Re: [chat] Anyone have a good Telescope or good Binoculars?

[Michael Lake <Mike.Lake@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Anthony Rumble wrote:
> Just wondering if anyone has a good telescope or a good set of binoculars
> with a mount/tripod they would be prepared to lend me over the weekend?

Ah sold my telescope some years ago. I used to be into amateur atronomy \
quite a bit.
 
> Were going up north (Away from the light polution), and am wanting to
> checkout Mars, seeing as it's at the closest it's been to the Sun and
> Earth in something like 500 years or something..

Mars is Very^2 small. Binoculars will show it as a "red coloured star"
and nothing more. You won't see a disk let alone the "Face on Mars" :-)

> I've always wanted to buy a scope, but have never gotten around to it..
> theres so many.. and it's easy to get suckered into crap..

Yes. Tasco=crap but other than that if you want to get a real telescope,
and they are not expensive, join an astronomy club and go along to a few
of their observing night. You'll see lots of scopes, both purchased and made.
Ask "what telescope should I get" and you'll receive the same replies as if
you'd asked at a SLUG meeting "what distro should I get" :-) hahahahaha

Basically there are refractors (RedHats) and reflectors (Debians).
A reflector is cheaper for the same diameter as its main focussing element
is a mirror at the rear end rather than a lens at the front (lenses being
ore expensive to make than mirrors). You look into refractors from the 
little objective lens at the rear and you look into reflectors from the side.
The bigger the diameter the better as its "light gathering capacity" 
ie how bit is your telescope bucket dia that determines what image 
quality and magnification you can get. 

I started with a 2.5 inch dia refractor my dad bought me and then upgraded
to a 4.5 inch reflector with equatorial mount (astro club will tell you 
what that is). Started to grind my own 6 inch mirror for my next telescope
too, which would be built from scratch. Thats the eqivalent of building 
your own distribution.

The 4.5 inch will just show Mars as a small disk. Jupiter is a decent disk
and you can see the red spot and some rings. The 4.5" will show Saturns rings
and what ever the neighbours are doing quite well :-)
 
Mike
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------
Michael Lake
University of Technology, Sydney
Ph: 9514 1724 Fx: 9514 1628 email: Mike.Lake@xxxxxxxxxx
-------------------------------------------------------