Here at High Point Scientific, we love the night sky, and regardless of whether we&#;re observing the Moon, planets, stars, or something further afield, we never miss a chance to take a telescope outside and explore the universe. Chances are you feel the same way, and you&#;re looking to buy your very first scope. That said, it&#;s not a good idea to simply rush out and buy whichever one takes your fancy! To help you out, we&#;ve compiled a list of the top 10 things you should know before buying your first telescope.
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Not everything is visible in the sky every night. The stars and constellations are seasonal, so while you&#;ll be able to see Orion the Hunter in the winter, you won&#;t be able to see him in the summer. The reason for this is a topic for another time, but suffice it to say that you need to understand which constellations are best seen during which season.
More importantly, you need to learn the constellations in order to find the objects you want to observe. It&#;s no use knowing that the Orion Nebula can be found in Orion if you don&#;t know when Orion will be above the horizon or what to look for. Sure, computerized scopes can take the guesswork out of observing, but these aren&#;t always a good choice for a beginner (and we&#;ll learn why as we review these ten points).
Besides the Moon and planets, there are literally thousands of objects you can see with a telescope. Everything from multiple stars and star clusters to nebulae and galaxies are all within your reach, but what&#;s the difference between an open star cluster and a globular cluster? Or a diffuse nebula and a planetary nebula? Here&#;s a quick run-down of the basics to get you started:
It&#;s worth knowing that you won&#;t be able to see every example of every type of object - for example, every galaxy in the night sky - although the larger your telescope, the more you&#;ll be able to see.
Similarly, the database and software probably aren&#;t specific to your telescope; in other words, you could be looking at the same list regardless of whether you have the smallest available telescope or the largest. The problem here is that while all the objects will look better in the largest scope, some may not be visible in the smallest scope at all.
Another consideration is that the object won&#;t always be within your field of view. It&#;s not unusual for the scope to stop moving and for you to look through the eyepiece and see&#; nothing. Your target is most likely just outside the field of view, but if you&#;re not familiar with the constellations and the object you&#;re looking for, you may not know how to find it.
Lastly, if you don&#;t know what you&#;re looking for, you won&#;t know if you&#;ve found it. Do you know what to expect when you&#;re looking for a particular globular cluster, nebula, or galaxy? We&#;ll talk about this a little more below!
When you buy a car, there are always a number of factors you&#;ll want to consider. For example, who&#;s going to be driving it? What will it be primarily used for? Why do you need a new car? Where will you park it? And when will you be using it?
Those same questions are just as important when it comes to buying a telescope. Who will be using it? What will you observe with it? Why do you want a telescope? Where will you use it and store it? When will you be using it?
If you want a telescope the whole family will enjoy, then you&#;ll need to take everyone&#;s ages into account. There are some great kid-friendly options available; for example, the Celestron FirstScope is an outstanding choice if you&#;re buying the scope for a younger child, while the Apertura AD8 is an excellent all-rounder the entire family can enjoy.
Choosing a telescope can be a bewildering process, especially if you&#;ve never owned one before. There are a lot of technical details, and they all seem to be important, so which ones should you pay particular attention to? Let&#;s start with the basics.
What Is Aperture and Why Is It Important?
The first thing to understand is aperture. This is the diameter of the telescope&#;s lens or mirror, and as you might expect, the larger the aperture, the more light it can gather. This means you&#;ll be able to see fainter objects and be able to see more detail on those objects.
It also has an impact on magnification. Put simply, the greater the aperture, the more you&#;ll be able to magnify an object. Ignore those cheap, department store telescopes that promise magnifications of 1,000x! Theoretically, any telescope can magnify 1,000x, but very few will be able to produce a decent quality image. (And they&#;re not cheap, either.)
That&#;s because, without the extra light-gathering power of a larger aperture, all the telescope will do is simply magnify the image it has. And if the image isn&#;t that great to start with (and it&#;s a safe bet to say those department store scopes are not good quality) then all the imperfections will be magnified too, and you&#;re left with a blurry mess.
What Are the Different Types of Telescopes
There are essentially three types of telescopes: refractor, reflector, and catadioptrics (aka, compound telescopes).
