Camping telescope

[MarkyVasquez]

I'm interested in buying a telescope for camping. Without the light pollution from the cities, the night sky is beautiful and would like to see a little more of it. There are so many types of telescopes and binoculars out there to choose from. I'm looking for something small and yet rugged. We have a 17 foot Casita so that doesn't leave us with a whole lot of room to spare for a giant telescope. We're not going to be using it all the time so I'd also like to find one that is reasonably priced. I've read about a couple of them on the forums but most are outdated. With so many changes in technology and manufacturing, new and better models are coming out. I'd like an opinion from the experts about an entry level telescope that can be easily adjusted and hopefully comes with a case.
Thanks,
Marky


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[Byron Kinnaman]

I looked the hobbies section of this web site and didn't find anything. I would suggest that go a local astronomy club and ask them. Failing that There's lots of reviews. I would suggest that you one with an equatorial mount, easier to keep on target with earth's rotation. Celestron is probably on of the more popular brands.

If you want a really good dark place try Death Valley. It's a designated a dark place.

[Rich G. and Val F.]

I suggest you do extensive reading or internet studies prior to buying anything. It is really a personal choice based on how you plan to use the scope.

You might be better off looking at a good spotting scope that could also be used for bird watching or looking at scenery during the day.

Both Celestron and Meade, among others, have many spotting scope options at different price points. Some scopes will allow interchangeable eyepieces for night viewing.

Personally I have a Celestron 6SE telescope which is portable at about 40 pounds. This one is good when you go some place and stay for awhile but requires a bit of set up and battery connection. I also have a Meade 97D spotting scope that seems to be a better choice for quick viewing while Scamping on the weekend (I can see the rings on Saturn and craters on the moon).

There are lots of good used scopes available from local club members or eBay.Take your time to figure out what you want to do with a scope–and then enjoy the evening sky.

[Donna D.]

If you have an iPhone, be sure to get a star map. Neat stuff, point your phone at the sky, it finds and tells you what the constellations are that you're looking at through the telescope. Easy to use stuff for a novice like me. There's several available, some for free, some at a nominal cost. This one, for instance is free: https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id413936865?mt=8

[Bruce H]

How much money are you willing to spend? To me a Tele Vue 85 with a bino-viewer (double eyepiece holder) and three pairs of eyepieces (short, medium and wide) would be a great travel scope. But it ain't cheap. Then you need some kind of mount for it. Go to Cloudy Nights web site and look around.

[Raz]

You might consider an Astroscan. It's a very portable rich field ( think wide angle) 4" Newtonian telescope. They were made by Edmund's Scientific for years but went out of production a couple years ago so they are only available used. Ebay, Craigslist. Expect to pay $100-150. They came in a complete kit with a carrying strap and 2 eye pieces for a couple hundred bucks new. A google search will tell you all you need to know. Raz

[mmeyer]

Start out with a good pair of wide angle binoculars 7x50 or 8x56 and a book on binocular star gazing before you invest in a telescope you will be amazed at what you can see. You can move from spot to spot in the sky quickly and the lower powers can be hand held steady, not so much for 10 x. You will find this is the recommendation of most in the field.
If you find you don't like it you still have a good pair of binoculars useful for birding and checking out the neighbors.


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[gordon2]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

If you have an iPhone, be sure to get a star map.

And if your DON'T have an iPhone, first.. congrats on not drinking the Apple Kool-Aid. And Second, the same or similar app is available for Android. I had one on an Android tablet and IMHO there is no better way for a amateur or budding astronomer to learn the constellations and other night sky features (esp since it's free).

[Steve L.]

Orion GoScope II 70mm Refractor Travel Telescope | Orion Telescopes and Binoculars

Or pick through some of their beginner or intermediate telescopes.

I have an 8" Newtonian reflector (Meade) with an equatorial mount and motor. It's fine but I don't bring it anywhere other than my back yard or a star party. It's not heavy (broken down into it's travelling state), but certainly it's bulky. Plus, as with many reflectors of that day, there is some fussing with mirror alignment after a hard transport. I was interested in deep sky objects and Schmidt–Cassegrain's (that's astronomy talk) of equivalent lens size were way over my financial head.

I have a variety of binoculars some of which I pitch into the Casita but in the end I bought basically a glorified spotter scope (a refractor which means it's all lenses, in a line, much like one barrel of a pair of binoculars and an aluminum tripod, medium duty. Basically an earlier version of the one in the URL. Mine has removable optics and some/most of my eyepieces from the "real" telescope work with it as well.

Your basic purpose-built telescope will generally present an inverted and/or inverted and reversed image. You get used to it but it's more aggravation than its worth to a newcomer. You want something that presents the image right side up and not reversed. They make lenses to do that (usually a prism type device, also known as a "diagonal") that aren't expensive but you should identify the need before you go.

