Posts Made By: Robert Harman

I have recently been taken by the idea to start stargazing. I am looking to purchase an Orion, refractor telescope. The model I am looking at is the Astroview 100mm EQ. My question is, is this a good telescope for a beginner? Is there anything about this telescope I should be worried about (Cheap construction, too small of tripod)? Also, what kind of views should I expect? At 60X, what is the diameter of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn?

Thank you for any information you might have.

Robert Harman

The other post was getting a little long and hard to follow, so I am posting my follow-up in a new thread to make things easier to follow.

I would like to thank everyone for the large amount of advice so far. It appears that most people are recommending a 6 or 8 inch Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount. While I appreciate the light gathering advantage of these over most refractors, a requirement for consideration is that the scope must be able to pull double duty, for land viewing, as well as work on the stars (The wife will not allow funding for the project otherwise). A separate camera tripod will be used for land viewing. If I am correct in my readings, this limits me to a refractor with an erecting diagonal, or a similar equipped SCT?

I am looking for a telescope that will offer reasonable performance on planets, and well as the brighter DSOs. As I do not yet know which of these I will become more interested in, I want a scope that will let me sample a little of both, before choosing a second scope whose performance might be more specialized, in a few years.

Once again, thank you for all the information, and links to reviews.

Robert

My first telescope arrived today (really cut into the work I planned to get done today). As expected, rain and overcast for the weekend. I have assembled the telescope, and played around with is a bit to familiarize myself with the equatorial mount. One thing I have noticed is that with the 25mm eyepiece that came with it, the circle of light produced on the lens is only fills a fourth or fifth of the lens. Is this Normal?

Robert

I recently took the plunge, and bought a 100mm refractor, for my first telescope. Last night I was able to see four moons around Jupiter (three on one side, one on the other around 9:30 PM Eastern).

While looking at Saturn, I could see three points of light forming a triagnle around Saturn, Would these be Saturns moons, or should they form up in a straight line like Jupiters?

The observations were made at 60X

Thank you for any advice

Robert

I am thinking about getting a Barlow, but am wondering what effect they have on getting an eyepeice to focus. Do they require more in travel, or out travel than an eyepeice alone?

Thank you,
Robert

Does anyone have any experiance with these type of eyepeices? What areas of proformance do they come up short of the more expensive types? I had been considering a TV Radian, but at less than a third of the cost, how far off are these?

Thanks for any help,

Robert

Why is it that whenever I see what is clearly one of the Meade eyepiece sets for sell in the classifieds, for 3 or 4 hundred dollars, I get the urge to make an offer of 90 bucks?

One of the three, was much brighter, (Close to how Jupiters moons were appearing - slightly dimmer) the other two were much dimmer.

As I said in the first post, I just got my first telescope, and currently only have the capability for 24 and 60X. The next investment will be a quallity Barlow, then a 5mm EP (When used with the Barlow 240X - theroitical maximum mag for the scope). I willl have to wait a while before trying to push either of those past the the wife.

Should any more than 4 of Jupiters moons be visible with a 100mm scope?

Robert

Where is the option for I will buils on withing a year of the wife caving in and saying yes you can have one?