Telescope Upgrade Advice

[JHMW2004]

Thank you all for your info. I got my 2 sons interested in getting away from screens with a $100 department store telescope purchased for $20 on Craiglist. I want to upgrade with a $500 budget. I'm looking here and there and saw a video where the presenter liked the SmartStar® Cube-E N114 (among others). I like the portability so I can use it in different places. Plus, I like at least the option to use the GPS when time is short. Does anyone have any experience with that scope or company?

[bladekeeper]

Moved this post to it's own thread in hopes that it will garner some advice.

[Lady Fraktor]

Hello and welcome to the forums, I hope you and your sons have fun discovering the skies.

If the telescope does not have included you will need a collimation cap and Cheshire eyepiece (the Cheshire at a minimum) to align the mirrors of the telescope.
Here is a good guide for collimating the mirrors: http://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/hel ... reflector/

The included eyepieces are usually quite poor so if you decide to replace them I would recommend the GSO line of Plossl to start, very good and low priced. Something that is rarely said when discussing eyepieces

The GPS is a option that is really not useful with these mounts, it does not improve accuracy of alignments and sometimes takes longer to get information than it takes to input it yourself.
A cellphone will provide all of the information you need to get up and running.

Enjoy the telescope when it arrives, ask if you have any questions and let us know how things went.
A word of advice, set up and play around with it in the daytime so you are not trying to figure things out in the dark.

[Refractordude]

Maybe the StarSense refractor will work for you. A forum member has one and gave a good review. Right click the image.

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=8236&p=71083&hilit ... nse#p71083

https://agenaastro.com/celestron-starse ... 22460.html

[pakarinen]

Just a word in general - I am not opposed to computerized / go-to mounts, but I don't think all the software is mature enough yet to be of satisfactory reliability. Many are the tales of woe posted here and elsewhere. However, when they work, they work very well.

I'd just suggest you consider a rig that has manual back-up capability if things go south. JMO.

[JayTee]

The software for our goto telescopes is now going on 10 years old. Surely that is enough time to work out most if not all the bugs. If you thoroughly read the alignment problem posts at least 90% of the time it is operator error. So you can be confident that your goto mount will give you years of good service if you read the directions and ask any additional questions you may have right here on these forums.

I have 5 goto mounts and 2 manual mounts and they ALL perform perfectly when operated correctly!

Cheers,
JT

[JHMW2004]

Thanks to all. I read in a few places that refractors were not as clear in this price range due to the additional cost of lens optics vs mirrors. (sorry if my terminology is not correct)
I'm also looking at Celestron NexStar 130. I do like the ability to use a smartphone because software improvements require no interface connections and might be a bit more frequent.

[John Baars]

(...) I read in a few places that refractors were not as clear in this price range due to the additional cost of lens optics vs mirrors. (sorry if my terminology is not correct)(...)

In a refractor at least four optical surfaces have to be ground , polished and coated. That takes time. Much time.
In a reflector only two optical surfaces undergo the same treatment. So that is less costly.

Given the same price, the reflector is larger and collects more light. But...a starting astronomer with no experience will hardly see a light gain of 70% however.
Given the same aperture the refractor gives more contrast. Because it has no central obstruction. Light gain is approximately the same.

[Don Alvarez]

Thanks to all. I read in a few places that refractors were not as clear in this price range due to the additional cost of lens optics vs mirrors. (sorry if my terminology is not correct)
I'm also looking at Celestron NexStar 130. I do like the ability to use a smartphone because software improvements require no interface connections and might be a bit more frequent.

A short tube 130 is good Instrument to start, that was my first serious telescope. Celestron SLT bundles generally get good marks around here. you might also consider the 102 refractor. Both would make very good all-around scopes. Some years ago Celestron replaced their old GT line with the new Astro-Fi series, The mounts are a little lighter than the SLT, but you get the same GoTo capability and the ability to connect to a phone for a little less money. I have the old 90mm GT which I considered to very good, especially the OTA. In fact I've used it on my LX70 and it is tack sharp with reasonable EP's and some not so great MA's also. Not sure where you were reading inexpensive refractors are not clear, but that is not my experience. Even at this level, one can still expect good optics to be found.

