What telescope to buy for a newbie...

What telescope would people recommend for a newbie. I would love something that has automation as well so I can let the computer find stuff for me at first. Also i have a Canon Rebel XS (plan to upgrade soon hopefully), so what would I need in addition to start taking some shots?

Thanks a lot, if there is a good link for me, would like that as well! Take care

A lot of it depends on the type of objects you want to photograph. Generally I would say start small and work your way up. You'll need the telescope, tracking mount (most go with an equitorial type), a t-ring and adapter to attach the camera to the scope. That'll get you some respectable length exposures to start. Plan to spend up to around $1000 to get started.

There is a hugh learning curve to something like this so start small be patient and stick to it!

My Celestron C11 is for sale!

wow, I thought i may be able to pick up a decent tele for $300 ish? Guess i was a bit off. Thanks for the advice, any more is welcome. Particular models and where to order them for good deals would be cool. thanks guys/gals

painful100 wrote in post #10852531
What telescope would people recommend for a newbie. I would love something that has automation as well so I can let the computer find stuff for me at first. Also i have a Canon Rebel XS (plan to upgrade soon hopefully), so what would I need in addition to start taking some shots?

Thanks a lot, if there is a good link for me, would like that as well! Take care

I've just bought my first scope. MY experience has been.....

Take a good, long, hard look through this (and other) forums for existing threads with advice (try stargazerslounge.com etc)

Download Stellarium. It's invaluable for seeing and learnign the sky from your location. Be aware that you can zoom right in. That's good fun.

You can see an awful lot of stars and stuff through a reasonable pair of binoculars, but they can be tiring to hold after the first five minutes. There are mounts to get round this.

If you decide to go for a telecope, I have bought all my stuff second (or third...) hand. You have to be careful though.

An alt-azimuth mount will be fine for visual work, but will not suit astro-photography since the image will rotate around the target even if tracking is perfect. You will need an equatorial mount.

MY experience has been that I ought to have spent money proportionally in this order.

MOUNT
EYEPIECES
SCOPE

by which I mean that the mount can be used for almost any scope, so get the biggest, best driven mount you can afford. The scope I bought came with only two eyepieces of reasonable (but not stunning) quality. I soon found that I wanted more and eyepieces can be used with almost any scope. They can be enormously expensive though. And finally the one thing that everone seems to change is their scope According to wisdom I have seen. Aperture, aperture, aperture, there no substitute for aperture

My 2p worth.

BTW, I spent £100 on mount/eyepieces/scope in one purchase. I haven't put it in the bin yet

My page on Getting Started may help.

Baz.