Getting sick of people saying you need a $500 telescope to see anything good

I was out in my driveway last night with my little $60 tabletop scope and a guy walked by and scoffed at me. Said I wouldn't see anything with that. Then I showed him Saturn's rings clear as day and he shut up quick. Look, if you collimate a cheap scope properly and wait for good atmospheric seeing, you get way more than people expect. Why do folks act like backyard observing is a rich person's hobby?

2 comments

2 Comments

charles9191mo ago

My 6 inch dob is older than most people on this forum and it still blows people away every time I take it to a dark spot. The trick is learning how to let your eyes adjust and using averted vision, not throwing money at glass. Cheap scopes fail because people give up before they learn those basics, not because the scope is broken.

wyatt_shah851mo ago

My buddy runs a cheap little refractor off his apartment balcony and gets the same crap from his neighbors. One night some dude with a huge Dobsonian setup laughed at him from the next building over. My friend just pointed his scope at Jupiter and called the guy over, showed him the bands and the Galilean moons crisp as hell. Dude went quiet, then asked what mount he was using. Sometimes it ain't the gear, it's just knowing how to use what you got.