Amateur astronomers/skygazers?

neon4891 wrote: Any recomendations on where to buy a decent reflector around $500? ... IIRC names like meade and celestron are good peices for what I'm looking at

If I were looking for a $500 reflector, I'd go to telescope.com a/k/a Orion. Their house branded stuff is pretty good. The 6" Dobsonian Intellescope is an excellent choice, and is in your price range.

Alternatively, if you really want a Meade or Celestron, pick up a recent copy of Sky & Telescope or Astronomy and check out the ads for various vendors and prices. Most of the larger ads in either magazine will be a decent vendor, but some are better than others. Also, I think each magazine site will have reviews that will separate the good from the bad.

BTW, there's nothing wrong with either Meade or Celestron, although I'd stay away from their very lowest level models.

(Full Disclosure: As noted above, I have an 8" Celestron SCT.)

I just took Astronomy 100 last semester (got an A but that's beside the point). It's one of those subjects that I could really get into. I tried to take the next class up but it was full by the time that I got to register. It blows me away to think of how amazingly big the universe is. Bill Watterson's comic pretty much sums it up for me. You can see it in this blog post: http://imsignificant.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/bill-waterson/

WOW, telescope.com has some great stuff, thanks. Now i wonder if i should upgrade to the computer tracking?

Look out tax returns

edit, that reminds me, I sat thrue a lecture by John Dobson, that was great.