A Telescope in the Dublin Suburbs

ankaragucu

Hi, still thinking of buying a telescope but would any of the more experienced on here actually recommend it seeing as I live in the north west suburbs, about 7kms from the city centre?
Would any telescope observing be ruined by the light pollution?Apart from all the other factors in choosing a scope, size, price, portability,etc I havent come across any mention of just how much of an impingement the light pollution would be in a location such as mine.Other than to say to get a scope that will be portable enough to transport to darker skies.Vast majority of my observing would be from my back garden so just wondering would it be worth it and if so, any type of scope over another that you would advise in my situation?Budget up to 1k.
Thanks.

mickmackey1

Difficult for me to say being from a reasonably rural location, but you might be interested in what this guy says can be observed from the east of London, which is presumably worse than the Dublin suburbs -

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/280029-newspaper-article/?do=findComment&comment=3065608

ankaragucu

Thanks for that mick, though some of the other posts on that link are bemoaning the death of big city stargazing.😕

mickmackey1

Yeah tbh I think it would be very difficult to replicate a truly dark sky from an urban location, no matter what sized telescope you've got.

keppler

I'm no expert but I would also say it would be impossible to undo the effects of light pollution. But in saying that, the larger the scope aperture the better. Dont think that just because you dont see many stars with the naked eye that you wont see much through a scope. I live in Blanchardstown where most nights you're lucky to see full constellations but yet I can still see galaxies through my scope (6 inch reflector). At 1k its hard to say what would be the best scope for you. Ultimately it depends what type of objects you want to observe. For solar system objects a refractor is probably best but get very expensive very fast for a given amount of aperture. Newtonians on the other hand offer large appertures for considerably less money than equivalent size in refractors but are better used for observing deep sky objects such as nebulae and galaxies.
The other thing you need to consider is the type of mount you want ie Dobsonian manual,Dobsonian goto, equatorial manual, equatorial goto etc. Personally Id just be annoyed very quickly by a mount that didnt track objects id spent ages looking for and for this reason i would always go for the goto version of whatever mount a particular telescope was coming in. I personally wouldnt expect a lot out of a goto mount with a scope for a grand or under in terms of actually finding objects as the kind of engineering which gets you spot on comes in mounts which tend to cost thousands on their own never mind with a scope included, however they will be fine for tracking once you do find an object.
If I had a grand to spend I would be looking at the Orion Sky Quest 10 inch intelliscope. its a 10inch dobsonian goto with decent quality optics and is selling on teleskop-express.de now for around 900e delivered. There is also a secondhand 6inch bresser refractor with goto equatorial mount for sale on IFAS website at the moment for 600e. Anyway at a grand you should have no problem with finding a good scope that suits you.
Another good website is First Light Optics in the uk. They deliver to Ireland for around 35sterling and with the exchange rate it works out very competitive at the moment.

Pat Dunne

ankaragucu wrote: »

Thanks for that mick, though some of the other posts on that link are bemoaning the death of big city stargazing.😕

The Irish Astronomical Society hold regular meet ups (subject to weather conditions) at Clontarf and Sandymount, as part of their Dublin Sidewalk Astronomer program. This will be able to give you a real hands on experience of what city astronomy is really like.

Here's a link to their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/irishastrosoc/

ankaragucu

Thanks for that Pat.And thanks keppler, that 10" intelliscope could be the one.I had actually been looking at the 8" version but that Germany site makes the larger one still within budget.Ktec telescopes dont seem to do this scope, otherwise I'd go through them.