Are skyquest telescopes good

Question

which sort of skyquest telescope would be able to see up to jupiter

Answer 1

You can see jupitar!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

The Skyquest scopes are excellent. If you are a beginner and have reasonably clear skies, my recommendation is that you spend your money on a telescope with more aperture and better optics instead of a computer finder. Those things frequently malfunction, and you will not learn the night sky by using them. They have good value for applications where there is a lot of light pollution or for astrophotography. They are also useful for folks who already know the sky and have limited time. but the nature of the hobby requires a certain investment in time, and you may as well use it to learn the sky, so that when someone asks you how to find M104, you don't have to ask the computer.

Any of the Skyquest scopes would be able to show you Jupiter in pretty nice detail, along with four of the moons revolving around the giant planet. An 8 inch aperture or better should reveal good detail of the storm bands across the surface of the planet. An 8 inch should also provide access to hundreds of deep space objects, including galaxies, clusters, and nebulae. A 10 inch would be even better, although it is a little tougher to lug around.

You can buy more aperture and optics, or you can buy a computer finder. Or if you have no constraints you can buy both. I would recommend the aperture. I would recommend that you learn the sky. That's really half the fun.

If you haven't done so already, you should consider attending a local astronomy club observing session. They can show you what your options are, and what to expect at the eyepiece (note: this may be different than you think - many of these objects are pretty dim).  

Answer 4

You'd certainly be able to see Jupiter.  You can see that naked eye.

I assume you're talking about the Orion SkyQuest 6, 8, 10, or 12 inch reflectors.  These are sound instruments from a company that has excellent after-sales support.

But i strongly recommend that you get the Intelliscope version.  That gives you a computer object locator. I have the 10" (about $800) xt10i (Intelliscope).

Here are the 3 P's for picking a telescope.  Price, Performance, and Portability.  Price and portability can be show stoppers.  Price less so, since you may be able to wait until you have more cash. But a scope that doesn't fit in your car is stuck where ever it ends up.  That leaves performance.  For deep space, what you need is as much light gathering as possible.  Simple reflectors have the performance per cost advantage.

The push-to computer also comes under the category of performance.  Before buying my scope, i joined a local astronomy club and borrowed each of their loaner scopes in turn.  One was a ten inch reflector.  I spent half an hour not finding a fairly bright galaxy in my back yard.  It was too dim for my sky conditions.  Then, i repeated this for another galaxy.  Spending an hour to not find two galaxies is not something that will sustain me in the hobby.  With a push-to computer, i can observe a dozen objects an hour.  In in very short time, i found that very few galaxies can be seen from my heavily light polluted back yard.  And, an oxygen 3 filter lets me see most nebulae.

Back to my scope.  The tube length is 48".  It fits across the back seat of any car.  I had a $1000 budget, so the $800 scope fit.  I bought an oxygen 3 filter (about $89) at the same time.  I might have bought the 12" scope, but the tube is 8" longer, and doesn't fit in my car.  I might have gone with a truss dob with a larger mirror, but at the time, it was over my budget, and there was no computer.

If you can, join a local astronomy club.  They can give you hints, let you check out their stuff, and so on.