Some Advice please

[RickD2007]

Hi , I am looking to buy a telescope but as a newbie to all this the choice is a little overwhelming so I figured I would come here with my questions

1 - I am thinking of buying the MEADE ETX80AT , Is it a good telescope , Is it a good starting scope ? I have seen it on several sites for £245 delivered

2 - How far will I actually be able to see with this scope , Or What will I be able to see . Obviously I want to see some really cool stuff . As far away as possible .


Thank you for your time and patience

Rick

[nightshade]

This is a refractor scope for Astronomy I believe,you will have to wait for a reply until someone knowledgable shows up
Welcome to WAB,there are some threads on birding scopes try a search Rick top of the page

[weathergirl]

With the ETX 80 you wont be able to see Galaxies/Star Clusters or nebulae. Planets will appear very small and hardly any features. Don't expect to see large and detailed planets such as saturn or Jupiter as they will appear quite small. They do with my ETX 90 scope. Don't set your expectations high.

[carlos_dfc]

Hope this advice isn't too late for you Rick (I noticed your question is over a week old - but I only stumbled across this place today)

Weathergirl is right - the ETX won't show you a great deal in the sky - 80mm is not much aperture if you intend to view anything more than the Moon, planets, and the brighter Messier deep sky objects.

Where astronomical telescopes are concerned, aperture is King - more aperture will draw in more light, enabling dim objects like galaxies etc to be visible - and more aperture also allows you to use higher magnifications (resolution is directly linked to aperture)

As a general rule of thumb - you can push as far as about 2x of magnification per mm of aperture - so a 80mm scope is capable of around 160x (which is pretty much at the lower end of planetary viewing power - I tend to use 200x and more if atmospheric conditions allow it)
The 2x per mm rule applies in ideal conditions - if conditions are less than ideal (most of the time) even 2x per mm is over-optomistic
If you push the magnification too far - the image WILL get bigger, but it will also get fuzzy - so you won't see any extra detail - if you imagine zooming in on a digital image, after a point, you can see the individual pixels that make up the image - keep going and you don't see any more detail, you just make the pixels bigger - similar effect to pushing the optics too far.

So - as you can see - it pays to get as much aperture as you can afford.

The ETX series of scopes do have nice sharp optics - but unfortunately, most of the money goes towards the electronics, and the motorised mount - so you don't get a lot of aperture for your money.

At the price you quote for the ETX-80 - you could get a 6" Newtonian telescope on an equatorial mount (I have one of these, and love it) or an 8" Dobsonian - basically, a slightly larger Newtonian, but it is on a simpler - cheaper to produce - mount (which is why you get a little more aperture for your money)
Check out the 'SkyWatcher' range at the link below....
(In particular, the Explorer 150, and the Skyliner 200 on page 3 of that link)
SkyWatcher offer probably the best balance of quality, at a good price, currently available in UK
Also worth considering 'Celestron' - Meade are also good, but are expensive for what you get.