Few questions from complete newbie.

arleitiss

Hey, recently I started getting more and more interested in space, now I moved to new place in tallaght and I have balcony, during night I can see quite a few stars and moon is literally clear in my view on balcony.

Anyway I've never used telescope but I am thinking of getting one, just having few maybe stupid? questions:

1) When planets are close to earth, how close/clear would I be able to see them? (if at all?) I mean could I see surface of planets?

2) What do stars look like in telescope? would I see them different colors instead of just white dots when I look in sky?

3) Can you connect DSLR camera to any telescope?

4) Can you see ISS in telescope? I heard it orbits earth pretty much every hour or two? so I assume you can see it every night at least?

5) Moon seems really bright even without telescope, and after looking at it I kind of see white spots everywhere I look, would I get blinded a bit if I look through telescope?

6) Any suggestions for telescope?
Thanks.

Nerro

arleitiss wrote: »

Hey, recently I started getting more and more interested in space, now I moved to new place in tallaght and I have balcony, during night I can see quite a few stars and moon is literally clear in my view on balcony.

Anyway I've never used telescope but I am thinking of getting one, just having few maybe stupid? questions:

1) When planets are close to earth, how close/clear would I be able to see them? (if at all?) I mean could I see surface of planets?

2) What do stars look like in telescope? would I see them different colors instead of just white dots when I look in sky?

3) Can you connect DSLR camera to any telescope?

4) Can you see ISS in telescope? I heard it orbits earth pretty much every hour or two? so I assume you can see it every night at least?

5) Moon seems really bright even without telescope, and after looking at it I kind of see white spots everywhere I look, would I get blinded a bit if I look through telescope?

6) Any suggestions for telescope?
Thanks.

In my opinion your best bet would be to get a pair of binoculars and a tripod.Lidl or Aldi from time to time have a decent 10x50 ones that are REALLY cheap and a great way to get into astronomy.Now to answer few of your questions.
1) NO, the only surface you can actually see is of the Moon.looking thru binoculars or a telescope a planet looks like a small pea.You can distinguish some features looking thru a bigger telescope like "Great red spot" or cloud belts on Jupiter. On even a small telescope you can see rings of Saturn but nothing spectacullar that you see on pages in NASA. You have to remember that for example Mars at its closest is 54.6 MILLION kilometers from Earth.
2) regarding stars, YES you will be able to see them in different colors depending on their composition.
3) yes you can connect a camera to any telescope with a right adapter you can read more about it in astrophotography section as this is totaly different ball game.
4) Technically you could see ISS thru a telescope or binoculars, but you will have a hard time tracking it as it travels 27 600 km/h around the earth...If you will point your telescope or binoculars at the right direction you will be able to see it i suppose.Never done it myself, but i know someone who actually managed to image it. How he done it i dont have a clue...
5) The moon is bright alright but you will not get blinded by it.
6) Like i mentioned before binoculars would be your best bet.
Hope i answered your questions.

Spete

As for 6: I'm a newbie-ish as well. I think, to prevent frustration, a good bet would be an Autostar system (like the Meade ETX70). You can input in the controller what you want to see and the motors will guide you to it.

The mentioned Meade can be had for little money (sub 100 euros), if you look and are able to negotiate a bit; I got mine for 65 euros.

Purists will condemn me for this of course :-)

Kersh

arleitiss wrote: »

Hey, recently I started getting more and more interested in space, now I moved to new place in tallaght and I have balcony, during night I can see quite a few stars and moon is literally clear in my view on balcony.

Anyway I've never used telescope but I am thinking of getting one, just having few maybe stupid? questions:

1) When planets are close to earth, how close/clear would I be able to see them? (if at all?) I mean could I see surface of planets?

2) What do stars look like in telescope? would I see them different colors instead of just white dots when I look in sky?

3) Can you connect DSLR camera to any telescope?

4) Can you see ISS in telescope? I heard it orbits earth pretty much every hour or two? so I assume you can see it every night at least?

5) Moon seems really bright even without telescope, and after looking at it I kind of see white spots everywhere I look, would I get blinded a bit if I look through telescope?

6) Any suggestions for telescope?
Thanks.

I echo Nerros comments, but watch out which scope you get if you want to get into astrophotography.

Not all scopes will reach focus with a DSLR. Some notable examples being some of the reflectors that dont have a "direct DSLR connection" , you will struggle with "in focus" and there isnt much you can do to make it work.

We get a lot of calls/emails about this. Even some refractors need extension tubes in order to get focus.

Physically connecting a dslr requires 2 adaptors, a T-Ring which replaces your lens on the camera, and a T-Adaptor that screws into this T-Ring and goes into the telescope focuser.

Unless you get a pretty decent equatorial tracking mount, you will be limited to planetary and lunar photography. But as Nerro has said, astrophotography (done properly) is a massive field, and entirely separate from visual.