Slashdot Mirror
Entry-Level Astronomy?
brobak writes "I'm getting ready to move into a new home on a couple of acres of rural property a significant distance from any large source of light pollution. I've always been interested in astronomy in general, and I would like to put my dark skies to use by picking up decent telescope and learning a bit about the skies over my head. The overall budget for this project is going to be around $1,000. I am particularly interested in astrophotography, but I understand that that may carry me outside the scope of the initial budget. I've already signed up for my local astronomy club's next monthly meeting. I have been doing Web research, but I thought that the Slashdot community would be the perfect place to get opinions on entry-level equipment, websites, and books."
Now, I know that this probably won't be the kind of answer you're looking for, but here I go anyway...
Personally, if I had the kind of space you had, with no light pollution, and if I had the budget you mentioned: I would buy a high quality digital SLR camera. Obviously, if you're looking to photograph things that you need a telescope to see, this wouldn't be a good use of money for you. But, if you're looking to take shots of constellations and the moon and such, then a high-quality digital SLR with a tripod will work beautifully.
Plus, such a setup would allow you to take great photos of various weather phenomenon (e.g., thunderstorms). While it may not be the case for you, most of the people that I know that enjoy photographing the moon and the night sky also love photographing weather as well.
And, obviously, you'd then have a great camera for travelling and such.
Yes, $1000 is a rather small budget where astrophotography is concerned. A good mount alone can cost many times that amount. Please don't skimp on the mount. I assure you, few things in life are more frustrating and miserable than attempting quality astrophotography on a cheap, inadequate mount.
You can get a quality telescope for $1000, especially if you build your own. I grind my own mirrors because the mirror I make myself is quite a bit better than all but a very few of the ones commercially available. It's quite a bit of fun too.
Your best course of action would be to hold off on getting a telescope for now. Get good astronomical binoculars ($200 - $400) and learn the sky. Once you've done that, you'll have a much better idea of exactly the aspects of astronomy that interest you and you'll have some additional time to decide upon the right equipment. You'll also have more time to save some additional money for qualityequipment.
The best advice I got (now in retrospective) when starting out was to buy an telescope that was easy to take out and setup, the best scope is the scope you use often.
http://www.intellipool.se/ - Intellipool Network Monitor
If so, what would a basic setup generally look like? Any pointers to sites?
http://www.astroimagen.com/
The photos that this guy manages to take are stunning! He gives full details about the process and equipment. The web is in Spanish, I hope it won't be a problem.
You forgot, "Buy equipment that's not frustrating." A friend of mine has an entry-level 8" Dobsonian (?) telescope that he loaned me for a few months so I could try out astronomy. The focus mechanism on it was operated by unscrewing a thumbscrew that held the eyepiece in place, then sliding said eyepiece up and down in its socket to focus. The slightest bump to the main tube pushed the thing out of inclination angle, but (maddeningly), moving it on purpose was an effort (too much push, it went way too far, not enough push, it wouldn't move at all).
In the end, I could find the moon just fine and get focused on it, but never anything else. He had plenty of experience, and once when I was over at his place (after returning the telescope), he lined it up on Jupiter and focused in for me. It was beautiful, and I could even make out a couple of the moons when I knew what I was looking for.
With a motorized base and a dial-&-gear focus mechanism, I think I could really get into astronomy. Without those things, any scope I owned would sit and gather dust.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
The other two mentioned are also open source and run on linux. It actually begs the question: Are commercial programs such as these even available?
I'd also like to know if any professionals use these (Celestia, Kstars and Stellarium) or if they have their own fancy-pants versions.
Just an FYI on the steel bolt shearing... not surprising if it is as you say steel. One property of steel is that when it is cold it will change physical properties and become brittle (as in easily shattered). So as you can imagine a turbulent airline at 30,000 plus feet (baby its cold outside) provides an excellent environment for shearing a steel bolt. It might not be airline abuse as you describe. While I'm no proponent of airlines and the care they take or don't take understand there is more to this issue than just pad and go.