Celestia Forums

hi its me, ElPelado, still in Argentina in my vacations, for two more weeks. I am having a grate time here, as LadyHawk may know.
I came here without any telescope, and now i have two, one reflector and one refractor, both borrowed, and i am thinking of buying one for me, to take with me to the pace where i live.
this is the telescope:

-firm: Galileo
-D76mm F700mm
-Reflector
-AZ1 Alt-Azimut mounting
-LT2 aluminium tripode
-eyepices 1.25": H20, H12.5, SR4
-lunar filter
-1.5x and 3x barlow lens
-quickfinder 5x24

it costs 100 u$s.
the reflector that i am using now, the borrowed one, is like the one that i want to buy, so i have some experience.
what do you think about it?
may i buy it or no?
thanks for the help. and i need an answer quickly if its possible.

PLEASE I NEED SOMEONE TO ANSWER TO THIS POST, I DON?T HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT HERE AND I NEED TO KNOW YOUR OPINION, PLEASE!!!

ElPelado wrote:PLEASE I NEED SOMEONE TO ANSWER TO THIS POST, I DON?T HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT HERE AND I NEED TO KNOW YOUR OPINION, PLEASE!!!

ElPelado,

I am not sure what you want to hear...

For any kind of semi-serious observations, a reflector with as little as 76mm diameter and with a typical supermarket price tag is just not suitable. Too cheap, too small, probably at best mediocre optical finish...

You may see craters on the moon or Jupiter's moons with it, a few bands on Jupiter, a glimpse of the Orion nebula (M42) and that's it. You will be tired of this scope very soon.

Stay away from refractors for now, good ones are /very/ expensive!

Estimating your budget from a distance;-), I would settle for a simple but qood quality 6 inch (150 mm) or better 8 inch (205 mm) (Newtonian) reflector, with a focal ratio (mirror's focal length/mirror's diameter) not smaller than 6:1. 4:1 instruments may look handier at first, but are seriously plagued by coma already at small field angles (stars cease to be round!) and other optical aberrations.

Also, you should save some money to be able to afford a reasonably sturdy mounting. Give the telescope a kick and see how long it takes until the vibrations are damped out. Should not be longer than 1-2 seconds!!

Just have a look into the american Sky & Telescope magazin and inquire with /serious/ dealers. 'Orion', for example is specializing on the lower price market.

/Startest/ the telescope you want to buy, if possible! Cheap instruments usually show a correspondingly large variation in optical quality. You may be lucky, but usually one is not...More expensive instruments have folded in somehow that each exemplar is optically of similarly good quality!

Bye Fridger

well, i don`t know what to say. first of all, the price is low because in argentina, some time ago there was a very big economical problem, so all the prices went down. a year the argentinian "peso" was equal to the dollar, i mean $1=1u$s, but now $3=1u$s, so the prices are very low now.

i was thinking of going to buy it yesterday, but the wheter was not so good so i decided not to go. but now i don`t know what to do...
the problem is that i am now in argentina, and i have to travel in airplane to where i live, and i can`t carry something big. the other problem is that where i live, a telescope similar to the one i was going to buy here costs 250 u$s, 150 more than here, and i can`t afford that.
i am using now a telescope with the same focal lenght and diametter and i saw mars, the moon, the sun, open clusters, some globular clusters, some nebulaes, etc, so its not as bad as you say. the monture of the onw i used was bad, but that was because a long story, the original monture was stolen from the person that borrowed me the telescope and he made one himself, so it was not stable. but the telescope i want to buy i tryed it. i saw the moon with it, and if i ask for, the seller will let me test it. the place where this telescope is, is an observatory, so i think that they don`t sell sh*t. they also have one with 114mm and another onw with 150mm of diameter, but the 114 one(with equatorial mounting) costs 233 u$s. i think that to start, i can buy this one. maybe in the future, if i decide to study more, i can sell this one and buy a better and bigger one.
i think that i `ll buy it.
but thanks for the advices.

ElPelado wrote:well, i don`t know what to say. first of all, the price is low because in argentina, some time ago there was a very big economical problem, so all the prices went down. a year the argentinian "peso" was equal to the dollar, i mean $1=1u$s, but now $3=1u$s, so the prices are very low now.

i was thinking of going to buy it yesterday, but the wheter was not so good so i decided not to go. but now i don`t know what to do...
the problem is that i am now in argentina, and i have to travel in airplane to where i live, and i can`t carry something big. the other problem is that where i live, a telescope similar to the one i was going to buy here costs 250 u$s, 150 more than here, and i can`t afford that.
i am using now a telescope with the same focal lenght and diametter and i saw mars, the moon, the sun, open clusters, some globular clusters, some nebulaes, etc, so its not as bad as you say. the monture of the onw i used was bad, but that was because a long story, the original monture was stolen from the person that borrowed me the telescope and he made one himself, so it was not stable. but the telescope i want to buy i tryed it. i saw the moon with it, and if i ask for, the seller will let me test it. the place where this telescope is, is an observatory, so i think that they don`t sell sh*t. they also have one with 114mm and another onw with 150mm of diameter, but the 114 one(with equatorial mounting) costs 233 u$s. i think that to start, i can buy this one. maybe in the future, if i decide to study more, i can sell this one and buy a better and bigger one.
i think that i `ll buy it.
but thanks for the advices.

