Here we go again....this time Ivan

[J-G]

Hmm.. no computer?

re: "Anywhose, if I lose power/internet again I'll go krrraaaazzzy!!! "

<shameless self-promotion>
...wanna buy a nice used laptop? It's got a good battery =^]
</shameless self-promotion>

Back to normal:
I think I'll stick to tornados and snow. No offense...

[Jonathan]

re: "Anywhose, if I lose power/internet again I'll go krrraaaazzzy!!! "

<shameless self-promotion>
...wanna buy a nice used laptop? It's got a good battery =^]
</shameless self-promotion>

Back to normal:
I think I'll stick to tornados and snow. No offense...

Eh saddly what small cash I got is going to a Telescope
No power = while krazy w/o power & ISP, I get killer views of the sky

[Buddha]

Eh saddly what small cash I got is going to a Telescope
No power = while krazy w/o power & ISP, I get killer views of the sky

Colleges and Universities have much bigger telescopes and even access to satellites? My fifth grade teacher was a amature astronomer built his own telescope from scratch including the lens. He had a little dome in the backyard. Check out Edmund Scientific my favorite place on earth when I lived in New Jersey as a kid. Get the free catalog and save your money good telescopes aren't cheap.

ze black dot moved farther away.

[Jonathan]

Colleges and Universities have much bigger telescopes and even access to satellites? My fifth grade teacher was a amature astronomer built his own telescope from scratch including the lens. He had a little dome in the backyard. Check out Edmund Scientific my favorite place on earth when I lived in New Jersey as a kid. Get the free catalog and save your money good telescopes aren't cheap.

ze black dot moved farther away.

No idea bout the Sats ~ but I'd kill for a mini-dome in the backyard
Plus already found one; Newt Reflector, 114mm ~ EQ-1 mount.

Not ze best but for the budget I got it is

[Frank Hagan]

Jonathan, I have the Celestron First Scope 114, model #31044, with a focal length of F/8 and F=900mm. It comes with the heavy duty EQ mount, which is absolutely necessary for scopes this size. It is the flimsy tripods on most small scopes that give them their bad name.

It is a fine scope, and I can resolve many of the "double-double" stars, the trapezium in Orion's Nebula, etc. with the 9mm eyepiece (mine came with a set of five eyepieces, and the 9mm is the one I use the most ... for really clear nights I can drop to the 4mm, giving the maximum magnification, but conditions have to be just right to use max mag.) It is great for planets too; Saturn is a tiny jewel, about the size of a pencil eraser or smaller, but very striking. You can resolve different colors on Mars, and Jupiter is very cool also; this scope clearly shows 4 of Jupiter's moons.

The best book for a small scope that I've found is "Turn Left at Orion", ISBN 0521781906, that gives very good instructions on how to find certain objects. You can get it at Amazon.com or even used bookstores sometimes (here's a link that is my affilliate link ... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...anksweekendepr)

Building a scope used to be practical, but good scopes can be had for much less than the materials to build one. But if that's the way you want to go, you do learn a lot by building something (I built a boat for more than I could have bought a used one for, but enjoyed the process a lot).

[Buddha]

Building a scope used to be practical, but good scopes can be had for much less than the materials to build one. But if that's the way you want to go, you do learn a lot by building something (I built a boat for more than I could have bought a used one for, but enjoyed the process a lot).

I was surprised how inexpensive good telescopes are these days! Frank maybe you would know, does Edmund Scientific still make the big scopes? 1000+ mm? Didn't see them on their website.

[Jonathan]

Jonathan, I have the Celestron First Scope 114, model #31044, with a focal length of F/8 and F=900mm. It comes with the heavy duty EQ mount, which is absolutely necessary for scopes this size. It is the flimsy tripods on most small scopes that give them their bad name.

It is a fine scope, and I can resolve many of the "double-double" stars, the trapezium in Orion's Nebula, etc. with the 9mm eyepiece (mine came with a set of five eyepieces, and the 9mm is the one I use the most ... for really clear nights I can drop to the 4mm, giving the maximum magnification, but conditions have to be just right to use max mag.) It is great for planets too; Saturn is a tiny jewel, about the size of a pencil eraser or smaller, but very striking. You can resolve different colors on Mars, and Jupiter is very cool also; this scope clearly shows 4 of Jupiter's moons.

The best book for a small scope that I've found is "Turn Left at Orion", ISBN 0521781906, that gives very good instructions on how to find certain objects. You can get it at Amazon.com or even used bookstores sometimes (here's a link that is my affilliate link ... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...anksweekendepr)

Building a scope used to be practical, but good scopes can be had for much less than the materials to build one. But if that's the way you want to go, you do learn a lot by building something (I built a boat for more than I could have bought a used one for, but enjoyed the process a lot).

Killer, good thing to know; Its bout $116 right?
I found this one @: http://buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=2&pid=7428&m=

Now to wait til the 1st of next month to get some cash
I think I'm going to also buy a set of Filters or Eye-pieces shortly after; Any advice?