Refractor telescopes are the oldest type of telescope. Light enters through a lens at one end of the telescope and then exits through the eyepiece at the bottom. Refractors are capable of high magnifications and the lenses can produce a good quality image, but due to the nature of refractors, manufacturers typically won&#;t produce refractors with lenses larger than six inches in diameter.
(The glass is expensive to produce and the telescope itself would be longer and heavier.)
Reflector telescopes use mirrors instead of lenses. Light enters through the open end of the telescope and travels the length of the telescope tube to a mirror (called the primary mirror) at the bottom. The light is then reflected back up the tube to a much smaller, secondary mirror that bounces the light out of the tube via the eyepiece.
The advantage of a reflector is that the mirrors allow the telescope tube to be half the length of a refractor. This allows manufacturers to easily produce telescopes with larger mirrors that can gather more light and allow you to see fainter objects and more details. The downside? Mirrors lose more light than glass lenses, so you&#;re likely to get a slightly lower-quality image.
The third kind of telescope is called a catadioptric. It&#;s essentially a hybrid between a refractor and a reflector, which is why it&#;s also known as a compound telescope. Light enters through a lens, like a refractor telescope. It then reaches a primary mirror at the opposite end of the tube and is reflected back up toward the secondary mirror, like a reflector.
However, unlike a reflector, the secondary mirror is actually in the center of the lens, but it serves the same purpose. The light is reflected back down the tube where it exits through the eyepiece - which, like a refractor, is located at the bottom of the tube.
The practical upshot is that you have a relatively compact larger aperture telescope (like a reflector) that&#;s able to produce better quality images (like a refractor). The downside is that they tend to cost more - and the cost is definitely something you should keep in mind when making your selection!
As you look at different telescopes, you might notice something called focal length listed in the specifications. The focal length of a telescope is the distance that light must travel from its entry point into the telescope (either at the objective lens of a refractor or catadioptric telescope or the open end of a reflector) to its exit point at the eyepiece. This is measured in millimeters.
Eyepieces also have a focal length, which is also measured in millimeters and is also the distance light must travel from the entry to the exit point.
These numbers are important to know as you&#;ll need them both to calculate magnification. You can do this by dividing the focal length of the telescope by the focal length of the eyepiece. For example, if you use a 20mm eyepiece with a telescope with a focal length of mm, you&#;ll get a magnification of 50x.
There are three things to keep in mind here:
Most eyepieces range in focal length from about 6mm to 20mm, and most manufacturers will ship a couple with your telescope. (Typically a short focal length eyepiece - around 10mm - and a longer focal length eyepiece of around 20mm.)
While a telescope with a longer focal length and higher magnifications might sound like the best option, it really depends on what you want to observe. Galaxies and planetary nebulae are often small and faint, so a scope with a longer focal length is a better option. It&#;s a similar story with planets, as you&#;ll need the higher magnification to prise out the details. You&#;ll also need a larger aperture to gather the light required to produce a good quality image at higher magnifications.
However, star clusters and nebulae are often best observed at low magnification, and while you can buy eyepieces with longer focal lengths to get the lower magnifications you need, they tend to cost more than the eyepieces within the 10mm-20mm range.
It should come as no surprise to learn that the larger the aperture, the larger the cost. However, the question isn&#;t only &#;how much can you afford?&#; but also &#;how often will you use it?&#;
If you know you&#;ll use it frequently because you love the stars and you go outside whenever you can, then you may be willing to spend a little more on a larger, good-quality scope. For example, Apertura produces an outstanding range of Dobsonian scopes that range from 152mm (6 inches) to 305mm (12 inches) in aperture.
If, however, you&#;re buying a telescope for a young child, you&#;re new to astronomy or you&#;re relatively inexperienced, it&#;s a good idea to go for an inexpensive option. That way, if the interest wanes you haven&#;t lost too much from your investment.
Your new telescope will almost certainly come with a couple of eyepieces to get you started, but depending on which one you buy (and who the manufacturer is) you might get a few bonus goodies. Either way, there are four must-have accessories every astronomer keeps in their telescopic toolkit:
Lunar Filters
Contrary to popular belief, almost every astronomer hates to look at the full Moon as its light can be dazzling. That&#;s where a lunar filter comes in. This inexpensive (but invaluable) accessory will block a portion of the Moon&#;s light and allow you to observe the Moon without being dazzled by it. (Incidentally, it&#;s worth buying a neutral density filter, as this will allow you to enjoy the natural color of the Moon without it being discolored by the filter.)
