Telescope or binoculars? Amateur (backyard) astronomer.
A few dollars is ok. I know bigger is usually better, but what else should I look out for? Brands? Any mistakes to avoid?
Telescope or binoculars? Amateur (backyard) astronomer.
A few dollars is ok. I know bigger is usually better, but what else should I look out for? Brands? Any mistakes to avoid?
I bought some binoculars 18 months ago: 10 x 50. Good enough binoculars but from my experience with them, I wouldn't recommend binoculars for astronomy.
There's a bit of a discussion on this topic in this thread.
Pocket guide to the moon
Willy with the haze, the lights of your "complex" and from your city you are not going to see much from that balcony.
And yours was a 100 incher?
With equatorial mount and tripod? About 7k baht?
you can buy some cheap Chinese crap for 3,000 THB but the problem is not the lens, but the aiming
it's quite hard, and that's where the expensive shit excels, it will put your thing at the exact right spot so you can observe, and move the telescope as stars 'move' in the sky
the expensive shit are about 20,000 THB but well worth it IMO
You can ask NASA. They have 2 of those lying around somewhere. They are originally DoD spy scopes, designed for Earth observation. They no longer needed them and donated them to NASA. At least the body and the main optics, the large mirror. They have plans for at least one, don't know about the second. I wish they would put it in orbit around Mars. Best ground observation there ever.
"don't attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence"
I understand KW, Ant, Ao and Nev already use one of these...
KW, I bought one recently. 2nd hand as I didn't want to buy something which got used once and then became a dust collector.
Paid roughly the equivalent if BHT 1,000
Looks much like this one ... kogan.com
What that recent Full moon look through my crappy Chinese phone.
The moon looked great through the telescope, but my glasses had to come off.
When I stuck my phone to the telescope's eye piece.
---
So ... the experience of actually viewing a celestial object through the eye piece was OK, but not memorable.
If I bought another one I'd buy one which had the 'mobile phone attachment' so I could view the images on the computer later.
Just my experience.
Below is an explanation of the two main types of telescopes available ...
Full moon is not the best time to watch the Moon. No contrast. Look for half moon. At that time the mountains and crater walls throw a shadow and everything looks better, plastic, rather than flat.
^ I like 3/4s. Still got the shadows that add depth, without being too washed out.
One thing I'm not into is the whole modern technology of operating and viewing through a laptop. Connect it via cables, type in the coordinates, then wham, there it is on a computer screen.
I much rather find it myself, even if it does mean the odd hissyfit, kicking over plant pots, yelling at the kid etc Then looking at it through the lens while warning people not to fucking breath while next to it.
Real astronomy is fun.
If you mean an attachment that connects your phone to the eyepiece so you can take clearer photos, they're really cheap. Probably $10.
Yes, the eye piece thing is what I meant.
I relate to the "the odd hissyfit, kicking over plant pots, yelling at the kid etc" comment ... did exactly that.
After 30 odd mins to set the thing up right and get the moon in full view, I beckoned the kids to come see.
It's Winter here and they came out in T-Shirts and shorts and got barked at for no jumper and were told to be lively about getting them.
Sadly, in their haste to comply they also knocked the rocket night light in their bedroom down and broke it.
They still have the 'glow in the dark' huge Solar System poster stuck on their wall though
125% agree
The photons that trigger the chemical reaction in the rhodopsin proteins in the photoreceptor cells in your retina have to be the actual photons that made the journey hundreds of light years all the way across the inky blackness of space, or else it is simply not the spiritual experience that astronomy is supposed to be.
If you are looking at laptop generated photons that have only travelled 18 inches then you might as well go on a youtube livestream from an observatory
^ Loops ... you are such a romantic!
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