Here's my 10" Dobsonian reflector. She's a tried and tested workhorse that again due to another addition to the family, is gathering dust. She's a big ol' light bucket that really does deliver magnificent views from dark skies. I had her up for sale once but I changed my mind. This time I wont. Anyone who has spent much time in the field looking at stars with amateur astronomers is sure to have heard the term "light bucket." Effective yet inexpensive, "light buckets" provide amateur astronomers with the aperture needed to view faint deep sky object. With the quality and precision designed into the Zhumell Dobsonian 10-inch, you can have a really nice bucket for gathering all of that starlight. With a traditional Dobsonian mount, the Dobson 10-inch is easy to use. A 2-inch dual speed Crayford focuser accepts a full range of 1.25-inch and 2-inch format eyepieces. The 10-inch aluminum oxide/silver oxide-coated mirror provides excellent contrast and definition and offers 1/12-wave wavefront accuracy, along with 92-94% reflectivity. Mirror Coatings - Aluminum plus Sio2 (Silicon Dioxide) Recommended Usage - Viewing Galaxies/Star Clusters , Viewing Nebulae Brand - Zhumell Usage - For the Enthusiast Weight Complete - 60 lbs Finderscope - 8x50 GoTo - No Optical Design - Reflector Focal Length - 1250 mm Focal Ratio - f/4.92 Star Diagonal - 1.25 Inches , 2 Inches Combine these features with a powerful cooling fan, quick collimation screws (for easy alignment of your mirror), a black optical tube (which will acclimate to environmental temperature more quickly than other colors), and an included laser collimator (to make alignment of your mirrors even easier) and you will see that the Zhumell Dobson telescopes are more like 5-gallon pails filled with spectacular views than your standard everyday light bucket. Also includes 2" 2x Barlow lens, Meade 20mm Super Plossl, 1.25" moon filter, planisphere and a few other bits and bobs. This would make a great Xmas present for an enthusiast and especially with our current dark skies. I hate having to part with her, but she's not getting the love she deserves. I will sell for $350 obo . I look forward to hearing from you.
Re: 10" Dobsonian Telescope FS/FT really cool , would you share some light on spending quality time with me late at night showing me stars and such and how to use it ? I kid , This is a great tool to spend time with friends and family . We have one just like this ,Just don't be drunk while using it because you might be looking into your neighbors window lol
i might be persuaded to buy this. i know nothing about telescopes. am a complete beginner and homeschool a 7-year old. is this one programmable where you type in coordinates and it finds stuff for you. i have read that those are recommeded.
Hey brother. In answer to your questions and with some helpful advice: No it's not programmable, and they (goto scopes) are far from highly recommended unless you are familiar with the skies. The best thing to do is to get out there with a planesphere and your eyes and learn the constellations. They never change; they only change position in the skies. Learn the major stars and learn to differentiate between stars and planets. Jupiter is fantastic right now, and rises as a big red dot in the east around and after dusk. Telescopes are great if you are familiar with the sky and want to progress past binoculars because they let you focus on a tiny fraction of the heavens in more detail. It lets you see satellites around the planets, split double stars, see nebula in greater detail etc, but what it doesn't do is give you the kind of images you see in magazines or on the internet. Those pictures are usually composite images collated over hours, days, weeks and sometimes months... They also are 'false' color, which means the color is artificial to show the differences between gasses, dust, heat etc. I'm not trying to discourage you from getting a telescope right now, but a 7year old may be very disappointed by what he wont see through a scope and it might end up gathering dust. So, get one of these: and spend some time with your boy getting familiar with the sky. Get out during a meteor shower, check online to look for passing satellites and progress onto a pair of binoculars around the 7x50 to 10x50 size when you want a little more detail. Smaller image stabilization binoculars by Canon are great too. The best instrument / set of optics available are your eyes and passion and imagination will fill in the rest. Get a free piece of planetarium software such as http://www.stellarium.org/ to have an idea of what will be visable before you get out there, and there are a bunch of websites where you can print off sky maps too. If you are still gung ho about having a scope, let me know but I would hate for her to go from one closet to another... Saltire.
Saltire, I can almost agree with you. I started at 10, but I started my daughter around 7. She loves it still 7 years later. I gave her my old scope and she loves getting the drive aligned north and everything (its really old, not like the new ones that align themselves.)