Cloud nebulas, and other deep space objects, you're probably not going to see them with beginner level scopes. Well, I don't know...you're in Texas and I expect you've got some really dark skies. Planets and moons, some brighter celestial objects, sail boats on the bay, bald eagles, etc. You're good to go.

A mount that rotates to counter earth's rotation generally adds a level of expense you may want to defer until you have a better feel if this is a long term hobby. They make telescopes that you just tell it what you want to look at (star-wise...none of that peeping tom stuff) and it moves the telescope right to the spot. I haven't surveyed the market in a few years so who knows what's hot today.

Don't worry, there's lots more to spend your money on in the astronomy hobby. But my sense is that you should get something decent to start with or else you won't give the hobby a fair shot.

Lastly, if you're an eyeglass wearer I have two words for you to keep track of when looking at specifications and they are "eye relief". More is better when they share that information.

Well, that's officially TMI..So, back to your regularly scheduled program...

[librarianocnj]

Hey. This Gordon likes Kool Aid. I'm waiting now for my new 7+ to come in from Chek Lap Kok.

[Donna D.]

Phones are like trailer brands, love the one you're with!

[Paul_G]

Marky,

I'm with Michael on getting a pair of good lightweight binoculars first.
Don't get the ones that look like "H"'s (roof prism inside) unless you get the very expensive ones. The more traditional looking ones that have a "porro prism" inside are better for astro as long as you don't go for the cheap stuff.

Steve gave good advice on many things.

My best recommendation for you also is to find a local astro club and go to their "star parties", that way you get to find what you like. To bad it's almost Oct. The Texas Star Party is one of the bigger ones (from what I've been told, never been there), but it's around May.

I don't know where you live, but in Houston there is "Land Sea & Sky"

Website:

Binoculars Telescopes Microscopes Spotting Scopes Marine & Nautical | Land Sea & Sky | Houston Texas | Land Sea & Sky

I've never done any business with them directly, but they are one of the major players for Takahashi scopes and mounts.

My opinions for what they are worth:
- Small refractors are very tough and will take some abuse. Stay away from anything with a f ratio above f/8 (tube gets longer and field of view gets narrower (which makes it harder to find your targets).
- Reflectors (like Newtonians & Dobsonians typically offer the most bang for the buck. You will have to learn how to collmate (align optics).
- Schmidt-Cassegrains (SCT's) are generally thought of as jack-of-all trades master at none scopes. They sometimes will need to the collimated. I do have a 8" Celestron SCT that I've owned since the 1980's that I've never needed to, unlike my 11" and 14" Celestrons. Even though they are native f/10, (the 14" is f/11) a reducer/corrector will bring it down to f/6.3. But the one thing that nobody will tell you that a SCT or Mak version will need a dew shield to keep the corrector lens on front from dewing up in high humidity areas. The dew shield will make the scope more susceptible to wind.
- Mount, whatever type you decide is right for you, don't get a cheapy with weak tripod legs. Vibrations that take forever to dampen out have killed a lot of peoples interest in the hobby because its difficult to see the object that you're looking for.

Remember, the above is just my opinions and may not apply to you.

Some of my gear:
Celestron 14" Edge SCT.
Celestron 11" SCT (formally a N11GPS that I removed the fork mount from).
Celestron 8" SCT (my oldest scope, also removed the fork mount from it).
APM/TMB 152mm refractor.
Takahashi FSQ-106N astrograph refractor.
Lunt LS100mmTha double stacked hydrogen-alpha solar telescope.
Celestron 4" MCT (formally a N4 something or other that I deforked also).
Coronado PST, a 40mm hydrogen-alpha solar telescope.
Software Bisque Paramount MX+ German Equatorial mount (100lb photographic payload.
Takahashi NJP German Equatorial mount. (No longer in production.)

Good luck to you,
Paul

[MarkyVasquez]

Wow thanks for all the information. Now I need to figure out what it all means! Lol! Binoculars telescopes, reflector! Donna I did drink the Cool Aid! I had to, I don't get very good service at work and have to rely on wifi for texting. iMessage works great. I'll let you know what I buy and why. I like the binoculars idea but also the reflector telescope because of the size.
Thanks again,
Marky


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[MarkyVasquez]

Wow Paul, that's quite a collection you have. I like that you have a variety of telescopes to choose from ad understand the pros and cons of each. I got to see through binoculars and reflector telescopes, with the San Antonio Astronomy Club at Guadalupe State Park. This is why we became interested. I was going to ask at one of the astronomy forums, but I knew there would be some very knowledgeable FGRV members that would understand the pros and cons of camping and camping in a 17 foot FGRV.
Marky!


