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i'm getting a telescope

LibraryLady

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LibraryLady
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Sep 4, 2004
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For my 30 year giftie from the city, I chose a tabletop telescope, mainly for the alliteration. I've never had one before and I'm quite pumped. Any suggestions for good Web sites (aside from Bad Astronomy) to help me in my heavenly research?
 
Yeah! Good choice :)

I live near a big city centre so not much in the way of clear skies around here. *envy*
 
Another good one, in print: "Nightwatch," by Terence Dickinson.

You'll find planet rise and set times on the weather pages of many newspapers, as well.

Have fun!
 
Check out "Orion" for any additional telescope accessories that you may want to purchase. They offer an excellent selection and good prices. You may also want to get a good pair of binoculars at some point. Binoculars are great for scanning the objects that you plan to observe with your telescope. For astronomy, I would recommend a pair with at least a 50mm aperture.

Here is the link to Orion telescope:

http://www.telescope.com/control/main/
 
This is great, thanks for all the advice. I don't think this telescope is going to be all that high powered, but it's free. I'll wait on accessories until I see how good I am at this. I'm thinking my four year old grandnephew, Matt, would like to use it too.

We have the books that have been recommended, so I'm going to be doing some reading.

I have a really good pair of binoculars which I got when a Sunny's Surplus was going out of business. I've been using them for when something interesting is overhead.
 
Usually a really good pair of binoculars will Pwn a cheap telescope. The price you are getting it for is a really good deal though.
 
I thought it was an innuendo.

"Dude, I'm getting a telescope just thinking about her binoculars."
 
I got a 6" Dobsonian reflector a couple of December's ago and if you go with a reflector you should have the mirrors collimated as soon as possible. I had to go the science store where I picked up mine, and had some help. Also, if you're going to do any moon observation, you might want to purchase a moon filter that screws onto to eyepiece and knocks back the glare on the lunar surface to REALLY help bring out the detals on craters and mountains.

I really have to pick up some more eyepieces and filters for mine. I'd like to do so much more with mine.
 
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