The Best Telescope for BEGINNERS (Visual Astronomy)

very first thing I saw through this aperture 88 the planet Mars using the nine millimeter eyepiece I can see a little bit of surface detail did you know that you can actually see a galaxy or a nebula with your own eyes live through a telescope all you need is clear skies and a tool such as this and you can visually experience some of the most amazing things you'll ever see in your life or what about the planets and seeing Jupiter or Mars or Saturn as it's out there orbiting the Sun it's an unforgettable experience that I think everyone should have seven years ago I posted a video on youtube of my camera up to the eyepiece of my first telescope which was a Dobsonian just like this I put the camera up to the eyepiece and zoomed in on the moon's craters and the reactions I got in the comments were pretty much exactly how I felt when I saw for the first time it's jaw-dropping you you almost can't believe that it's real some people accused me of faking the video and that it wasn't real and I continued to get some of those comments in the deep sky images I take through Astro photography now the truth is I wouldn't know how to fake anything so beautiful if you want proof that these things actually exist and you want to see things like the Orion Nebula in real time do yourself a favor and get a Dobsonian telescope like this [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] here we go with the aperture ax ad 8 unboxing Dobsonian this video isn't about a telescope it's about the feeling you get when you connect with the night sky on another level it's about how everything changes once you see Saturn through the eyepiece and nothing is ever the same you suddenly start checking to see if the sky is cloudy or not every night and you make all your plans around the new moon phase your first telescope is the beginning of a lifelong obsession with the night think of it as a door and once it's open you'll keep coming back for more I'll never forget that first year with my Dobsonian telescope learning the night sky my transition to Astro photography was next but I wouldn't have appreciated it or enjoyed it as much as I do now without those early great experiences through the eyepiece in this video I have the pleasure of introducing to you what I think is the best possible beginner telescope for astronomy one of the keys to opening up the treasures of the night sky is having a telescope with enough aperture and light gathering ability to really put on a good show this Newtonian reflector can soak in more light faster than any of the astrophotography telescopes I've ever used on this channel because when it comes to observing deep sky objects visually you need as much power as possible I'm not talking about magnification I need a big mirror that can soak in as much light and deliver it to the eyepiece for you if you've been a longtime subscriber to the Astro backyard YouTube channel you'll know that I always have recommended an 8 inch table as a visual telescope for astronomy especially for beginners it's just the right mix of portability ease-of-use and power telescopes come in all shapes and sizes but when it comes to enjoying the deep sky wonders from your own backyard through the eyepiece it's hard to beat an 8 inch light bucket like the aperture 88 I remember opening my first let's go out of the box when I got it in 2011 and it was a Dobsonian like this just a lot smaller and I remember just how huge I thought that telescope was at the time there's the OTA right there the 8 inch tube here here and here's the tube I'm gonna use the foam to just set it down on the table okay here we go here's the optical tube assembly let's go over the core details of the aperture at 88 first of all the type of telescope it is it's a Newtonian reflector that means that it's a mirror system so there's a primary mirror at the base here at the end of the tube that reflects up to a secondary mirror and into the eyepiece it's different than the refractors that I used for astrophotography that use lens cell system so the type is the Newtonian reflector and it's on a Dobsonian mount that's this base here and that's what makes it so special and a huge fan of visual astronomers especially getting started it offers that really comfortable viewing position and the kind of the point-and-shoot experience so there's tension knobs on this it's called a rocker box there's a tension knob inside the base here so I can tighten the stiffness of this kind of lazy susan in the rocker box here and I've got it pretty much the perfect tension where it will stay in position without nudging it but I can easily move it side to side and then there's also these tension or knobs here for the altitude adjustments so up and down and I've got quite stiff right now but that's fine because I'm want to hold it nicely when I'm sitting there through the eyepiece I don't want it shaking around if I do loosen this up on both sides you'll see that just the weight of the eyepiece will just start to let it fall that's not that's no good that's too loose but so you will be able to change that depending on the kind of equipment you have up here heavy eyepiece right now so I've got it rather stiff the details of the telescope it's a focal length of 1,200 millimeters so a higher magnification that I'm used to than in my compact refractors that are like 400 500 so a little bit deeper it's a great range for most targets like you're not gonna with a wide field eyepiece it's not like you're gonna be in too deep the focal ratio is F 5.9 rather fast some Newtonian reflectors can go much faster than that F 4 F 3.9 but I think you'll find visually that 5.9 is perfectly fine it has a 8 by 50 finder scope at the near the objective there and it's got the right angle finder so you don't have to get behind it and uncomfortable you can look straight in the top and then it's correct image as well so up down left right it's not inverted which can be really disorienting if you've never hues to find your scope like that to align the finder scope do it in the day time the way I've done it here is that I'm using that pine tree over there the tip of it as a reference point and then I found it in the eyepiece you see it there and then it's just a matter of turning these to ship the positioning of the finderscope so it's also centered on that same pine tree tip and now I know that they're both lined up together so I can find objects through the little finder scope here and I'll know that it will appear in my eyepiece no matter how high do you have magnification you probably noticed the eyepiece tray here that it comes with it so they almost include everything you need in the Box you will need your own phillips head screwdriver whole eyepiece tray they're good and that's probably one of the biggest things that sets this telescope