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[MarkyVasquez]

I think I've narrowed it down to two choices. The Celestron 127EQ and the Orion GoScope II Steve suggested. I like the Orion because it's lightweight and comes with a case. It can be also be used for backpacking and bird watching. The Celestron has over a thousand reviews on Amazon , more than any other telescope on Amazon. It also has good ratings, but it doesn't come with a case and it looks big. The case is expensive too.

https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-210...t_sims?ie=UTF8


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[Mike Magee]

Back in the late '80s I bought a Bausch & Lomb Discoverer telescope, 15x-60x zoom, which could be coupled to my SLR camera as well for a 1000-4000mm lens. It was great for looking at the moon, but not much else IMO. I've never looked through any other telescopes to compare quality.

I'm trying to understand the terminology for these other scopes. The Celestron, for example, says 1000mm but it has two eyepieces (20mm says 50x and 4mm says 250x). Does one add the eyepiece magnification factor to that of the scope, like maybe the 1000mm scope is 15x and add 50x to that? Or is the 50x number the effective magnification when already in conjunction with the telescope?

Two things I did learn from my old telescope... a very rigid tripod is a must-have, and an eyepiece that angles upward sure would be nice on the neck!

Looks like the Okie-Tex Star Party is going on right now this weekend, in the OK Panhandle near Kenton.

[Paul_G]

Marky,

My opinion only:

Don't get the Celestron 127EQ.
-- I don't like it's mount, while it kind of looks like a CG-2 mount that you could use either as GEM or alti-az, I see no provisions for helping you to polar align. Obviously it could be done, but why make it harder for yourself?
-- The optical tube has a built in 2x barlow in the focuser to bring it to f/7.87. I wouldn't buy it for this reason alone. Not including eyepiece sizes, the 3x barlow (and it looks cheap) that comes with it would give you a f/ of approx 21. A very narrow field of view and would be impossible to keep your targets within it in with a manual mount.
Link to where I discovered this:
https://www.optcorp.com/celestron-po...ope-21049.html

Re the Orion GoScope II 70mm refractor.
-- While it's tripod would probably work ok collapsed, when fully extended to use when standing, it looks to flimsy to me. However I'm just going by pictures.
-- I'm not a fan of the erect image diagonal for astro. But that can be easily changed.

Here is a suggestion:
-- Celestron Omni XLT 150. Has a relatively good mount (a CG-4), has a provision for a polar alignment scope (which you would have to order separately).
-- It's probably bigger and more than you want to spend though, but you might be happier.
Links:
Scope package:
https://www.optcorp.com/celestron-om...ope-31057.html
Mount info:
https://www.optcorp.com/celestron-om...ial-mount.html
Polar alignment scope:
https://www.optcorp.com/ce-94223-pol...ni-mounts.html

The above is just an example. I only listed it as a possibility for you. I only used the OPT corp links because their only approx 50 miles from me and I never buy astro equipment sight unseen if I can help it, like to see what I'm spending my coins on before buying.

I'm not brand specific for my equipment, as you could tell from my equipment list.

Re my scopes, I usually plan my evenings target list, then bring the scope most appro for the target size and brightness.

I can relate to the keeping your equipment small to fit into your trailer. I have a pickup mounted 8' Skamper popup camper. Clear door width is 22" (don't forget about your door width). I have to take my 14" and 11" out of their carriers to to fit them into the camper. By the time that I've brought everything with me, the camper is packed completely, no room for me until I set up at my site.

Here's a link to my website if your interested:
Home Page | Astronomy and Other Interests | Paul Gaylord

Hope I've been helpful,
Paul

[Elly G]

I attended a campground star watch in Matagorda, TX. And I've seen other campgrounds offer night presentations. Local groups come and set up large telescopes.
I also highly recommend skymaps.com. Lots of free stuff. If you follow Skymaps on Twitter, they email you a free sky map each month, and alert you to things like eclipses, unusual moon events, and planetary events.

[Raz]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

I'm trying to understand the terminology for these other scopes. The Celestron, for example, says 1000mm but it has two eyepieces (20mm says 50x and 4mm says 250x). Does one add the eyepiece magnification factor to that of the scope, like maybe the 1000mm scope is 15x and add 50x to that? Or is the 50x number the effective magnification when already in conjunction with the telescope?

The magnification is the focal length of the eye piece divided into the focal length of the main lense or mirror. Both are usually given in millimeters. So 1000mm/20mm yields 50x.

[Paul_G]

I see that Raz beat me to it.

Telescope formulas and other TMI links:
Formulas - Telescope Magnification
Telescope Equations

Paul