How to look for a good telescope.?

[jonal]

Singapore has some very good astronomy clubs. I lived in Singapore for three years.
Here are some sites.
http://tasos.org.sg/ . . . . .
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50543565959 . . .
http://spastro.blogspot.com/ . . . .
http://agastro.sg/ . . . .
http://www.singastro.org/web/mediawiki/i..._Singapore . . . . .
If you go along to some observing night meetings or one of the public star parties they organise at times you can see what telescopes people have and look through them.
Get in touch through the websites or ask in the library when the meetings and star parties are. Libraries keep lists of local clubs and societies for all sorts of interests.

For USD300 you can get a very reasonable telescope.
You may find that one of the astro club members has got a good telescope for sale and then you might get a bigger one for the same money as you would have spent on a small one.
Astro clubs are very friendly and they always welcome visitors and new members, so it would be a good idea to get in touch with your nearest one and go along.

Here are some telescope suppliers in Singapore. Good brands for the cheaper ranges are Skywatcher, Orion, and the budget price Celestron and Meade telescopes.
Many of the cheaper telescopes use the same optics made by Synta in China which are very good for the money.
http://www.astrobargains.com/ . . . . . .
http://www.astro.com.sg/index.php . . . . . .
The next link is the dream-price stuff but they do cheaper ones as well.
Nice, but you'll get very good views of the planets and stars and nebulae with much cheaper telescopes than the top ones here.
A small increase in quality can take a lot of work on the optics to achieve so really good ones are very expensive.
http://staropticsscientific.com/ . . . . . .

The problem in Singapore is finding dark skies.
There are trips out to the islands sometimes to get telescopes set up with darker skies. There was one for the Perseid meteor shower as well.
Sisters Island is favourite for it.
Also there are better skies across the causeway on the east coast, just across the water from Changi, east of the Pasir Gudang terminal.
There's a small road leading to the east coast from there or you can go by boat from Changi past Pulau Ubin to get there. The currents are strong around there sometimes so if you go by boat take it steady.
I used to go to St. John's island for astronomy nights in a little sampan with a motor and a bamboo and cotton sail.
Over the other side at Jurong it used to be very good for dark skies but there's a lot of development now. It's a lot better than Singapore city though, or along Pasir Panjang where I used to live, which is also so much developed the night skies are ruined.
I live on another island now the same size as Singapore island but with very dark skies and only 100 000 population instead of millions.
Have fun with the stars and good luck with your exams. Work is the way to get good exam results though.
And play. It's better then. Keeps you fresh instead of just working all the time.