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Telescopes

blacbird

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Liosse de Velishaf said:
I'm sort of kind of working on the research end of a back-burner project involving an astronomy club, and I have a few questions.

The main one involves telescopes. I'm trying to find what would be the most realistic type of telescope for the club to invest in. Anyone familiar with this area?
Click to expand...

Standard reflector scope probably with a minimum of a 6" mirror, along with a motorized drive mount. Photography would likely be an interest of any club of this sort, so some form of digital camera and mount, as an accessory. You could google such stuff to find out typical price ranges.

caw
 
Seaclusion

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Probably a Newtonian reflector. They are the most powerful and highest resolution telescopes for the size and money. Although a Cassegrain reflector is also a good choice. In any case, both are reflector types and that is what any astronomy club would aspire to.

Richard
 
Liosse de Velishaf

Liosse de Velishaf

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I googled, and there was a $1500 schmidt-cassegrain reflector from Meade on the first page. The Newtonian reflectors from the same company seem to cost more around $300. There was also a really cool 16" coma free telescope from meade, but it costs about $50,000, and what with budgetary restraints and all...
 
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alleycat

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Is this a school club?

Most adult astronomy clubs are get-togethers (sometime called "star parties") where several people bring their telescopes.
 
alleycat

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For an school astronomy club, my first choice for the main telescope would probably be a Dobsonian, but the other suggestions that have been offered would work too.
 
Liosse de Velishaf

Liosse de Velishaf

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Dobsonian is good because it is pretty simple and inexpesnsive (comparatively), right? But isn't it mainly for deep-sky viewing? I'll look into it more, I guess.


I was thinking more of smaller telescopes, though. Somewhat unrelatedly, would there be any benefits to using a refractor? Besides money, anyway(see below).


Also, on the price range: What do you think would be within a school club's budget?
 
alleycat

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I would think a few members of a school astronomy club would have their own telescopes and bring them for the group to use, so you could have a variety of tubes. Even some binoculars work well for astronomy.
 
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