Buying a Telescope?

[GoatLocker]

Astronomy is one of my hobbies that don't seem to be spending much time on lately. I have three scopes: an 80mm APO refractor, a 6" Maksutov-Newtonian and an 8" truss-dob, as well as a small room full of supporting accessories. What kind of scope you get should be guided by what you want to see and how you want to observe.

If you want to observe deep sky objects, like galaxies, nebulae and globular clusters, you need dark sky and plenty of aperture. I think an 8' f/6 Dob reflector is a great way to start and offers a lot of bang for the buck. They also provide great planetary views.

Refractors are nice too, but by the time you add a mount you'll be paying three time as much for half the aperture. Regardless of what type of scope you get, aperture rules (the bigger the better). But if a scope/mount is too large, it might not get used. The best thing to do is find a local club and stop by when they are having a "star party", so you can see and look through a wide variety of scopes. If you join, they might even have loaner scopes.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.