Gary, I started with bioncs and then moved up to two dobs, the 8 inch Orion and the 6 inch Orion. I was lucky in that I was able to get the 8 inch through a program for educators through Clark Planetarium. If your a teacher in 6th grade elementary or in the secondary system your a teacher you can sign up for $100 and they give you the 8 inch dob, Starry Night Pro, a telrad for your 8 inch scope etc. So if you or an educator is out there, they can get a good scope for attending a week long class where you spend much time in their Hansen Dome getting to know the night sky and learning to star hope. Not quite as good as the actual but not bad. I agree with Patrick that you can join the SLC Astronomical Society and borrow some scopes from them. You can pay online with a credit or debit card via paypal or if your wife/committee is not trusting of such online things like paypal, you can snail mail the application and payment in like I did this week (at least she says she sent them . . . ). I live in the Salt Lake Valley also, in the southwest corner near an ugly open pit mine so if your down my way on a Friday night or Saturday, if conditions are good, I'm in my backyard which is usually dark unless the neighbor leaves his lights on. You could see how it works in that part of the valley. Enjoy and I think it is a wonderful hobby! On 2008-09-23 02:23, Gary Logan wrote:

Hi All, I am a newbie, just discovering the world of astronomy, and what looks interesting, fun, and doable.

It all started when ... I was out in my backyard a couple of weeks ago after dark, and on a whim I put my dSLR on my tripod an took a few pictures of the stars. A couple years ago a friend had told me that the planets were easy to see, and that was in the back of my mind when I zoomed into a bright southern star with my 300mm telephoto. After I downloaded the pictures onto my laptop I was very excited to see 4 little blobs next to the larger blob. I knew it must be a planet and it's moons, and after finding a star chart, I determined that it was Jupiter and 3 of it's moons. That was soo!! exciting. (I eventually figured out that the last blob was a star, but it remained classified as a UFO until that time.)

Then after my fuzzy Jupiter pictures I ran across a tracking device for SLRs on the web that really got me excited about the astrophotography potential (at: <http://www.astrotrac.com/> http://www.astrotrac.com/) Looking at the pictures taken with the tracker indicate that the camera equipment that I have (normal/wide and standard telephoto lenses) and a decent tracker (and a dark sky), can provide the potential for some great photos.

I am now lobbying the family budget committee for a grant for additional equipment to both better see, and to take better pictures of astronomical sights. (Telescope, tracking mount, camera attachments, better lenses, eye-pieces, magazine subscription, stacking software, Photoshop, hmm what other basics do I need.)

While my grant request langishes in committee, I have been working on a Barn Door tracker. I just finished the third revision of my prototype last night (and it was cloudy - bummer). My first attempt was too heavy and make my tripod fall over. So, I cut it to half the length, and the weight was okay, but pointing it at the North Star by shortening one leg of the tripod made the tripod fall over again. My third try was to add a block/shim between the tracker and the tripod that set the natural angle at 41 degrees, so it ought to point pretty close to the proper elevation of Polaris to start with. It looks like I will be able to try it again tonight.

If I can get the basic thing working, then adding a polar alignment scope will be the next improvement on the list. Adding a stepper motor would be after that, but that appears to be a much more complicated thing to attempt. At any opportune time in this process, showing my wife my sorry looking leftover-parts contraption and eliciting a sympathetic response will be employed.

I'm not sure what I want to begin with as far as a telescope. As I look at telescopes, it appears that the Dobsonian mounted Newtonian Reflectors are easily the cheapest way to get good viewing ability. But they do not easily include or add tracking for Astrophotography. It appears that if I get a telescope with a tracking mount, I can mount my camera as the eyepiece, or attach/mount the camera on top of the telescope to track with it. I am thinking (but not certain) that I could still take 1 second or shorter shots on a Dob. using my camera as the eyepiece.

I was thinking of maybe getting a used Dobsionian first for $200-300 and forget about tracking, then figure on replacing it when I decided what I really want (next). But Meade has a Truss tube Dob. that appears easy to break down, and fit in the Minivan with our 3 kids on camping trips. Still no tracking though unless I build something custom.

So a couple questions:

1) Any recommendations on a first telescope? 2) What are good things to look at in a very light polluted SLC sky? - I have found: Andromeda Galaxy