My first telescope

Hi, I'm a beginner and I'm looking for something that would be a good telescope for myself and family

Budget-Maximum 1500$

What would be recommended? I was looking at
Meade - 10" f/4 SN-10 AT LXD75 go-to, with UHTC optics
Thu I find it a bit bulky..

Any input is appreciate, thanks

Giuseppe Quadrini said:

Hi, I'm a beginner and I'm looking for something that would be a good telescope for myself and family

Budget-Maximum 1500$

What would be recommended? I was looking at
Meade - 10" f/4 SN-10 AT LXD75 go-to, with UHTC optics
Thu I find it a bit bulky..

Any input is appreciate, thanks

The best advice is that you go to a "star pary" given by a local astronomy group, and try out some scopes.

If you can't do that, I would strongly recommend an 8" f6 dobsonian with 2 inch focuser. Cost is well below $1500 ($300 to $1000), some come with GoTo (though I don't recommend it). This leaves you money left over for some solid eyepieces, and a UHC filter, maybe a solar filter. You can see a lot with such a scope, planets, the moon, all the messier objects, the veil. It will resolve globular clusters. My favorite scope is still my 8 inch dob, and if I could only have one that would be the one.

It takes 5 minutes to set up (if you are slow). The Meade will be a beast by comparison has a narrow true field of view 1 degree maximum, and won't show much more than the 8. And because you will use it a lot more, you will actually see more through the 8" dob.

This, of course, is only my approach to spending your money, but it is also a major slice of the conventional wisdom.

Best of luck,
Lorne Johnson

Hi Giuseppe, Give me goto anyday, it does'nt have to be a ten inch , but I love goto. I have a few dobs also that I dearly love and goto had a lot to do with showing me where to point them. It's up to you but if I had an extra 1500.00 I would jump on goto as quick as I could type the order. Good luck on whatever you get. You really can't go wrong on either choice.
Best Wishes, Darrell

Giuseppe,

Hello and welcome! Since you are new, I would really recommend finding a local club 1st. $1500 is a lot of money to buy something that ends up not working for you. And this is the point to remember, besides the obvious with optics and capability of the scope, it's "what works for you" that may end up being the most important factor.

Me for instance, I absolutely hate equatorial mounts. And polar aligning one....for get it. My "habit" is to make a last minute decision to take the scope out. It never wonders outside of my back yard...so I'm not a traveler. All that being the case, once I get outside I don't care to spend more than a few moments getting it set up and ready to rock and roll. So usually I put it outside before dinner, then after dinner start observing (allows for needed cool down).

With a dobsonian, you just plunk it out there pointed in any old which way direction, then find two stars, tell the hand computer whcih stars they are, and done! The automated system is now ready and you just choose an object to look at in the electronic handset, then it tells you which way to "push" the scope to get on target. Very easy and precise. And the non-equatorial alt-azimuth setup of a Dob is very intuitive to point at an object in the sky. With equatorial it sometimes is difficult to navigate itself to a spot you want by hand or ends up putting the eyepiece pointed in a strange direction. It's silly I know, but ergomically for me, equatorials are just not worth the added effort. And since I don't want to do photography, not an issue not having one.

Anyway, just wanted to say all that to give you an idea that sometimes it's the little things outside of optics that might be most important.

If you go with a Dob, around $600 gets you a great 8" scope (Orion XT8i) with the Inteliscope option (the push to automation). Nice convenient size plus plenty of cash left for eyepieces (and you'll need some cash for these).

Gook luck!
-Bill

I guess I will toss my 2 cents (USD) in here.
I'm one year into all of this and my new-bee advise is...

Joint a club ... most have loaner
Fun is as important as $$$$
Joint a club
The scope you use the most is your beast scope.
Joint a club
Start small ( 6 or 8 dob)... work up.
Joint a club
Buy good equipment and enjoy it
Enjoy good resale valus as you mature
Joint a club