apart from some of the comparable dots in this range it comes with two eyepieces a nine millimeter Plusle inch inch and a quarter so that's for the planets that's a high magnification piece and then the one that's in there now a two inch 30 millimeter eyepiece and that's kind of my favorite because that's what you want to use for nebulae and galaxies and star clusters and get that wide field of view I believe it's 68 degrees field of view so nice and nice and wide it also comes with a moon filter so that threads on to a one a one and a quarter inch eyepiece so you can because the moon's gonna be super bright through a big light bucket like this so you want to dim it down actually for a better view and then one of the best and most impressive features is that comes with a laser collimator and so the newtonian design part of the deal is that you have to call them on a regular basis depending on how much it gets knocked around so basically all that means is that you adjust the primary mirror here with these hinge pin control knobs and it changes the tilt of the mirror and essentially you want to have it perfectly centered so the secondary mirror and the primary mirror are perfectly aligned so you're getting that perfect image because they can be they can get slightly off over time so that's what you use this laser collimator for you put it into the eyepiece and it sends up actually a red laser so it ends up moving around and you can Center it in the dot in the in the you're very cool very even cooler that it's included because any other scope you gotta buy one separately and find out the hard way that you need additional stuff this thing comes with everything it's a bit beefy but like I said with the the larger models the ten into twelve yes you get more like gathering power but the 8-inch is the ultimate middle ground where you still get that power but it's manageable it's listed up about fifty pounds with this rocker box base and the tube itself which sounds heavy but I I carried it no problem it didn't feel fifty pounds but you can of course just take the tube out it's just sitting in here and do it separately so set this down carefully move that rocker box around and it's just a tube sitting in this box basically so it was easy to put together and I'm not just saying that because I I can have a hard time I'm not very handy let's just put it that way and I put this together in about 45 minutes great instructions a PDF online from from aperture so yeah so far so good now I just really want to look through this thing it has been cloudy for almost it feels like a month straight we had a couple clear nights in there but so rare and tonight was supposed to be clear Saturday night and it started out very cloudy but it's finally starting to clear up now still very cold but I can see Mars up there maybe you can - and I can see Cassiopeia and Perseus and still some clouds but it looks like I might actually get to use this aperture at 88 tonight so I'm really excited about that I realized that saying a telescope is the best telescope for beginners is a bold statement but I stand by this like I've been doing since day one from this channel I can only recommend what's actually worked for me and my own experiences almost ten years ago I had an experience with a Dobsonian telescope like this that got me absolutely hooked on astronomy and got me where I am today so of course that's what I'm gonna recommend for beginners because it works the 8-inch model is a step up from the size all I could afford at the time was four and a half inches the eight inch is really the best because you actually get that wow factor in the views because it has enough aperture to pull in some serious light I understand if you can't afford it there are smaller dogs available go for that why this particular ad8 stands out above the rest is because of the accessories included remember when I talked about that laser collimator and the two eyepieces including a two inch one the eyepiece tray I didn't even mention that it comes with a battery pack for the fan to run on the back to regulate the temperature what was the other thing the moon filter this is all stuff you don't find in a packet a telescope package for an 8-inch table like this and the price is right the last thing I want to do is recommend something and just say it's the best beginner telescope this pivotal time for any like a young astronomy or someone's starting to get into it the last thing I would do is point you towards something that's going to frustrate you last but not least I just want to talk about the difference between this telescope and a computerized one it's all manual which means you have to earn the right to find the objects yourself and guess what it's one of the most satisfying feelings in the world and the longer it takes you the more exciting it is when you do find it I remember for whatever reason I couldn't find em 13th the globular cluster when I first got my job and it's one of the easier ones and I just I'll never forget when I was like that's it I found it I see it get some star charts and some books there's some great stuff online and so you can star hop it's called star hopping you'll fight you'll find a constellation find the red star hop to the next one and you'll find deep sky objects it's an incredible experience and unlike anything else as for dealing with this type of telescope because I normally talk about refractors and how simple their a Newtonian reflector needs collimation so first off when you get that telescope right out of the factory if you get the opportunity out of the box it's ready to go I check mine it's working perfectly I could probably tweak it to be a little bit better but it's not something that you have to worry about right away unless it's way off that being said again online there's so many resources for collimation and with that laser collimator you're gonna get it so perfect and it's kind of fun because you realize you're making these subtle adjustments and the better you get it the crisper that view is gonna be don't worry about collimation it's not as scary as it sounds I think that's it I just want to get back out there and Orion is like just up around here and I'm gonna look through the Orion Nebula through an 8-inch dog for the first time in this backyard I've missed having a light bucket for visuals so bad and I'm getting emotional because I just love this yeah I would never see you guys wrong song you should get a telescope like this [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: AstroBackyard

Views: 919,228

Keywords: best telescope for beginners, best telescope, astronomy telescope, beginner telescope, Apertura AD8, visual astronomy, review, buying guide, buying your first telescope

Id: I0cmD9igO-o

Length: 17min 27sec (1047 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 14 2018