I've wanted to acquire a really good telescope for years so I'm asking for advice. Any experts here who can steer a newbie toward the best product? I can spend up to several k if necessary to get something good. Where should I start? Refractor, reflector, what?
Much depends on what you prefer to see and where you plan to observe from. I have been playing with telescopes for a number of years, and no matter which you buy, or how little/much you spend, there will always be more interesting targets then you can see in a lifetime; and, all of them will dissapoint you if your expectations are set on seeing Hubble-like views. Ideally, you should plan to spend 25% of your budget on the optical tube, 25% on the mount, 25% on the eyepieces, and 25% on accessories (like a decent pair of binoculars, a good finder scope, and some maps, software, and reference books.
Avoid spending money on goto features unless you are really working with a hefty budget. Most of the lower end stuff is iffy and hard to use, and you would be better off investing that money on a good solid mount and better optics. About the only one that is truely a plop and play is the TAK mount; the rest will require some alignment and leveling, even with the GPS; and, a tak telescope can cost as much as a house.
http://www.takahashiamerica.com/
Also, forget about photography for the moment. It is a very expensive and advanced part of the hobby; best left for those who have mastered the basics and who like to spend most of their time playing with computer imaging programs. However, if you believe that photography is where you would eventually like to go, you should consider that a good stable tracking mount should be your starting point; and that in order to get the most out of that, your scope will tend to be relatively small relative to the mounts rating so as to maximize stability. You might want to consider a good APO refractor.
My largest telescopes are 10" newtonian F5, and a 10" Cassegrain f17; but, I find myself using far smaller scopes most of the time, becuase they are faster and easier to set up and take down. Also, although I am a visual astronomer I prefer using an EQ mount over an Alt/Az or dobsonian. The tracking is far better and that means I get more potential out of my tube.
Other things to look out for:
1) Widefield scopes - especially newtonians - many of them suffer from serious coma issues which will really limit there useful range.
2) Anything that is sold as a telescope set. It only means that you will be saddled with a bunch of near useless inferior components.
PS check out Stellarium.org, they have a nice freeware planetarium that will help you to get oriented with the night sky.
n2s
), get yourself one of the latest iPhones. There is a very nice astronomy app for it. Start the app, give it your location, hold it up to the sky and it will tell you what objects you might be able to see there.
