h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

But what should I get? I have only had one telescope so far and that was bought from John Lewis. This time, I have over two hundred pounds to spend on astronomical equipment and I don't want to waste it.

The telescope I looked at at my local astronomical society (Peterborough) was a Meade DS-90E refractor scope using #495 autostar, but the Meade website doesn't seem to have it in their catalogue. I know the phone number of the shop he got his from, but I wondered if anyone had any general tips on which telescope might be best.

Thanks very much.

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John Coxon

Whatever you do DON'T BUY A TASCO 'SCOPE or anything from a toy shop/novelty store or Argos! These peices of kit are a complete waste of money and will spoil your experience and might even put you off!

The best bet is to do a bit of research first. Buy a couple of the astronomy Magazines - Astronomy Now or Sky and telescope. Look at the ads. and the classified at the back. You might be able to pick up a 2nd hand scope for a good price.

The December issue of Astronomy Now has a section on starting in astronomy - if you can get hold of a copy it might help to read that and crystalise in your mind whether you want a refracting or reflecting 'scope.

finally, don't be seduced by massive magnification. To benefit from such power you need air clarity you only find at the top of Hawaian mountains or above the atmosphere itself.

Happy hunting and hope some of the following are useful!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/myspace/nightsky/telescopes.shtml
www.cpac.freeserve.co.uk/docs/telescope.doc
http://www.popastro.com/spatel.htm
http://www.cpither.freeserve.co.uk/buying_telescopes.htm
http://www.r-clarke.org.uk/starting_astro1.htm

turvy

Thanks for the advice. I'll bear it in mind when shopping. I'll try and persuade my Dad to get me a copy of Astronomy Now/Sky & Telescope or buy it with some of my funds.

Thanks again, I'll check out the URLs as well.

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John Coxon

All good advice from Turvy there. I'd definitely recommend a look at the Dec Astronomy Now beginners buying guide if you can get hold of it. It splits the article up into budget ranges and will give very good pointers to the best you can get for the price you can afford.

Also, try reading H2G2's guide to buying a telescope ifyou've not done so already. Link is A827309 .

And don't discount shelling out for a good pair of binoculars - an essential tool in any case for helping find things and familiarising yourself with the night sky. There's an excellent book by Patrick Moore covering seeing the night sky with binoculars.

And finally when you get your telescope, don't be too ambitious with what you're trying to look at to begin with. It takes a while to pick up the skills of finding what you're after and of looking at it through the eyepiece.

Generally, take your time on the decision and enjoy whatever you eventually buy.
Happy observing

With my limited experience I'm probably not the best person to advise you, but I can't resist putting in my two pennorth.

If you have experience of the Meade telescope and have liked what you've seen, then that's probably the best one to go for if you can find one within your budget. I believe that Meade have a generally good reputation. You can find the odd one or two going on e-bay

Both telescopes I have owned have been (say it softly) Tasco products. As I haven't owned anything 'better' I'm not in a position to judge their relative quality to other makes but my experience has been that they aren't as bad as they are made out to be. I am sure that there are better quality telescopes for the same price but neither have been a disaster for me from a cost/value point of view. I am not necessarily advocating that you buy a Tasco as they do have a poor reputation, but it has to be borne in mind that both were under the £200 mark and both have given me a lot of fun. Their claims to available magnification are nonsense but both were useable from an entry level point of view if you accept their limitations, which are probably the same as many other brands in the same price bracket.

Neither the 3 inch refractor, nor the 4.5 inch reflector that I use at the moment, could produce very much that was recognisable at the maximum theoretical magnification they quoted. I would say that both could handle magnifications up to a max of about 200 times which is probably the most you might need for casual observation anyway. Of the two the reflector is the better and it's one of that type that I would go for in preference, although it is more cumbersome to set up. The main thing with reflectors is the mirror size and 6 inch as a minimum would be best.

