Comments on Visual Astronomy: Giving a Telescope as a Gift

Any time, Liza! :)

2008-11-23T02:57:00.000-05:00

Any time, Liza! :)

Sean, thank you for your article....informative, h...

2008-11-16T06:38:00.000-05:00

Sean, thank you for your article....informative, helpful, and best wishes to you..Liza

Although last year Wal-Mart was carrying one refra...

2008-11-12T14:47:00.000-05:00

Although last year Wal-Mart was carrying one refractor from Meade (I believe) that became popular as a "big finder" for big scopes and also as a cheap grab-n-go. I'll wait for input from the astronomy forums first, though!

Sean

Good advice! I always try to steer people away fro...

2008-11-11T21:00:00.000-05:00

Good advice! I always try to steer people away from anything sold at Wal-Mart, and instead hand them an extra Orion catalogue I have laying around.

Ahh, well stated RapidEye. Sometimes it takes a co...

2008-11-11T17:42:00.000-05:00

Ahh, well stated RapidEye. Sometimes it takes a comment or two for me to realize some wording may have been odd! ;) I'm fixing a few sentences so it isn't misleading.

Sean

I agree with almost everything you posted, except ...

2008-11-11T16:24:00.000-05:00

I agree with almost everything you posted, except for the "Packaged Deal" section. Let me explain.

Dual Speed Crayfords are great, but not necessary for someone starting out. A single speed Crayford or even a decent Rack and Pinion are just fine for most folks starting out doing visual work. Heck, most Televue's for visual use still come with single speed R&P's. Good enough for Uncle Al, good enough for me :-)

A RACI finderscope is fine, provided you have a unit finder like a telrad or quickfinder. Otherwise, they are a bear to get rough alinged and next to impossilbe to get pointed in the right direction. I much prefer a straight through finder and for a biginner, they are easier to figure out.

Laser collimators can be just as big of a PITA as they can be a help - unless you have someone that knows how to collimate their collimator =-) For beginners starting out, a good cheshire or even those collimation caps that Orion gives away are easier to figure out and work just as well or even better in most scopes. If it is an F/7 or higher, then the collimation cap is super easy, cheap, and works every bit as well as a high end laser (Glatter-bug).