telescope advice?

[Muhammed]

i would like one that moves with ability to hook up to a laptop...any advice?

Don't build one in California, because when the big one happens, it's going to capsize and sink into the ocean, just like Guam, according to my late grandmother.

 

[Muhammed]

i would like one that moves with ability to hook up to a laptop...any advice?

Hooked up to a laptop? Is there such a thing? I'm kinda curious what are you gonna use it for that you need it hooked on your laptop?

Obviously, she's going to try to take over the world again, Pinkie.

Same as every day.

 

[toobfreak]

i would like one that moves with ability to hook up to a laptop...any advice?

Offhand, I'd say you know too little about telescopes to make a serious investment at this time. Your description could fit almost any one.

• A TELESCOPE THAT MOVES: Well, they all "move," I think what you are really asking for is a scope with built in GOTO. That may be an EQ mount or an Alt-Az mount that finds and goes to objects based on the time, location, date, guided by an internal program to locate objects for you.

• ABILITY TO HOOK UP TO A LAPTOP: That could refer to a laptop running astronomy software that shows you a map of the sky to indicate where in the sky the scope is pointing or can take instruction from said program, to goto the location selected or pointed to in the program.

We can rule out a refractor, you'll get too little aperture for the money spent. We can rule out a Newtonian as these need frequent and complex adjustments to keep the optics aligned, so that leaves a CAT, commonly an SCT, which has long focal ratio and a fairly small FOV but is compact and pretty easy to use.

You say nothing of what you intend to look at but generally, at least 5" is required to get fair detail on bright objects, more aperture if the objects are fainter. So without more info like your location, sky conditions, objects sought, budget, experience and use mentioned, it would be folly to actually suggest a telescope you can't afford, or will use a few times and then lose interest in because automated computerized scopes take all the work and challenge away, and soon, users realize they can just stay inside and see better images of DSOs on the web for free.

But if you ever figure out what you actually want, need and can afford, I'd try to look for one used on Astromart, to at least save you some money over a new one, and as a place you can then sell the thing when you lose interest again.

One moment, please...

 

[Rhistory]

I would suggest having a look at the Mesu mount - without wishing to sound like a 'fan boy' its probably one of the best mounts for the money available. Without going into silly money for mounts like the 10Micron range that don't need guiding its a great mount.

Scope wise - it depends what you want to look at/ image.

 

[toobfreak]

I would suggest having a look at the Mesu mount - without wishing to sound like a 'fan boy' its probably one of the best mounts for the money available. Without going into silly money for mounts like the 10Micron range that don't need guiding its a great mount.

Scope wise - it depends what you want to look at/ image.

I saw the Mesu mount many years ago! It is the bomb. Engineering masterpiece. No gears, purely friction drive. I had assumed they went out of business. Caveat: the guy is in the Netherlands and has one dealer in the UK. But I agree: if one is looking for a premium GEM, this would be first on my list I think. Here is an old picture of it.