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i caught myself asking this unanswerable question when, passing by a telescope shop, my first question was, yes, what's the best one (at least, to my credit, i gave my purpose and surroundings)? since it's such a meaningless question, why do we succumb to it (outside of our hobbies where we know better and know more)?
simply combating simplicity,
H.F.N.
Follow Ups:
Um why is that a bad question? Things are often better and worse and that would lead to a best for numerous items. Certainly for items that don't require subjective preferences.
You might have to add qualifiers - What is the best printer. Maybe becomes what is the best all-around home user printer in terms of price per page, speed, accuracy, and photo quality.
Certainly that is a fair question and they measure printers for all of those aspects. Way back when I was buying a printer it turned out that Canon won on all points because when you ran out of yellow you could pay $10 and replace just the yellow tank. The HP if you ran out of Yellow (all the colours were in one tank) the whole tank had to be replaced. The Canon's speed was more than 2X the speed of the HP and was deemed to have better photo and print quality. So in that price class - at that time the Canon murdered everything else. Tomes change - could be the complete opposite now and some brand I've never heard of is kicking butt. Or maybe Canon is still the top.
Telescopes I know little about but presumably quality of image and how far away you can see through it would be things that can objectively measure. Hubble?
many many (many) times i've seen this question debunked and dissed by 'philes and posters as it sounds like the asker knows nothing and wants to easily know everything.
H.F.N.
Hey, "many many (many)", before elevating yourself above 'philes and posters provide relative links to support your assertions. This shouldn't be too difficult. BTW, best and state of the art are more usual than not hyperbole usages.
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nt
nt
It can be a fun question approached semi- sanely. I like to think you pick 5 or so good possibilities(there usually are at least a few obvious candidates) and then you discuss their properties and which is the best with yourself and/or intelligent friends forever(or until the candidates change due to new bests) since why there usually are candidates there is never a truly clear winner. And it doesn't matter which is the very best. It's the process, not the product that really matters.
nt.
Over the years and there have been a lot of them I have had systems ranging from about $1,000 to $100,000 and back down to about$17,000. Every system I have owned has been the best at the time I had it. It comes down to enjoying what you have and not worry about what we could or should have. The quest for the absolute best can really interfere with your enjoyment of music
Alan
I think a better approach is to try and discover which products have the happiest owners (assuming similar criteria to your own). And never to insist on paying a higher price than necessary! Your ego may want to see fine machining and jewel-like finishes and expect to pay top dollar for it, but that kind of thinking can blind a person to lower-cost solutions which may in fact be more satisfying to own and use.
It's always helpful if you know something about the topic, so at least you've got some ideas, can ask halfway intelligent questions and have a better chance of seeing through a certain amount of BS.
One book you ought to get is Phil Harrington's "Star Ware". Amazon probably has it, but you can get it from him at www.philharrington.net. It's an excellent source for a wide range of telescope and accessory information, and will get you up to speed quickly.
Another, if you want to do astrophotography, is Michael Covington's "Astrophotography For The Amateur". Again, an excellent source.
Sources for equipment include www.astronomics.com and www.telescope.com (Orion).
And be sure to check out Jason Ware's site www.galaxyphoto.com. Lot of good stuff there. He lives in my general area, and I used to go to astrophotography meetings at his home.
Also, get a sturdy mount. They're not cheap, but it'll save you lots of frustration by not having a scope image that starts dancing around every time you touch the scope. Often, the included mount is not stable enough, so you might want to consider an upgrade.
hth
People often ask what is the best. Then say they only have a small amount of money. Like, "What's the best new high-end 1000wpc stereo amp but I only have 500 bucks to spend." These are two different questions.
So for most of us, more information is always needed before a recommendation is made. In most cases the question is asked by young people with absolutely no clue what good equipment retails for. The smarter ones will frame the question within budget constraints. The best answers usually come when the budget and other pertinent information is given.
When I hear, "what's the best", I say you don't make enough money.
The "best" might simply be the "best" you can afford, the "best" at hand, the "best" available at any given moment (requiring patience for possible
"best" to arrive in the near future). To find the truly "best" you'd need to have tried (or at the very least researched) all available to arrive at what
is "best" for you (which might not be best for me).
Nothing simple about it OR that complicated (really). Like everything, it depends on how much effort one wants to put into it,
and it usually comes down to financial constraints/commitments.
Or you can attempt a consensus on what's "best". That frequently works so well around here, I'm sure it does elsewhere as well!
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As in what is the best food to hunt, what is the club with which to bash in the skulls of my enemies, etc. A mediocre telescope won't kill us, but those instincts will lead to dissatisfaction if we get one and find that it isn't what we'd hoped for -- and will lead us to lust for a better model, often without regard for any real improvement in our lives.
