I’m starting my journey into astronomy and looking for a beginner telescope to start. I’ve found a few on telescopescanada.ca that fit my budget between $350 and $400 CAD but noticed a lot have “smartphone app-enabled” as a feature.
Over the last few years I’ve found that smart connected tech just complicates things and have been reverting my tech back, often to the point of wired over wireless. What’s the consensus when it comes to telescopes?
Is app-connection a feature you use? I’m looking at the Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ but wondering if I’ll be paying for smart features that aren’t necessary.
imminent_nebula@lemmy.ca I would personally avoid anything that is app reliant. Companies in general have been absolute dogshit about supporting their companion apps over the years. If you’re looking for a telescope with a go-to system, find one that isn’t app based.
Also, I would start looking at the second hand market before looking at a new scope. There is a surprising number of people out there who buy a scope, use it once, and then box it up and eventually sell. You can get really good deals on good-as-new second hand equipment.
The thing you really want to look for is a telescope with a motorized mount. The sky moves fast under motorization. In the span of a minute, whatever you’re looking at can move out of view. Go-to systems are convenient and all, and are motorized, but if you ever want to learn to use celestial coordinate systems, a computerized auto-slew system will get in the way (source: MSc in astronomy, have been an operator at multiple public observatories across Canada; I have no internalized concept of right ascension or declination, because these have all been computerized systems. But if you don’t care about learning coordinate systems, a used go-to scope with no app is the best bang for your buck.
Yeah I’m already looking for similarly priced telescopes without smart connection features. I didn’t even think of second hand, I’ll check out my area!
Will most new telescopes will be able to connect to a laptop though? Looks like Stellarium has an option to display directly from a scope and I see most scopes make mention of software so I’m guessing they all pretty much have a connection option?
imminent_nebula@lemmy.ca Most go-to telescopes should connect to a computer. Older ones might use a serial cable instead of USB, but anything made within the last 10 year likely uses USB cables.
And you can get a USB -> serial cable if something attractive appears.
Awesome that’s what I thought, thanks. I’m gonna start with something basic to learn the ropes but your mention of celestial coordinate systems has already piqued my interest so I expect that’ll be something in my near future lol.
There’s not much in my area for used but I did find a once-used Celestron NexStar 90SLT which retails around $830 CAD. Not sure I want to drop $600-700 on my first telescope tho lol. Might just check to see what he wants for it first just in case tho.