A word of advice, set up and play around with it in the daytime so you are not trying to figure things out in the dark.

This is the best advice, for all manner of endeavors.

[The Happy Parrot]

Just for clarity, JHMW2004:

Go To- telescope moves on it's own to the selected target, e.g. Celestron SLT line, Meade and several others
Push To- the app tells you where to point the telescope e.g. Celestron SSE line

If your children are very young, I'd go with a GoTo arrangement as it tracks the target while each person takes a turn looking.
If your children are old enough and handy with apps, Celestron's SSE is a lot of fun to use. Almost like a GPS for the sky.

[JHMW2004]

Thanks again all. I got extremely lucky and found a second-hand, but unused, Celestron 8SE for $600. I saw it on Ebay from a local person who got it as a gift and didn't like the perceived complexity. Woo hoo!

[JayTee]

Congrats, you're going to love that scope. Plus it will take awesome planetary/lunar images.

Cheers,
JT

[gregl]

Thanks again all. I got extremely lucky and found a second-hand, but unused, Celestron 8SE for $600. I saw it on Ebay from a local person who got it as a gift and didn't like the perceived complexity. Woo hoo!

I think you got a great deal. I have an 8SE and I have had lots of fun with it. It does take practice to get it set up and to run it, so don't get discouraged if your first time out is not perfect. The manual is way too brief and leaves out lots of stuff that's good to know. You will want to set the backlash correction, and you'll want to learn how to set the alignment and what direction to slew to a target. You'll eventually want to make some mods, but keep it stock for now. (One mod is to add weight to the tripod to reduce the shakes. A milk jug full of water hung from underneath is an easy way to do this. And don't extend the tripod legs if you can avoid it — same reason.) There is lots of good SE info on Mike Swanson's Nexstar site: https://nexstarsite.com, but don't get bogged down there until you've had some nights with the scope.

Oh, and if your sons are grammar school age, you learn the scope on your own first. They aren't going to stand around while you fiddle with it. Also, for all of you, do some homework on the objects you will see on a given night. Learning about what you are looking at makes it much more fun: the size, distance, brightness, etc.; the history of its discovery, any mythology involved, and so on.

[Lady Fraktor]

Just a word in general - I am not opposed to computerized / go-to mounts, but I don't think all the software is mature enough yet to be of satisfactory reliability. Many are the tales of woe posted here and elsewhere. However, when they work, they work very well.

I'd just suggest you consider a rig that has manual back-up capability if things go south. JMO.

The software for our goto telescopes is now going on 10 years old. Surely that is enough time to work out most if not all the bugs. If you thoroughly read the alignment problem posts at least 90% of the time it is operator error. So you can be confident that your goto mount will give you years of good service if you read the directions and ask any additional questions you may have right here on these forums.

I have 5 goto mounts and 2 manual mounts and they ALL perform perfectly when operated correctly!

Cheers,
JT

You gentlemen do realize goto mounts have been available since Vixen released the first one in 1984?
These are not new or immature innovation but companies sitting on their bums because the programming is just adequate to get the job done and people keep buying instead of demanding better.
Once you get past basics of Synta, JOC and iOptron and the others in this group, the programming becomes vastly more capable and reliable.

[gregl]

....
Once you get past basics of Synta, JOC and iOptron and the others in this group, the programming becomes vastly more capable and reliable.

Which ones do you think are doing a commendable job? Is there one you like above all others?

[Lady Fraktor]

Mechanically a lot of these mounts are quite good but Losmandy and Astro-Physics are more capable. Take a look at what the Vixen mounts and Starbook 10 offer, truly amazing in comparison.
Then there are firms such as Avalon Instruments, 10 Micron and Software Bisque Paramount MyT
There are a lot of really good mounts available that you do not hear much of because they just work and nobody complains
Even the ES EXOS-2 is a step in the right direction for enhancement being open source programming, it is just to bad that they have packaged it with a clone of a clone of a LXD-75.
How well the Losmandy version works I do not know as I have not been paying attention to them lately.