Telescopes

  Hi,im new to this and want to do some of my own research. Which is the best telescope to buy? If im looking at "stars" i believe some of them have a distortion lens,which is the best one to buy that doesnt?

Stars never resolve into anything but dots.
Even the most powerful telescopes, stars are dots.

A 4" refactor will let you see moons around Jupiter,
the rings of Saturn and some nebulae.

For galaxies you need at least a 10" to 12" mirror and dark black skies.

You don't get color without long exposures.


A good quality used high power spotting scope is a great way to start and it can also be used to look at girls way down the beach.   

A Meade 125EX will make you happy. Stick with Meade, Orion, Celestron. Well known manufacturers.
I'd research telescope forums, read reviews, or better yet, go visit a "star party", where you'll find lots of nice folks willing to give you advice, and let you view through their scopes.
Telescopes gather light, so bigger is always better. Stay away from department store Walmart garbage. Learn the night sky and the constellations. Learning the stars is like learning a map, if you don't know where you're going, it's hard to get there.

I bought a second hand Celestron CPC800 recently and am very pleased with it.

Remember the quality of the eyepieces are just as important as the OTA (optical tube assembly). Many scopes come with rubbish eyepieces as standard unfortunately.

  Hi,im new to this and want to do some of my own research. Which is the best telescope to buy? If im looking at "stars" i believe some of them have a distortion lens,which is the best one to buy that doesnt?

You put 'stars' in quotation marks. I see what you did there

Being the flat earth Q&A I can only give you a 'flat earth' answer, and that is stars are not what you have been told. The pin pricks of light you see are 'holes' poked through the dome and the light you see is from the heavens.

Sometimes when you look at a star through a telescope, if the resolution is high enough you can see 2 or even 3 dots. It is just holes poked very close together. The light from the heavens is so bright, with our eyes and poor resolution we only see 1 dot.

If you're not going to give the proper FE answer you need to gtfo of Q & A.

There is no precise or agreed upon model so what exactly is a 'proper flat earth answer'. My answer actually comes from a flat earth wiki as to what the stars could be. It comes from the native American tribes thoughts

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/home/index.php/faq

What is the Dome? The Firmament? The Vault of Heaven?


The area where we live on the Flat Earth is encased within a Dome, or Firmament. In some texts its also referred to as The Vault of Heaven. Found in a very surprising amount of religions and societies, the idea can be traced to Babylonian, Sumerian, Egyptian, and Christian world-views, and likely a great many more. Even some Native American tribes were said to see the night sky like a tent. The stars? They were little holes poked in the hide of the tent.

Why would your wiki include it if it thought the idea was preposterous and rubbish? I see it doesn't include the modern day thinking of billions of people right now but does include an ancient theory proposed by a small tribe long ago as if that theory gives credence to a flat earth. Thus, a flat earth answer.

This forum is for flat earth answers. Despite my own personal views I gave a flat earth answer... There is no need for hostilities. If you wish to participate in this forum why aren't you providing a flat earth answer to the nature of stars? In fact, why is this thread which is predominately about telescopes even in a flat earth Q&A and not the lounge or something?

If you can't abide by the rules of this forum, I will provide you with a short vacation so you can think it over. If you have a problem with that, start a thread in S & C. Disputing moderation in this thread is also grounds for moderation.

Ok....

I am then genuinely curious then if the wiki is no help or plain wrong, what are we seeing when we look at stars? We have a round earth model for them. What is the flat earth model of them. Can you provide the answer?

  Hi,im new to this and want to do some of my own research. Which is the best telescope to buy? If im looking at "stars" i believe some of them have a distortion lens,which is the best one to buy that doesnt?

This has nothing to do with FE anyway.

  Hi,im new to this and want to do some of my own research. Which is the best telescope to buy? If im looking at "stars" i believe some of them have a distortion lens,which is the best one to buy that doesnt?

What are you referring to by the term "distortion lens", I've never heard of that?

As others above have implied, there is no single answer to the "best telescope" question.  Features that make one telescope better than another will all add cost, and there is going to be tradeoff between cost and features for any budget.  This page alone gives six different answers to the "best telescope" question, using six different criteria or categorizations. 

If it were MY money, I would tell you that reflectors are 'better' than refractors, equatorial mounts are 'better' than alt-azimuth or dobsonian mounts, bigger primary mirrors are 'better' than smaller primary mirrors.

Bottom line, if the telescope you end up buying provides you with enjoyment, it was a good purchase.  Have fun!

save your money

Google things like 'Saturn 8" reflector' then 'Saturn 10" reflector' and so on. You will find that the only time the picture of Saturn looks really cool is if you were to spend many thousands of dollars on the telescope. Even then, the pretty colours you see on the Google image are from long exposure shots. You wont see that in real time looking through the scope. Stars will still look exactly the same - no bigger and no colours.

If you live in an area with a lot of light pollution than don't bother. You will have to travel a long way each time to get your moneys worth getting good looking pictures or photos.

If you have an Observatory nearby, check that out before you spend any money. That has the biggest telescope and much better than you may ever afford! Even through that one, Saturn still wont look as neat as the pictures you see in books taken from the Cassini probe.

If you do decide though, get a cheap one to start with. Just enough to resolve the rings of Saturn and see a few moons. For an amateur, $300 or $3000 will be very little difference in what you see with it. But that's a big price difference.