12-08-2018, 03:56 PM
Peter,
The choice of a first telescope can be very important as getting something useless is likely to put you off astronomy than encourage you, so it's worth taking the time to research things. The advice used to be to get a decent pair of binoculars rather than a cheap store-bought telescope, but there are some decent beginner-type telescopes around these days. My suggestion would be a Dobsonian refractor with an aperture of at least 6-inches as small reflectors tend not to have good optics. At some point, reflectors rule, but that's for larger and much more expensive telescopes. Aperture rules; the greater the aperture the greater the number of photons so you can see more and use more magnification, but you also need to be confident the optics are decent which is why I suggest a refractor to start with. They tend to be prone to something called chromatic aberration but I suspect you won't be too bothered by that at the start of your hobby.
Orion has some pretty good Dobsonians that are between $250 and $500.
https://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/1.uts
However, my advice would be to attend a meeting or two at an amateur astronomy club and join them for some night-time observing sessions. You won't need a telescope and you'll be able to talk to experienced amateur astronomers and, on occasion, professional ones, and you'll get lots of excellent advice and see if it's really for you.
I suggest getting in touch with the West Hawaii Astronomy Club (I believe our own dan_d is a member) and go to one of their meetings in Waimea. A few weeks ago I saw something about another Big Island club but don't know anything about them, if anyone knows more about them, please post.
The West Hawaii Astronomy Club website is here:
https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/whac/home.html
The choice of a first telescope can be very important as getting something useless is likely to put you off astronomy than encourage you, so it's worth taking the time to research things. The advice used to be to get a decent pair of binoculars rather than a cheap store-bought telescope, but there are some decent beginner-type telescopes around these days. My suggestion would be a Dobsonian refractor with an aperture of at least 6-inches as small reflectors tend not to have good optics. At some point, reflectors rule, but that's for larger and much more expensive telescopes. Aperture rules; the greater the aperture the greater the number of photons so you can see more and use more magnification, but you also need to be confident the optics are decent which is why I suggest a refractor to start with. They tend to be prone to something called chromatic aberration but I suspect you won't be too bothered by that at the start of your hobby.
Orion has some pretty good Dobsonians that are between $250 and $500.
https://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/1.uts
However, my advice would be to attend a meeting or two at an amateur astronomy club and join them for some night-time observing sessions. You won't need a telescope and you'll be able to talk to experienced amateur astronomers and, on occasion, professional ones, and you'll get lots of excellent advice and see if it's really for you.
I suggest getting in touch with the West Hawaii Astronomy Club (I believe our own dan_d is a member) and go to one of their meetings in Waimea. A few weeks ago I saw something about another Big Island club but don't know anything about them, if anyone knows more about them, please post.
The West Hawaii Astronomy Club website is here:
https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/whac/home.html