ElPelado,

of course, you are free to do whatever you want.

Of course, you will see Mars for example and also some open clusters. Simply, because you see Mars with your naked eyes already! But what surface details will you see from Mars?? If you are lucky, you might see a glimpse of the ice pole caps and that only this year;-).

I could easily emulate for you what Mars details you might see at best with D=76 mm and compare it to what you will see with an 8", i.e. 205 mm scope. A huuuuuge difference.

Bye Fridger

ElPelado,

below, I have simulated for you with Celestia and folding in the respective resolutions, what you would see under the best possible conditions of Mars:

left with your "dream" scope, D=76mm
right with an 8" scope (D=205mm).



The rhs picture very closely resembles what I see with my 8 inch Schmidt Cassegrain Celestron telescope right now!

Bye Fridger

i understand that i won`t be able to see many many things, but for now i don`t think i can afford something more expensive than that, maybe, i can afford a 114 one, but not more than that. but i don`t remember how much it costs.
now with the 76mm and a 6mm eyepiece y see a dark section and the polar cap. using a 3x barlow and a 4mm eyepice, i think that i can see more than that. i know that the light enterig the scope is no tenough to see many details.
besides all what we have said, i dont know if i will use it for the rest of my life, maybe in some months i get tired of it, and i don`t want to waste more than 100 u$s if i am not sure about that.
i know you are right in aveything you say, and you have much more expeience than me, but i don?t think that to start i need a huge telescope, as i say, maybe i can start with this one, then if i see that i want to continue, i can buy an other one.
thanks

ElPelado wrote:i understand that i won`t be able to see many many things, but for now i don`t think i can afford something more expensive than that, maybe, i can afford a 114 one, but not more than that. but i don`t remember how much it costs.
now with the 76mm and a 6mm eyepiece y see a dark section and the polar cap. using a 3x barlow and a 4mm eyepice, i think that i can see more than that. i know that the light enterig the scope is no tenough to see many details.
besides all what we have said, i dont know if i will use it for the rest of my life, maybe in some months i get tired of it, and i don`t want to waste more than 100 u$s if i am not sure about that.
i know you are right in aveything you say, and you have much more expeience than me, but i don?t think that to start i need a huge telescope, as i say, maybe i can start with this one, then if i see that i want to continue, i can buy an other one.
thanks

I had started of my reply above with:
"I don't really know what you want to hear". Already at that point I felt that in your heart you had already decided to buy that scope, independently of what someone will say...

So buy it, of course, and I wish you will be lucky and get at least not a very bad optical finish...

Bye Fridger

HI, I'M BACK IN THE PLACE WHERE I LIVE. FINALY I BOUGHT THE TELESCOPE. IN ARGENTINA I COULD NOT TRY IT VERY WELL, CAUSE THE LAST WEEK WAS VERY CLODY, BUT I COULD, AT LEAST, SEE MARS. HERE I HAVE ALREADY SAW MANY THINGS: CLUSTERS IN THE TAIL OF THE SCORPION, M43, M31, MARS, SATURN, THE MOON, ETC...

AH, AND I ALSO SAW WHAT THE PERSON WHO LIVES IN FRONT OF ME WAS WATHCING IN THE TV . THE TELESCOPE COMES WITH A KIND OF 1.5X BARLOW THAT ALSO PUT THE IMAGE IN THE RIGHT UP-DOWN LEFT-RIGHT DIRECTION.

WELL, THATS IT.
THANKS FOR THE HELP ANYWAY!

here you have my new telescope:

ElPelado, May I give you a small piece of advice...
You wont see much with the light on and the curtains closed...

Seriously thats very nice, and i'd love one just like it
But I live in London, and I can barely see the lights from a plane here

Thanks for the advice Darkmiss !!!
its true that the skys on england are always grey??


btw: do you like soccer??? do you remember the HAND OF GOD??????jajajajaja

LOL No I hate the silly game.
But I know what you mean, and who you are talking about.

btw: do you see the picture in my signature? is from a planet i made to celestia. is called MARADO, its "dedicated" to Maradona. its colors are blu and yellow, the colors of the team where he played in argentina, Boca Juniors, and it has a number 10 on one side of it.
you can download it from my site to test it, if you want to.
bye