Wabbit Hunting

[Rondar]

Space....the final frontier.  AKWabbit, I've been trying to forget your astronomy posts, but,alas,  I love those pictures of celestial objects you show us.   

I am a complete noob at astronomy.  All I know is there is a ring around myanus  , errr Uranus.  Can you beam some good info to this thread and recommend a good telescope to start with, and also some accessories that a guy needs.  And what about a camera?  I'd like some info to chew on a bit.  Thanks...Live long and prosper.

Ron  (Rondar)

[CptTrips]

Howdy,

Thats a complex question.  Its depends on so many factors:

* your level of technical comfort
* the amount of time you are willing to dedicate
* the amount of money you are willing to commit
* whether you want to seriously want to get into photography or stick to just visual for now
* Whether you are interested in solar/lunar/planetary photography or deep sky photography, or both
* available storage, live in a house or 3rd floor apt?
* where you will be doing most of your observing (urban, suburban, rural, deep dark sky boondocks)
* etc...

Think on that and I'll pull together some stuff for ya.

Clear Skies,
Wab

[CptTrips]

Well, here is the quick and dirty answer from another thread when someone asked this questions:

Well it all depends on the specifics of what you are interested in doing.  However, if it were me, and I was just starting out...

If I was wanting to start astrophotography:
I'd get a decent Computerized 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on a wedge mount.
For a starter camera I'd go with something like Meade's "Deep Sky Imager Pro" for dim fuzzy targets and a cheap "Toucam Pro" for planetary stuff.

However, if I just wanted simplicity and only for visual observing:
I'd get the biggest Meade or Celestron Dobsonian I could afford.  Apeture is king.

Follow this old thread for some more in-depth discussion:

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,219824.0.html

I happy to discuss it further if you have specific questions.


 ,
Wab