Red Flashlight
Our second essential accessory is the humble red flashlight. Giving your eyes enough time to fully adapt to darkness will allow you to see more stars, plus fainter objects and details. However, it can take at least 20 or 30 minutes for this to happen, and the last thing you want is your night vision to be ruined by a bright flashlight.
Fortunately, again, there&#;s an inexpensive solution. Your eyes are not sensitive to red light the same way they are to white, so a red flashlight will allow you to read your books and charts, and make notes and sketches without losing your valuable night vision.
Additional Eyepieces
Your scope will most likely come with several eyepieces to get you started, giving you a low and a high magnification, but you&#;ll soon find you&#;ll need a greater range than that. Some objects look great at low magnification and others at high magnification, but there is a wide selection of objects that are best observed at magnifications somewhere in-between.
It&#;s therefore essential that you add a few more eyepieces to your collection. For example, three to four eyepieces is usually a good starting point, and it&#;s a good idea to have one eyepiece for each of the following focal length ranges:
Bear in mind that eyepieces with a shorter focal length produce a higher magnification, but with a smaller field of view. You should also know that your telescope will accept eyepieces with either a 1.25&#; barrel (most common) or a 2&#; barrel, so be sure to verify the size of the barrel you need before you buy.
If you don&#;t have a lot of time, money, or storage, you could go for the all-in-one option - a zoom eyepiece. As its name implies, this type of eyepiece allows you to adjust the focal length, thereby giving you access to a range of magnifications in the process. While this is certainly convenient, the trade-off is that the image quality is not usually the same quality as a regular eyepiece.
Barlow Lens
Lastly, we come to the accessory that is possibly the most useful add-on since the invention of the telescope itself - the Barlow lens. Put simply, this will increase the magnification of any eyepiece you attach to it, usually by a factor of 2x or 3x.
For example, if you have an eyepiece that normally produces a magnification of 20x with your telescope, attaching it to a 2x Barlow will give you 40x. A 3x Barlow will give you 60x and a 5x Barlow will give you 100x. As an added bonus, you keep the same field of view.
Treat yourself to a Barlow and you instantly double the range of magnifications available to you. If, for example, you only had two magnifications available, 30x and 75x, a 2x Barlow would give you two more - 60x and 150x.
(Incidentally, 2x Barlows are the most versatile, as 3x and 5x Barlows are best with long focal length eyepieces or larger telescopes that are capable of producing good quality, high magnification images.)
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Regardless of how much you spend on your scope and accessories, it won&#;t come anywhere near the $1.5 billion it costs to develop and launch the Hubble Space Telescope - and you obviously shouldn&#;t expect the same stunning views either.
The same is true of the images captured by more earthbound photographers. While they&#;re using the same equipment you can buy for yourself, you won&#;t be able to see the same stunning colors and detail you can see in those images.
Those amazing images are the result of painstaking work by the astronomers and scientists responsible for producing them. Depending on the photo, it could have taken many hours to capture the scene, plus many more hours to process the raw result to bring out the color and the detail.
The reason your eyes can&#;t see those colors and details is that they&#;re not sensitive enough to detect them. However, while many galaxies will typically appear gray, you can still expect to see some color here and there.
For starters, you&#;ll certainly notice some color in the planets and in many of the stars (both single and multiple). Open star clusters are often young, so their stars are usually blue-white, but you occasionally come across an orange oddball. The individual stars of globular clusters can also appear blue-white or a faint yellow-gold.
Nebulae - both regular diffuse nebulae and planetary nebulae - will often appear gray at first glance, but if you take your time and allow your eyes to take in the view, faint greens and blues can be seen.
While you won&#;t see color in everything, that doesn&#;t mean these sights are bland and uninteresting. Bear in mind these objects lie at distances that are almost impossible to imagine and that it&#;s taken their light hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years to reach your eyes.
You could be looking at the birthplace of stars, hundreds of stars clustered together, two massive stars orbiting one another, a star in the last stages of its life, or - in the case of a galaxy - hundreds of billions of stars and potentially trillions of unseen worlds.
What other hobby can do that?
Which questions do I need to ask myself in order to find the right telescope? Selecting a telescope step by step.
