Andrew Buckingham of Astronz spoke at the inaugural meeting of the Nelson Astronomical Society, showing a number of the options available in the Astronz store and providing an excellent primer for those new to astronomy who are thinking about getting a telescope. You will learn what the different options are and how they differ, traps some people fall into, and why Astronz refuses to stock certain telescopes.
0:00 Hamish introduces Andrew
1:23 Andrew introduces himself
2:23 Intro to Astronz
3:55 Astronz doesn’t stock products they won’t use
4:22 Astronz pricing strategy
5:48 Object of the Week
7:38 How Astronz supports NZ ast societies with referral programme
10:17 Aperture
11:21 Magnification is not so important
13:00 Focal length and focal ratio
14:23 Binoculars
20:52 Astronz guide to what you can see through different binoculars before-you-buy
23:36 Telescopes – none are perfect
24:00 Refractors
25:25 The basic telescopes Astronz does not stock and does not recommend
27:00 Doublet telescopes
27:22 Triplet telescopes
28:12 Astrophotography strategy using smaller aperture systems
28:58 Newtonian, Dobsonian telescopes
32:01 Classic Cassegrain telescopes
33:04 Schmidt-Cassegrains
35:39 Ritchey-Chretiens
38:00 Comparitive pricing of systems, using 8″ aperture size as a reference
39:08 Mounts – Alt-Az Manual
39:44 Alt-Az Goto mounts
42:03 Tracking lets you do astrophotography, but with alt-az you get field rotation
43:50 Equatorial mounts
47:16 Problems with the equatorial mounts that come with cheap telescopes
49:00 Astrophotography cameras
49:23 Star tracker equatorial mounts for basic astrophotography
51:18 Planetary imaging
53:54 Strainwave mounts
56:29 DSLR cameras
57:07 Dedicated planetary imaging or guiding camera
58:08 Cooled cameras
59:30 MiniCam8 with integrated filter wheel
1:03:00 Eyepieces
1:03:50 Astronz Virtual Showroom
1:04:30 EVscope / smart telescopes
1:15:45 Use the astronomy club to discover/learn about equipment
1:19:15 Things to consider – aperture vs portability
1:20:10 Visual or Astrophotography?
1:21:45 Manual vs Goto mounts
1:22:00 8″ is the sweet spot
1:22:35 Astronz do not sell telescopes that are easy to out-grow
1:23:50 The answer to “What telescope should I buy?”
1:24:45 Hamish thanks Andrew and describes upcoming club activities
