOptimist]

An area up in Scotland recently won official coveted 'Dark Skies' status. I would dearly love to go up there and do a bit of star-gazing.
Pehaps I will

[Spacecadet]

An area up in Scotland recently won official coveted 'Dark Skies' status. I would dearly love to go up there and do a bit of star-gazing.
Pehaps I will

That would be the Galloway forest

Its a very nice but very forgotton piece of british countryside.
People tend to go to either the lakes if they can't be arsed going all the way to scotland or once the pass the border decide to carry on to the highlands.

I recommended it to chef when he was asking for scottish holiday locations, it didn't exactly get a lot of interest!

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5448989

[scooterscot]

I used to do some star seeking in a place called Appin. At the time I lived only 20 minutes away. I packed the scope in the back of me punto and set up on the road side. Tad cold so it was. The beauty of this spot, if it was not dark enough, that it sits in a valley and stops any stray light from a distance getting in. It was the sort of darkness that you could made out the milky way within a couple of seconds.

Inch for inch you're better off with a refractor (without the mirror) than a reflector, if you can afford it. Also if you can get one where the glass has been spun while it's been cooled as this stops the presence of tiny bubbles forming in the glass, which you'll not see with the naked eye, but will make out when zooming in on the images.

[scooterscot]

or once the pass the border decide to carry on to the highlands.

It's true, once you cross the border the highlands are only another 20 or 30 minutes behind the wheel