Personally I'd avoid the go-to equipment as I feel the money is better spent on the optics. Also avoid the older 1 inch diameter eyepieces and go for the later 1.25 inch type which are easier to use and can be bought as accessories in a greater range of magnification and quality. I am currently doing a small modification to adapt my scope to 1.25 eyepieces in the hope that it's going to improve the viewing, which is one of the main shortcomings of a budget scope and goes a long way towards their bad press, but that is another cost.

You could also consider a 'good' pair of binoculars and I use them when I want a quick view in a spare half hour and can't be bothered to set up the scope. They probably get more use than the scope but they have their limitations.

Hope this helps
A.M.

Whatever telescope you get (and I'd go with Austin Morris' suggestion of spending as much as you can on good optics rather than a goto computer at this stage) you'll need a few things to get the best out of it.
Somewhere to observe - if you've been to a local society then they should be able to help you.
Time to learn to observe, again the society should be able to help you learn how to see things but being told or reading about it is no substitute to actually observing.
Realistic expectations. We've all seen the wonderfull pictures professional telescopes get (including those from the Hubble Space Telescope). It's a real shame we can't see things like that through our scopes and binoculars and things just look like fuzzy smudges or the planets looking like tiny disks in the eyepiece.
Patience. It takes time for everything to come together to get the best out of whatever you get (your eyes and the telescope).
Still it is worth going for it
There are some books that are certainly worth looking at to help you get the best from whatever you get. The Philip's Astro-Box, containing a Planisphere, star chart, Star Finder book and Stargazing with a Telescope. There are a couple of books Skywatching and Spacewatching (something like that) which both talk about observing with telescopes and have ideas on what to look at (one of the two has a big section showing how to find stuff by star hopping round the constelations so you don't have to have goto to find things). And a final recommendation is Turn Left At Orion. I've been using this book for the last six months and it's a fantastic aid to the observer with a small scope. The drawings are what you can see with a small scope and finder, the explanations are good and it also has sections on observing and using telescopes.
If you can't buy these at least have a look through them in the library or bookshops to see what's out there.
Phew a longer post than I expected!
Be sure to let us know what you decide on in the end.

Hi all

Advice above on a bit of research is wise.

A visit to your local library might be helpful. Patrick Moore had an article in one of his books on picking telescopes (forget which) wherein he fulminated about cheap junk from toyshops and spoke scathingly about magnification as a measure of how good a scope was. He reckoned that a big lightbucket with a smaller magnification was best. (I'm paraphrasing). Local astronomy club likewise. (someone might be upgrading.)

Final small point. The cheap toys with a 2 inch diam front lens are just about what Gallileo had to pick up the moons of Jupiter
I got a great kick out of seeing them with my son's Christmas present from a toy shop!! I don't know if ebay might have something. Worth comparing after you've read the mags but no more quality control on vendors. Don't Lizars do second hand scopes?

Oops that's a pps - sorry

Hope you get a good scope.

After a pleasant evening last week admiring Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter with binoculars, I really want a telescope now! We were told that with a tripod-mounted telescope we could see Jupiter's moons... but how powerful a telescope?

Did someone mention astrophotography too? Where would you start in selecting kit for that?

Well you should be able to see Jupiters moons (the 4 gallilean ones anyway) with binoculars. I can in 10x50s but you need to hold them steady (there are some tricks - leaning on a fence, lying on your back looking up, fixing them to a tripod with an adaptor). Most small astro telescopes should be able to resolve the moons and some other features on the surface of Jupiter.
Some astrophotography doesn't need much more than a camera (with the ability to hold the shutter open) and a method of fixing it securely (eg a tripod). Just point it to the sky, focus and hold the shutter open for about 15-20 seconds max. This should get you a nice image of what you were pointing at without star trails. Or you hold the shutter open longer and get a nice star trail picture. Using slide film means that the processor can't say that there's nothing on the negative and not print it. Connecting cameras to telescopes is a much more specialised area. If you get a telescope learn to drive it first and then worry about attaching a camera (I've only tried it once to photograph the moon).