(Part 3) Top products from r/Astronomy

Light pollution will nail you no matter what equipment you've got unfortunately. You're better off travelling out of the urban areas to darker skies.

Astronomy binocs can be pretty big and heavy. Imo you're just as well off with a pair of decent "non astronomy" 7x50s or 10x50s. 7x50s will give you wider views, nice for big stunning vistas. 10x50s will get you more power but they're right on the edge of being okay to hand hold - at that magnification you are better off with a tripod.

The binocs I use (and love) are the Pentax PCF WP II 10x50. I've got them mounted on a regular cheap video camera tripod by way of a Barska adapter.

I would also recommend a camping mat that you can roll out on the ground. Sometimes it's nicer to just lie on your back without the tripod.

As for what you'll see, binocs up to 10x50 are really only any good for bright clusters like Pleiades and the beehive and for some decent lunar views. The brighter DSOs like the Orion nebula and Andromeda will be visible as faint, fuzzy, monochrome smudges. On a good clear dark night you might make out Jupiters 4 main moons as tiny specs extending in a line from the brighter "star" that is Jupiter, but you won't see detail in Jupiter such as banding or the red spot without something much more powerful.

Check out /r/telescopes for recommendations. They love answering questions.

You don't need a large & expensive telescope to see the rings of Saturn, Jupiter's great red spot, and details on the Moon (it's possible with something like this), but to get better views of planets and other things like dim galaxies, nebulas, globular clusters, etc. bigger is better (an 8-inch Dobsonian is the most popular suggestion).

Edit: Also, here's a guide showing what you can expect to see through different sized scopes.

This book is gospel for new telescope builders that want to make a large-aperture Dobsonian like mine. (I used it to build my 12.5" scope, even though I did a pretty terrible job.) There are a variety of other ones out there, but Kriege gives pratical, awesome advice. The only thing you want to skip is the part about the material for bearings; his recommended laminate doesn't exist anymore, and ABS plastic works just fine.

Also, he has an infatuation with round trusses. There is no good reason that square trusses don't work just as well, and they are INFINITELY easier to work with. I picked up thin wall aluminum square tubes from a company called Cycle 24 and painted them black.

If you haven't downloaded it yet, get Stellarium right now! It's free, awesome software, and you can set it to your location and get yourself acquainted with the night sky. Having a sense of where interesting objects are located, which constellations are up, and knowing what's visible goes a long way. What kind of telescope do you have?

There are also a plethora of awesome books out there to get you familiarized with basic astronomy terms, different types of objects, and various telescope basics. To learn more about the objects themselves, I really like Ian Ridpath's DK book on astronomy and it has a brief bit on telescopes too. You might want to browse around the Amateur Astronomer's Notebook too!

Hey, sorry i'm a little late to the party. I just got the same telescope last week, and it is awesome! I just picked up a couple things.

• A 2x Barlow Lens
  
  This One.
  
  and
  
  
• A Moon Filter
  
  This One
  
  The moon is still fairly bright with the filter, so you may want to get the 25% instead of the 13%, although im happy with it.
  
  I also got this sky chart, but it's obviously not that necessary. Keep in mind, i'm still a newbie, so take my recommendations with a grain of salt. Have fun! :)

I designed THIS telescope. Truss-based telescopes have been around for a while, and I used this book as a reference on how to do it right. I looked at other scope designs like the Obsession scopes, but wanted something that also looked different. I had used truss telescopes before - I had just build a 10" traditional tube dob a few years before, and wanted something much more portable and easy to store. If I were building a bigger scope, something 12"+, I'd build it a little differently than this one.

I had not seen another scope like this one, that collapses down into a covered box in the same way. There are others like Teleport Telescopes that build collapsible telescopes, but are different. I really like his, but don't have the equipment do do everything he does.

I had to design these using the components I was going to use, to make sure there was enough space in the mirror box for everything and to make sure the balance was going to be OK. First, I did the layout of the rocker box, mirror box, and cage in Photoshop (been years since I used AutoCAD, and I did a lot of graphic design at the time). I did the standard 3-view drawings, with dimensions, so I could figure out sizes of the pieces of plywood, and their mass. I did sampling of the Baltic birch plywood so I could get more accurate on the mass of the pieces, and that worked out well.

I built a spreadsheet for torque calculations, putting in the mass and placement of each part (mirror cell, mirror, each plywood panel, each truss pole, the mirror cage, focuser, secondary mirror, eyepieces, etc.) into a table and running calculations for center of mass. If you don't do this, your telescope will either swing up, or drop down, and just won't be stable.

There are no screws holding the rocker box and mirror box together - it's all jointed and glued - no problems at all. Screws are used to attach the mirror cell to the bottom plate, and bolts attach the plate to the mirror box. There are screws that connect the cage parts together as well - stainless steel makes it look nice, too.

