Telescopes

[HallofFame]

Alright people of Hrot I need your brilliance. So my new house is almost built and it is in the perfect location for some star gazing and checking out the celestial bodies of the universe. I used to be big into Astronomy when I was a kid and my daughter has shown a similar interest at a young age. No pics she is 3 you pigs. Unlike my parents I would like to allow her to explore this interest. What would be a good telescope for our family to use on the deck and take with us camping? Not a poor but don't want to spend a bunch of money on the first one.

 

[naturalmwa]

I can't help you with that, but if you both love astronomy I recommend checking out SkySafari or Star Walk on your iOS device for just $2.99. You point it at the sky and they will show you every star in that field of view. You can zoom in, click a star, read all about it, etc. Its a planetarium in your pocket that helps you see the night sky right in front of you. You know how hard it can be to point to a star in the real sky. This allows you to enhance the sky you are looking at at that moment, point out the stars and constellations and even get NASA images of the stars (as an upgrade I thing).

 

[Thomas Barnes]

Are you really just getting it to look at women in the neighborhood??

 

[fredjr82]

You should pay for that service where you get to name a star after someone. Name it after your wife and then show her the star. She'll want to get down after that if Kakert hasn't already given it to her.

 

[linkshero]

Starwalk is very good, but it does use a lot of memory if you don't have a lot of extra to spare.

As far as scopes, it's not nearly as easy as you would think. You could spend a couple hundred and take it out, and it's going to look like a little dot. Not sure if you are into hunting, but I would start with a really nice pair of binocs, and see the interest level. You can see neighboring galaxies with a good pair of binocs, and most decent magnitude stars and planets. Then, if the interest is there, invest in a good scope. Make sure your scope has a great finder scope, and alignment system.

 

[HallofFame]

Good advice. Also a little known fact about Kakert is that while in High School his nickname was The Slayer. Because well he slayed the pus******** if you know what I mean.

 

[h-hawk]

I was always impressed that you can also see the rings of Saturn and moons of Jupiter with good binoculars. Here is a link to some recommendations for telescopes.

http://www.backyardastronomy.com/Backyard_Astronomy/The_Best_Beginner_Telescopes.html

 

[ferentzin04]

Astroscans are great for beginners. Fairly affordable and extremely easy to use.

I would also suggest seeing if your local astronomy club has Star Parties. For example the Black Hawk Astronomy Club and Grout Museum have free Star Parties once a month at Prairie Grove Park in Waterloo. They bring different scopes and have activities set up. That might be another way to gauge interest before pulling the trigger on a telescope.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/wp-content/uploads/Astroscan-201007.pdf

 

[Hawkeye009]

I second the binoculars recommendation. That's a good way to start and learn your way around the sky. After that, you have to choose between mirror size or automation at a price point. I went for size and got an 8" dobsonian (orion). It's a bit of a beast, but gets great views. We can see the color bands on Jupiter and Saturn's rings, etc.

It isn't great for kids because it's big and planets move out of view quickly at magnification. If I was focused on the kids, I might have gotten something smaller with computer tracking. Whatever you do, don't waste money on the small kid scopes.