Aha! "The Best" vs. "best overall". Seems like a no-brainer... but is it?
"He was one of those men who live in poverty so that their lines of questioning may continue." - John Steinbeck
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Josh described a scenario characterized by a disregard for "real improvement" in the driven pursuit of what MIGHT be. What seems like "best" to a driven (and sometimes unreasonable) person might be a lopsided kind of best - not what really is best performance/value wise. And to me, performance and value is what really matters. So "best overall", to a reasonable person like me, might be what is TRULY best - performance/value wise. I guess that is what I was trying to say...
"He was one of those men who live in poverty so that their lines of questioning may continue." - John Steinbeck
Edits: 05/14/12 05/14/12
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I'm not at all sure it is. Even when you're deciding whether to hunt mammoths or bunnies. The mammoth can feed your tribe for a month, but then, the bunny can't impale you.From an audio perspective, I try to reign in my lust for the best because I know, objectively, that another $100,000 could buy me incrementally better sound, but that it won't buy me more listening pleasure. More like unfixed toothaches and debtor's prison. But even then, the choices aren't always clear. There's pleasure in lust, after all. If you're Jay Leno, and can afford a garage full of antique cars, does the satisfaction of lust not require that you do so to achieve the same pleasure of someone of more modest means who scrimps to buy a Model A?
The wanting is sometimes more fulfilling than the having. As Mr. Spock said, it isn't logical, but it's true.
However, my very unscientific definition of a great audio component is one that's so special that you say, "OK, I can hear that this isn't perfect, but it's so damn amazing that I could happily live with it for the rest of my life." The Tympani 1-D's were the first audio product I ever bought that gave me that feeling. Peleton on the Planar Asylum just scored a pair and I'm watching him react the same way I did to their magic. I've bought much pricier components that didn't have it. And I'll be damned if I could point to a measurement that makes those 1-D's so awesome -- except for their midbass and lower midrange, it's easy to find speakers that do better in almost every category.
Edits: 05/13/12 05/13/12
It is a question that ends with questions.
If you wish to photograph nebulas and other large, colorful things, you want a lower power astrograph. That might be a Achromatic lens design, a reflector or compound reflector. You will need something like an SLR camera or a larger format CCD camera made for this (which normally has a cooler for he CCD).
If you’re into planetary pictures, you need a higher power telescope in the 1500-3000mm focal length. The hot lash for this now is a small format CCD camera like the 618 from imaging source. Taking video allows you to save only the sharp focus frames and stack them into a high res picture.
If you’re mostly a visual observer, it is hard to beat an 8-12 inch Cassegrain telescope with a selection of eyepieces. A motorized mount will make life much easier a computer driven GOTO mount (once aligned) makes looking at a list of things a breeze.
Fwiw one of the most gorgeous objects in the sky (and reasonably bright too) the great nebula in Orion will be to the south starting in a few months (late fall / winter).
Hi fi is the same thing, you have to know enough to know what technical questions to ask and it depends what you want to do exactly what works best and even at that, it is partly a matter of fashion and fad.
Those answers are often not best answered by those selling the goods in question but slow methodical investigation.
Best,
Tom Danley
Danley Sound Labs
Those questions arise because some schmucks think hey these people know all about this stuff, so i can just ask them for an answer and then i don't have to do any work at all !!!
The second problem is worrying about 'face' If I make a mistake, others will know I am an idiot.
Third is value. We all want to get the most for the least. A selfish obsession our culture has imbedded in us. (alternative social rules could be: helping the society, being a good citizen, supporting our economy..)
To the salesperson:" If you had $700 dollars and wanted to buy a telescope from this store, which one would you buy and why? "
Keep it simple. (Or what ever the budget you are willing to spend)
I have a small checklist when I am serious about buying.
Pros, Cons, features, warrantee, return, service..and which ones have you seen the most returns of.
Edits: 05/13/12
you're having a big-time operation and two techniques are available to you to choose: do you ask what the doctor/surgeon would do in your shoes?
(assume money is not a matter)
H.F.N.
There are many applications for telescopes and different types are advantageous for those difference applications.
Asking a salesman what to buy is just letting them sell you whatever crap they want to get rid of.
And in that situation i bet the salesman really is thinking what a dumbbell... And has no worries screwing the dummy who asks the salesman to make his decision for him (her)((now yeah it is possible, however unlikely, that a salesperson will have pity on you and actually care what they dump on you. (the main reason is they would want your friends to shop there..)))
Edits: 05/13/12
It is a barometer of the salespersons honesty. I won't buy anything until I know at least as much as the salesperson is exposed to sans actually using the item and the return ledger. We all can tell if we are being bullshitted or not in the presence of a salesperson.
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