Hello everyone! I am planning on buying my first serious telescope. I have had ones before that were not of great quality. Now I want to see more than just the moon and pinpricks. I was considering this Bushnell Telescope (http://bushnell.com/products/telescope/specs/78-8846.cfm). Will it be good for viewing good quality images? Does anyone have experience with it? Is it generally a good instrument?

That scope is crap, as are many of the department store scopes.

If you want quality lunar and planetary images, go with one of the latest Chinese APO refractors.

Orion ED80 (http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?pid=6324)

Celestron ED80 (http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?pid=7097)

You'll also need a diagonal, mount and a few eyepieces.

If you wish to view deep-sky objects, you'll need a different scope, although many of the Messier objects will look pretty good with this refractor.

does this sound better?

Meade: Features 114mm objective lens, aluminum tube with 910mm focal length, 4mm & 12.5mm eyepieces, 3X Barlow lens, aluminum tripod with accessory tray & 5x24mm viewfinder.

Only marginally better. If you only want to spend a couple hundred dollars on a complete setup, you'll not get any quality whatsoever, if that's what you're after. I assumed it was from your first post.

Getting into telescopes is an expensive hobby. Most of the people I know, including myself spend between $300-$600 on eyepieces alone, and thats just for one. Most of us have many thousands of dollars invested in eyepieces. I use a binoviewer and therefore must buy 2 of every eyepiece.

I build my own scopes. My last mirror (10") alone cost over $1000. I'm working on a 24" mirror that will most likely cost close to $5000. Then I have to build the scope around that.

Of course, I get quality views from my gear and if that's what you're looking for, forget about those cheapie scopes and get ready to open your wallet.

Ed Ting has reviewed a lot of gear, he also has a "Beginners Advice on Buying Scopes" - just scroll down a little and you'll find it - highly recommended reading:

http://www.scopereviews.com/index.html

thanks for the help

Q has it pretty well covered, but you might like to look over Orion telescope. I think their web site is www.telescope.com . They have a good range of quality optics in various price/performance ranges. It will give you some idea of what's available in what price range. And as Q inplies, you get what you pay for. My scope is a C-8 Celestron circa 1975. Beautiful optics. I've got the better part of 2500 dollars tied up in the scope and accesories.

Hello msps8990!

This Meade 5" GOTO Maksutov (http://www.astronomics.com/main/Meade_ETX125AT_5_goto_Maksutov_with_UHTC_optics_tr ipod_05150304.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/3MJDSWTWCVC29P9PKL3394ACU3/product_id/M5ACU/Meade_ETX125AT_5_goto_Maksutov_with_UHTC_optics_tr ipod_05150304.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/3MJDSWTWCVC29P9PKL3394ACU3/product_id/M5ACU) is an excellent bargain for $799 - it even comes with a 26mm eyepiece. Check out the details.

You might also want to ask for quotes on a few moderately priced wide-field eyepieces and perhaps a barlow, which doubles the magnification of most eyepieces. Asking for recommendations from the vendor would help since he should know the scopes limitations and can advise you in focal length choices. Some eyepieces work better on some scopes than others, often the cause of abberations in the scopes optics and/or varying focal lengths. It's nice to know if an eyepiece will work well with your scope so you don't purchase an eyepiece and find that it doesn't.

With a 26mm in hand, a 2x barlow will give you another focal length of 13mm, with a another couple of eyepieces in the 20mm, 16mm range, a barlow would add 10mm and 8mm respectively, coupled with a good 3-6mm zoom, you'll have most of the bases covered in eyepiece focal ranges. If you can find someone else who might be willing to let you try out their selection, it will help you to understand your needs better.

The topic of eyepieces is of heated debate as to their quality and performance by a great many amateur astronomers, hence they all buy and sell them to try, so as to see what works well for them. Quality eyepieces generally don't lose much of their value over time, especially if you buy them used. Quite often, if they are kept in pristine condition, you'll get what you paid for them.

I just noticed that the same company will sell you the Meade 4000 Series (http://www.astronomics.com/main/Meade_Series_4000_eyepiece_and_filer_se_%96_I199_w ih_purc07169199.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/K3E9QLQM36C79MW96V1UF13JC0/product_id/KIT4199) eyepiece set for $199, if you buy a Meade scope.