I would like to see our planets. what telescope should i buy to see planets in all there color?

Question

I would like to see our planets. what telescope should i buy to see planets in all there color?

Answer 1

A refractor telescope gives better view of planets and a reflector is good for stars.  I would reccommend buying a telescope with the largest diameter lense or mirror that you can affort.  Maybe a 4.5 inch to 6 inches...depending on how much you want to spend.  Goodluck!

Answer 2

I owned a 4.5-inch when I was growing up that gave me good views of Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, and a bit of Mars.  The number refers to the size of the primary mirror.  The bigger the mirror, the more light you can gather so the better the image.  An 8-inch telescope will give you very nice views of the nearby planets.  But I haven't seen Neptune or Uranus in anything smaller than an 18-inch.  

Answer 3

Get a high quality one, not a department store one. Celestron, Meade, and Orion have good ones. I wouldn't get anything smaller than 4 inch (100mm) if I were you. A dobsonian type will be cheaper and easier to use, especially for a beginner.Like the ones in the 3rd source.

Answer 4

Cosmo's suggestion is best. Your question indicates you have no experience, and will therefore have unrealistic expectations. You need to know what to expect so you're not disappointed.  

Answer 5

I've seen Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn naked eye.  Uranus should be visible naked eye, but i have not made the effort.

I have a ten inch telescope.  I have seen all the planets, including Pluto and Ceres in it.

Pluto is nearly 14th magnitude.  It should be visible in an 8 inch telescope, though with somewhat greater difficulty. All the others are easy, if you know where to look.

I have the 10" xt10i (about $800).  Orion has good support (I bought mine via the web, and it was shipped promptly.  A damaged accessory was replaced with zero hassle and promptly.  It matters.)

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.  That's usually a Newtonian reflector.

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.

Consider joining a local club.  My club has several loaner scopes from 4" to 10" - refractors, Newtonian and SCT reflectors.  They also have a 12.5" scope in an observatory, and a 22" reflector - very cool.  $30 a year buys you alot of telescope.  My 10" telescope cost $800.  That would have bought me 26 years of membership.  I was a member for 5 years before buying my telescope.  Some of that was research, some of that was waiting until i had the cash.

Answer 6

Before buying a telescope, I urge you to contact your local astronomy club.  They'll be happy to show you the planets through their telescopes, and can advise you about getting your own.