Wodathunkit wrote:My wife has been begging me for one! That looks like a beauty. Is it compatible with a camera?
Apparently they can be made compatible with some kind of adapter, but I don't have that item yet although I do have a decent DSLR. My friend did say that photography with simple dobsonian telescopes can be challenging because A) the light values some of the observed objects are so small, and B) the scope doesn't automatically track the object being observed as the earth and the object move in relationship to one another. However, I think that with a good digital camera you can overcome some of those obstacles.
rbwhatever1 wrote:That's a nice looking gadget. Silly question but how do you look through that thing? Does it hookup to a computer?
The eyepiece inserts into that mount that is 90º left of the "muzzle" end of the tube. The eyepiece is not attached in the pictures. The object that is located where the "front sight blade" would be is a red-dot sighting device, without magnification. You look through it and place the red dot on the object you want to observe to orient the scope (or in some cases, the area of sky you want to observe (as the telescope is capable of "seeing" objects not visible to the naked eye), and then you look through the mounted eyepiece. To the best of my knowledge, it cannot be connected to a computer.
Like I said, if the weather permits tonight (there's some chance of large thunderstorms), I'll get it out to the back yard and see what I can see.
george wrote:There used to be group of astronomy typres that met out at the George Observatory south of Houston. That would be a great place to get involved and ask questions.
I don't know (yet) of any observatories or astronomy clubs in the DFW area, but I plan to find out. That idea had already occurred to me. When I was growing up, my family became close friends with
Max Delbrück's family, one of the benefits of growing up in Caltech's environment. Our families went on an annual camping trip to Joshua Tree National Monument each year, and each year, one of the features I always looked forward to were the night-time walks that Max would lead out into the desert away from even the light pollution of the primitive campsight, where he would give an always informative talk about all the stars that we could see with the naked eye.
On one such weekend, our informal star-lecture group bumped into an astronomy club which had brought out all their telescopes to the middle of the desert. One guy had a dobsonian like mine, but much larger.....maybe a 12" or 14" reflector....and that was the first time in my life that I saw a spiral galaxy in clear detail. It remains today one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. My wife had never been to France until the time I took her there in 2005. All of her life, she had seen a million pictures of the Eiffel Tower, but never the real thing. On the day we went to visit it, I deliberate took us by a route where she would not be able to see it until we rounded the corner of a large museum building, and then BAM!, it burst into view. The magnificence and the startling reality of it made her cry. That is how I felt when I first saw a spiral galaxy in clear detail through a telescope. For me, it is a religious experience. Literally. What better way to grow in the knowledge of God than to take in the beauty of His far-flung creation?
suthdj wrote:Will it fit on a rifle or should I say will a rifle fit on it.
To put things into perspective, my Remington 700 .308 all up with scope and rings weighs 11.5 lb. This telescope all up with tube and base weighs 41 lb. If not for the internal workings of the scope itself, I could put my .308
inside the telescope tube and close the dust cap. Conclusion, I probably won't be using this thing as a spotting scope at the range any time soon.
philip964 wrote:You have probably never heard of aperture fever. You will.
The ability to resolve detail is governed by the aperture of your telescope. The bigger the main lens, in your case 8 inches, the more detail you will see. A telescopes maximum magnification is limited to about 50 power per inch. Thus you are limited to about 8 x 50 or about 400 power.
No matter what size telescope you have, some one else will have a bigger aperture, and will invite you to look through it. Don't. Otherwise aperture fever will set in.
Just one time I looked through someones 20 inch dob and my 8 inch scope was never the same.
Your choice of a dob is perfect. Low cost, big aperture. It looks very well made, which was not always the case with dobs 30 years ago. They have come a long way.
With an 8 inch you are right at the borderline of whether you can see the Cassini division in the ring (rings) of Saturn. With my 8 inch I cannot. With the improvements in manufacturing over the years maybe you will be able to see it. You will have to let us know. You should be able to see the polar ice caps on Mars, especially when it is in opposition. Hurry and see if Orion is still visible as the great nebula there is the best one to view. Unfortunately I saw it through the George telescope once and well you know aperture fever.
Enjoy.
philip964, I'm already there. I've
already looked through a larger than 8" dobsonian. BTW, I thought of it in terms of "aperture
envy".
The funny thing is that I saw your response literally right after talking to my wife about larger telescopes. I bought what I could afford for now, but I already plan to invest a few $K into something larger down the road. This one was $455 for a bundle which included a couple of additional eyepieces, a 2X barlow lens, a lunar map, a moon filter, a cardboard Star Target, the red dot reflex sight, a "Star Theater" DVD, and a copy of the Starry Night software on CD. Since the base telescope without the additional stuff costs $350, I figured this was a decent price. (I already had an older version of Starry Night 6 digital download on my desktop unit, so I'll install this copy on my laptop.)
In any case, I can see that this is going to be trouble.
I don't have the budget to cover both a gun AND a telescope addiction.
philip964, if you are aware of any groups that meet in the DFW area, can you PM me or post it here to let me know?
Thanks.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"
#TINVOWOOT
I'm instituting a self imposed moratorium on this thread or I'm gonna go bankrupt. Awesome photo.