posted on Jun, 20 2013 @ 11:39 PM
Dear ATS Readers, Writers,
Hello BlueGoblin... ah yes.. a past time I used to LOVE to bits. I had a 8" Newtonian... pretty big thing, not like you are wanting. I could see
colors on Jupiter with it!!!
Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes are fairly smaller in size, but NOT cheap. As the other poster said.. being able to see decently and cheap do NOT go
together.
They do make binoculars for star gazing, they are mondo big things though! BUT, a decent folding tripod and a mount to attach the glasses to the
tripod are out there to buy as well...keep you from wiggling around. It will take a while to get the hang of it, as the stars move across the field of
view faster than one would think. Ideally it would be a tripod with a hand crank gear set up so you can slowly rotate the glasses to keep your object
in the center of the viewing field.
And yes a star chart is essential. One of those round kind, where you slide it around to the date and time, and it gives you what is in the sky at
that time.
It is considered one of the coldest hobbies on Earth. When viewing is BEST is in the winter time, when air is more stable; and there you are standing
still as can be staring into an eyepiece freezing your buns off..lol.
I want one again someday... really bad! I live in the southern hemisphere now, and I have a whole new sky of stars to be checking out.
My next one WILL be a LARGE Schmidt-Cassegrain (sp?) with a computer and motors on it!! The only way to fly!
The computers are so rad and cuts the searching down to minimum.
Think about the huge binos and a tripod...for your desires.
Pravdaseeker