How much woulda telescope cost that was good enough to see the Planets clearly?


telescope
guitarboy asked:


iv always thought the idea of being able to see a planet through a telescope for myself would be awesome but i don’t want to spend a tonne of money in order to do it. what are the cheapest telescopes i could get that would provide i good picture of these.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 4th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Astronomy & Space. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “How much woulda telescope cost that was good enough to see the Planets clearly?”

  1. carl s Says:
    April 7th, 2010 at 5:46 am

    OVER 9000!!!!!!!!! carl s

  2. mrw0113 Says:
    April 8th, 2010 at 10:26 am

    You can see Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn just by using your eyes and looking up in the sky at the right place and time. Except for Earth, all will appear as bright specks of light, however. You were born with eyes, so those are free.

    If you want them to appear larger, so you can see more details, you can see a pretty good amount in a 4-inch (10 cm) diameter lens telescope. I have one that size and I can see the rings of Saturn. They’re hard to find, but you could also see Uranus and Neptune as specks. Pluto requires a much larger telescope (about 10 inches/25 cm diameter lens).

    Anyway, the smaller telescopes up to 4 inches are not at all that expensive. New ones will probably cost you about $100. You may even be able to buy one that’s used or even make your own if you’re that resourceful. Perhaps you can borrow one from a friend or join an astronomy club if you cannot purchase your own. mrw0113

  3. campbelp2002 Says:
    April 8th, 2010 at 11:44 am

    I used a 6 inch telescope that I bought used for $50 (many years ago) to take the pictures in the source. It will cost at least a few hundred dollars to get a comparable new telescope today.

    Note that I used modern digital processing to enhance those images. The planets don’t look as good to me just using my eye to look through that same telescope. campbelp2002

  4. wallyrush Says:
    April 11th, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    This is the smallest scope I would recommend-
    Wally wallyrush

  5. Geoff G Says:
    April 11th, 2010 at 9:17 pm

    Expect to spend at least $200 to $300.

    Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner’s telescopes:

    For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington’s Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley).

    You’ll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these:

    Buy from a store which specializes in telescopes and astronomy, either locally or online; don’t buy from department stores, discount stores or eBay as mostly what they sell is junk. Find your local astronomy club and try out different telescopes at one of their star parties:

    I strongly recommend that beginners steer clear of astrophotography until they have learned their way around the sky. Astrophotography is by far the most expensive and difficult area of amateur astronomy.

    Many people who buy telescopes have no idea how to find interesting things to observe. A good introduction to finding things is NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly). A more advanced book is Star Watch by Phil Harrington (Wiley). Geoff G

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