[ThomasW]

My first real scope was a Celestron Super C8, I loved that thing, but I had to sell it for two reasons.
1-I got sick of sucking mosquitoes up my nose/throat, living in Florida you will get eaten alive or at the least inhale them, ugh.
2-Sadly chicks did not dig my Super C8, despite what the guy that sold me the scope said, but they did like that Mustang GT I bought (sold the scope and used the $$ for a downpayment).

What was I talking about again??

[Jonathan]

My first real scope was a Celestron Super C8, I loved that thing, but I had to sell it for two reasons.
1-I got sick of sucking mosquitoes up my nose/throat, living in Florida you will get eaten alive or at the least inhale them, ugh.
2-Sadly chicks did not dig my Super C8, despite what the guy that sold me the scope said, but they did like that Mustang GT I bought (sold the scope and used the $$ for a downpayment).

What was I talking about again??

rofl man...just absolute rofl...
Did you show said chicks the views of it?

[ThomasW]

Lets put it in perspective...

Would you like to go out to dinner/movies and clubbing afterwards? I'll pick you up in my new GT.

OR

Want to drive 50 miles north of Tampa to Brooksville to a really really dark secluded area and look at things thru my, err, telescope??

Needless to say i had a grand total of ZERO girls go for door #2.

Still wish I had the scope, it was really nice.

[Jonathan]

Lets put it in perspective...

Would you like to go out to dinner/movies and clubbing afterwards? I'll pick you up in my new GT.

OR

Want to drive 50 miles north of Tampa to Brooksville to a really really dark secluded area and look at things thru my, err, telescope??

Needless to say i had a grand total of ZERO girls go for door #2.

Still wish I had the scope, it was really nice.

Show 'em example pics of the wonderful stuff, and show off the telescope;
explain how you gotta pack it up and go to dark areas to see more...

Personally, I'd rather the telescope...
I'm still young enuff to get chicks later

[ThomasW]

I actually did take some really nice pics of a few things, but you have to like astronomy to really care, most do not really care.

Another reason I got rid of it was one of the guys that went up to observe a lot had a C14, blew mine away hands down. So it made it easier to get rid of the C8.

[Frank Hagan]

I was surprised how inexpensive good telescopes are these days! Frank maybe you would know, does Edmund Scientific still make the big scopes? 1000+ mm? Didn't see them on their website.

I'm not sure, but I didn't find any when I was doing the research to get my scope. So many of the companies sell either direct or through dealers, and they are popular enough now, that the scientific supply companies probably have a hard time competing.

Orion sells direct, and the dealer network for Celestron and Meade are pretty extensive. They all have good, cheap Newtonian reflectors.

[Frank Hagan]

Killer, good thing to know; Its bout $116 right?
I found this one @: http://buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=2&pid=7428&m=

Now to wait til the 1st of next month to get some cash
I think I'm going to also buy a set of Filters or Eye-pieces shortly after; Any advice?

At first glance, the specs seem the same, but they don't have a picture of it on that website. And its about $100 less than the one I bought, so that $100 has to come from somewhere. I looked at Celestron's web site and found it at http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/ps_index.htm. The scope tube looks the same length, so they aren't substituting the short version. The tripod may be where the difference is ... look at the one I'm familiar with at http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/fs114eq.htm Hard to tell from those pics, but it looks like the tripod is a bit lighter with the Powerseeker model. That could spell trouble, as a shaky mount makes a very poor viewing. Then again, it could be OK ... I couldn't find any reviews of the Powerseeker models to find out where they have taken cost out to get the price lower.

On Amazon.com, I did find the relative shipping weights of the two ... the Powerseeker is 30#, while the FirstScope is 44#. On both, the telescope tube itself is 19#, so the difference is in the tripod and maybe the packaging. 14# is a lot of extra weight that isn't in the Powerseeker.

You could always "buy and try", and then return it if the mount is too shaky to use.

On Filters and Eyepieces: I got a set of filters and eyepieces when I bought my scope, and except for the moon filter, I haven't used the filters after first trying them. I prefer the naked eye view. For eyepieces, you will want to add something like a 9mm or 10mm eyepiece ... it looks like they are just giving you a 4mm and a 20mm in the Powerseeker, and a 20mm and 6mm in the FirstScope 114. A good choice would be a 9mm or 10mm Plossl eyepiece ... just don't go wild and pay too much for eyepieces for this level of scope. The less expensive ones look just as good to me as the Nagler I paid $125 for (but it is outstanding in my brother's 8" scope). Orion.com has some good prices on Plossl eyepieces.

Amazon.com has the one I bought for $180; that's about $40 less than I paid. Link is http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...photo&n=507846, and you might get someone to price-match if you don't like Amazon. They are higher than Anacortes for the Powerseeker.

[Buddha]

ze dot is way out there!

2001 Edmund Optics sells its "Scientifics" Division that could explain it.