(03-23-2019, 04:47 PM)homebiscuit Wrote:

(03-22-2019, 02:44 PM)Jags Wrote: Can you recommend a good entry level telescope.  Something that won’t break the bank but yet still give the “wow, look at that” feeling.  Also, do you take yours places to watch or do you just use the backyard? I ask because there lots of light pollution near me.

I don't take my telescope out of my backyard much anymore, but there is still plenty to see just outside your door. Even with light pollution, you can still see the planets, nebulae, and star clusters very easily. Before you consider a telescope, use a pair of binoculars to view the night sky. You would be amazed at what you can see with just a little magnification. An inexpensive pair like these, which I use, are ample to bring out more than you imagined. I recommend laying in a lawn chair, or on the ground, with your arms propped against something to eliminate shake. Also, download a star chart app on your phone so you can find objects to view. 

If you want more, stay away from cheap kiddie scopes that come in a box. Buy a decent used one, if you can. A quick perusal of craigslist brought up this one, which isn't a bad deal for a beginner scope. It even has a red dot finder, all for $40. The eyepieces with it are cheap, which are as important as the telescope itself, but will do for a beginner. Most folks don't realize that telescopes magnify very little, if at all. They merely bring a field of view to a focal point. The eyepieces then magnify the image at that focal point. The quality of that image depends largely on the eyepiece. I have a 2" 36mm eyepiece (which weighs almost a pound and half) that I paid $350, used.  For a refractor scope (a tube with lenses that you look through) expensive optic element materials, coatings, manufacture, and so on in the optical tube assembly improve the image, and that's where the $$ start adding up. 
Just be advised that what you see through a telescope does not resemble the richly detailed and colorful images you see from NASA. Most of what you see will be monochrome and smaller that you imagined. On a good seeing night, I can make out slight colors in the bands of Jupiter. Also, get a moon filter for when you look at the moon. It's like staring into a flashlight if you don't use one.

What type of scope do you have? This sounds odd, but I have a total of six telescopes, even more odd, I don't know how to use them that is why I still have them. 

Thanks to this thread however I took out my Meade ETX-90 and took a look at the moon. Finally was able to put some time into this and actually see the moon. I used the stock 26mm eyepiece, I had no idea that the eyepiece is the magnification piece. The next day I went out and bought two more eyepieces, 12mm and 9mm. Last night I tried the new eyepieces with my Meade ETX-125. The last time I tried the ETX-125 I could not see anything, turns out the finder and the actual scope were way off alignment so I just gave up put it away and forgot about it. After aligning both pieces during the day, we were able to see the moon in great detail, all of the little craters. I do think the 9mm is overall kill for this scope but still very enjoyable.  I think this is something that I will really enjoy and I can't wait to view different objects in the sky. 

Now to figure out what to do with the rest of the scopes. One of them is a higher end scope but I cannot get it to focus, it's like the focus knob just doesn't work, won't do anything. Any advice? Think I will be calling the manufacturer tomorrow to see about repairs.

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