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ProfessorEsoteric OP t1_j5e1dlu wrote

Reply to comment by Neat_Petite in Not much but finally moved the the countryside and actually have a nights sky. by ProfessorEsoteric

It doesn't take much to make a massive change to the nights sky. I'm only 10 mins from where I used to be (Norwich) and the difference is ... Well a bit.obvious from the photo.

Good luck with the telescope, it's the kind of thing that might make a birthday list.

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zenith_industries t1_j5e6607 wrote

I know nothing of your finances, but starter telescopes are much less expensive than I realised. I’m kicking myself that I’d always assumed the starting prices to be in the thousands when you actually only have to pay a couple of hundred.

Sure, it’s not fantastic but it’s a fairly small outlay. I can’t even begin to put into words how cool it was to see Jupiter and 3 moons. It was only a big dot with 3 smaller dots alongside it, but it got me hooked.

I’m now putting together a budget for my next upgrade.

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ProfessorEsoteric OP t1_j5eitx0 wrote

Okay that's great to hear, it feels like it may also turn into my most expensive hobby. Any sub-reddits that might have some good starter advice?

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tan_blue t1_j5fauzs wrote

There are r/telescope and r/telescopes. Do a search for "starter" or "advice" and if you can't find an answer, or can't narrow down which telescope to get, ask them. They'd probably be happy to help!

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KristnSchaalisahorse t1_j5l0k8v wrote

In the meantime, if you don’t have some already, I highly recommend getting some binoculars! They’re a great and inexpensive way to explore the sky in greater detail (much better quality option here). They won’t show you Saturn’s rings, but even from a city they allow you to see Jupiter’s four brightest moons, craters on our moon, hundreds of stars & satellites invisible to the naked eye, Venus’ crescent phase, Uranus, Neptune, etc. From darker skies you can see even more of course, like the Andromeda galaxy, Orion Nebula, awesome star clusters like the Pleiades, comets (when applicable- like right now) etc. Plus, they're great for daytime views and they’ll still be incredibly useful if/when you have a telescope.

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