I still have all of my plans and files for the scopes, including the 10" rebuild for my tube dob that I never got around to, and for an ultralight 17.5" scope. I had bought the mirror about 10 years ago or so, and planned on building it, but just did not find the time. I sold that mirror off a few months ago because I needed the money for my wife's school. Oh, well.. It was a nice one, too - old Coulter plate glass mirror, refigured to about 1/15th+ of wave, just sitting in the closet all these years. I'll get another one eventually.

Here is a finished version consisting of my favorite images of the objects within the solar system I have taken an image of. Sorry Pluto! Maybe one day I will get around to adding you! :)

Thanks for looking!

If you feel like looking at some of my other images or following me on social media, here is a shameless plug to my Instagram

__
Equipment:

• Meade LX80 8" ACF
  
  
• Nexstar 8SE (no longer own this, sold when I got the LX80)
  
  
• ZWO ASI120MC
  
  
  Acquisition varied per target. Essentially the idea for these images is to take video in order to make the final image. I use a program known as PIPP to stabilize the video and discard frames that have no target within the field of view. Following this I use Auto Stakkert 2 to stack the best frames with the best atmospheric disturbance which gives you the most clarity as well as the least amount of noise. Lastly, I use a program known Registax 6 to sharpen and perform some other manipulations to the output of the Auto Stakkert image. All of these programs are available for free online.
  
  If you want to see some other images that didn't quite make the cut:
  
  My first image ever through a telescope
  
  Jupiter double transit of Europa and Io
  
  Jupiter with three moons
  
  Close up of the moon
  
  There are quite a few more, but they tend to just be worst versions of the above image which I think are the best versions of each target I have. The only one I have singles of though are Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, and the ISS. Can't really hope to get much more detail out of the planets, but I would like to retry the ISS one day.

Ok I read through some articles. Kind of complicated! Thanks a lot for your help.

Do you have thoughts on this one? It's $20 more for the barlow, is there a difference in barlows or should I get the one that comes in a bundle?

The other one that looks interesting is [this computerized one.] (http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-NexStar-4-SE-Telescope/dp/B000GUFOBO/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top#Ask) This might be slightly out of our price range when you throw in accessories.

The Best Buy website has some of the same telescopes as the Orion website. The one that looks like the best pick based on the budget:

Astromaster 130EQ

I'd prefer this scope to a 6" Dob since it's possible to add tracking and get started with astrophotography using the EQ mount.

Frank Drake wrote a book, it mostly covers the history of SETI efforts but is a very nice read that gives some insight in to the minds of a great astronomer.
http://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Out-There-Frank-Drake/dp/0385311222

For a starter book to get the basics of stargazing, I would recommend Nightwatch: A Practical Guide To Viewing the Universe or Turn Left At Orion. They don't have real detailed sky maps, but they give good representations of some of the major constellations and names.


For star maps, I use Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas or Orion's DeepView Star Map. These ones are good for more detailed star maps and require a few basics to figure out. Or you can just match the stars up to known stars and just stumble your way around (which is not a bad learning method either).

Good question. Maybe someone who knows better can chime in? I'm not even sure how the traditional configurations evolved. They seem to vary a bit from author to author, though they are often similar.

H.A. Rey (of Curious George fame and an avid stargazer) published a book in 1952 called The Stars. It has been very popular and re-edited and reprinted several times. It's still for sell on Amazon. In this book he suggests new configurations which actually suggest modern stick figure representations of the constellations, such as the one mentioned by /u/Other_Mike.

The different configurations use the same bright stars, but people may choose different dimmer stars. H.A. Rey, for example, occasionally chooses some rather dim 5th magnitude stars to make his figure come out the way he wants. He includes some 4th magnitude stars, but not others. But the bright stars (3rd magnitude and brighter) are the same for everyone and people are just connecting them differently.

The ones I grew up on may be a little dated at this point, but are still worth a read:

"The Stars" by H A Rey

"Stars and planets" by WS KALS (ISBN: 0-871561671-0)

"How to make a telescope" by Jean Texereau (ISBN:0-943396-04-2)

More on the math side, but still helpful: "celestial navigation step by step" by Warren Norville (ISBN: 0-87742-177-3)

"Field guide to the night sky" by National Audubon Society (ISBN: 0-679-40852-5)

[edit:] and I found the most recent one I bought, "atlas of the universe" by Sir Patrick Moore (ISBN: 1-55297-819-2)

This one was I actually used as a stand-in for the assigned college level astronomy course (mostly for accurate data)

[edit 2:] you may also want to study a little chemistry for a better understanding of the stars themselves

Henrietta Leavitt

Caroline Hershel

Carolyn Porco <--- shes awesome. Saw her to a talk on Cassini a few years ago.

Sandra Faber

Margaret Hamilton

Maria Mitchell

and Here is an awesome book about this very topic, The Glass Universe

Is this a Bill Nye AMA related coincidence? Cause I've also been searching and had this very thing open in another tab as well as this Orio. Both look very tempting.

Anyway, I'd love to hear this subreddit's feedback!

So it sounds like 8" Dobsonian and a little learning is the best way to go. Thoughts on this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Sky-Watcher-8-Collapsible-Dobsonian-Telescope/dp/B004Q78OII/ref=sr_1_1?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1449087907&sr=1-1&keywords=8%22+Dobsonian&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011

Is Anyone Out There? By Frank Drake & Dava Sobel. An inspiring read. The story of the man who decided to point his radio telescope to the sky and listen for other civilisations. Beautiful.

http://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Scientific-Search-Extraterrestrial-Intelligence/dp/0385311222

Awesome! thank you for the write up. Turns out I have a 2x barlow and 9mm eye piece in tact. I'm guessing i should go for a smaller eye piece to get that better zoom. Do you suggest any other eye pieces? I guess my 25mm eye piece was flooded so it's not that big of a loss. I did however lose this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009R7RJ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AXCB29L39I26U even though i never used it before. I'll take a look at those videos on how these collimation tools work.

http://www.amazon.com/Orion-8945-SkyQuest-Dobsonian-Telescope/dp/B001DDW9V6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406655799&sr=8-2&keywords=Orion+Telescope

http://www.amazon.com/Orion-9851-SpaceProbe-Reflector-Telescope/dp/B0000XMSWK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1406655799&sr=8-5&keywords=Orion+Telescope

http://www.amazon.com/Orion-10019-IntelliScope-Dobsonian-Telescope/dp/B000E1TNGW/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1406655799&sr=8-6&keywords=Orion+Telescope

Protip: follow NASA's rule. Bigger the mirror, greater the clarity.

The Backyard Astronomer's Guide is the standard answer to this question. It covers everything from objects in the night sky to types of equipment. You can likely find it SUPER cheap too. I think I bought my copy in a used bookstore for a dollar.

Thanks for the writeup.

I'm looking at a 8" Dobsonian.

I like the collapsible feature. I have a Celestron 102 now, and its footprint with tripod open is a bit much in my living room.

Get The Backyard Astronomer's Guide - best book on this subject

http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Astronomers-Guide-Terence-Dickinson/dp/0921820119

There's an entire book based on the Voyager record. Murmers of Earth, which goes into great details on what the record contains and why it was chosen.

That was my initial idea but the Mrs talked me out of it. Something about the feeling of using a telescope, which I had to agree with.

I think I'm about to pull the trigger on this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JO06PO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER.

Here are some books about astronomy. (Not how-to on astronomy)

Coming of Age In The Milky Way

Chasing Venus

The Hole In The Universe

Atom

Miss Leavitts Stars

Pale Blue Dot Sequel to the original book, Cosmos.

Death By Black Hole

The Sky is Your Laboratory is a book about contributions amateurs can make to research. I have it, and it's very good.

I'm not sure I fully understand the kind of books you're looking for, but there's "The Sky is Your Laboratory: Advanced Astronomy Projects" I read it last year and whilst you'll likely use more modern gear, the projects and number crunching aspects remain valid.

For Pioneer, yes, it wasn't such a big deal. For Voyager though, it was a very big deal. http://www.amazon.com/Murmurs-Earth-Voyager-Interstellar-Record/dp/0345315367#

Looks like a Meade lx90 series.

http://www.amazon.com/Meade-LX90-ACF-Advanced-Coma-Free-Telescope/dp/B002AK4N74

is this a worthy upgrade or too similar to what I've got already?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-31045-Astromaster-130EQ/dp/B000MLL6RS/ref=pd_ys_sf_s_560798_b1_5_p?ie=UTF8&refRID=17H1YVGA656815361K3Q

I can see the mount itself is worth upgrading for, the aperture is 28mm wider (130mm vs. 102mm), though the focal length is 400mm shorter (650mm vs. 1100mm)

So with refractors, the lens are firmly mounted in place and should never move.

With a reflector, if you did the same thing the mirrors will break, so if you take a bumpy trip out to a dark site you you knock your telescope the wrong way, you need to collimate it.

Most of the time, the secondary mirror never needs to be collimated, but sometimes it does.

There are 2 things you can buy, a Cheshire eyepiece or a laser collimator. I personally prefer the latter due to ease of use, among other things.

Cheshire eyepiece
laser collimator

I'd recommend this, but not sure if it's available as an ebook. - http://www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-Companions-Astronomy-EYEWITNESS-COMPANION/dp/0756617332/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345776026&sr=8-1&keywords=ian+ridpath

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000GUFOC8

Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Death By Black Hole.

The only way I could make the 15x70s usable was to buy a tripod for it, which ended up costing me a bout a hundred dollars. Anything cheaper was not stable enough to hold them.

The ones I personally have are these, although /u/eyesontheskydotcom posted cheaper ones and he's more of an expert than I am!

One of my favorites it "Death by black hole" by Neil Degrasse Tyson
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Black-Hole-Cosmic-Quandaries/dp/0393062244