The choice is huge and advice is important. Your entry into astronomy will succeed with the right telescope. AstroStar/Shutterstock.comDid you know that many beginners start with the wrong telescope? And it is rare that they are still using the same instrument 5 years later?
It's no big surprise &#; there are many different types and designs, and usually in the beginning you don't really know what&#;s important. But we&#;re here to help with all that. In this article, we&#;ll help you find the best telescope for you with 5 useful questions.
Let's get going!
Maybe you find this question a little premature. Aren't there any other issues to watch out for? Of course, there are.
But your budget is a good pointer to help you to pick out the real diamonds and ignore the rocks along the way. Therefore, make sure you know right from the start how much you want to invest.
What is possible with which budget? Here are four clues:
Up To 200 euro: This is not much for a complete telescope with a tripod and mount. With most telescopes you&#;ll have to compromise. Either in terms of optics or stability - and yet these two points are important if you want to enjoy observing. Despite this, you don't want to spend any more? We recommend a good pair of binoculars or a spotting scope and a rotating star chart. With these, you will get to know the sky, and discover your first large deep sky objects. And binoculars and spotting scopes are also great companions during the daytime!
Up To 400 euro: You have more money at your disposal and want a telescope with good optics? Then go for a small lens or mirror telescope on an altazimuth mount that you can move in all directions. Or a Dobsonian telescope; here the mirrors account for most of the spend. The advantage: you get a stable telescope with large optics for visual observation. This will keep you supplied with observing targets for many years.
Up To 800 euro: In this price range, the first steps in astrophotography are possible. Now you have access to a mount that is already photo-capable, or can be easily upgraded. Depending on your interests, you can add a lens or mirror telescope to the mount - more about this later. Photo-capable mounts counter the effect of the Earth&#;s rotation and automatically track the stars. For this to work, it takes a little more effort to set up, and we will come to that later, too.
Above 1,000 euro: You like smartphones and apps? The computer-controlled GoTo telescopes, with which you can locate objects at the touch of a button, start from here. You select your targets by handbox or mobile and let the telescope take over the navigation to the target.
Question: what is your budget? Once you have determined this, you are well-prepared for the next questions.
+ here you will find binoculars up to 200 euro
+ rotating star charts and atlases
Of course, this is not about food. But, as with food, you can speedily set up a telescope to take a quick look at the sky, or you can put aside a whole evening to fully enjoy the whole observing experience.
How much time you want to spend will dictate which telescope design you choose.
For example, a Dobsonian telescope consists of just two parts, is quick to set up, and is moved simply and manually to locate and track targets.
An instrument with an equatorial mount consists of a tripod, counterweights, optics, the mount, electronics, and a power supply. Once set up, it must still be aligned with the celestial pole.
The effort is greater for astrophotography than for visual observing. Of course, you can observe for a moment or for a long time with any instrument, but if you just want to take a quick look at the sky, then sometimes a big set-up effort can be really off-putting.
Question: how much time do you want to spend setting up and observing? More or less than an hour? Or three hours a night? Preferably, at the weekend or quickly after work? Find out and decide how much time you have to spare.
+ Dobsonian telescopes
+ telescopes with altazimuth mounts
+ telescopes with equatorial mounts
Of course, you don't have to live without technology like the Amish people in the USA. But it can be relaxing to observe with a telescope without technical refinements. Just like Herschel and Messier did. Enjoying nature far away from smartphones and digital technology - how does that sound?
It's not just the observing, but also finding the objects. All that without electronics, but with just star chart and sky atlas. You can get such a feeling of elation to find for yourself a galaxy in the sky that is millions of light years away.
Or maybe you are fascinated by digital technology and, already as a child, always wanted a job like the legendary Scotty or Pavel Chekov on the Starship Enterprise? Then a telescope with a GoTo system or automatic alignment is the right one for you.
Using an electronic system, you control the telescope with a handbox or with your smartphone. You work with technology and a screen; the telescope points to the objects automatically thanks to the built-in motors, and tracks them. You need to be able to grapple with the technology. But for you, that&#;s the enjoyment when you choose one of these telescopes.
Question: think about whether you would prefer a manual telescope or a fully automatically controlled telescope. Some telescopes can also be retrofitted with tracking motors and a control at a later date. And our Push+ mount systems connect both worlds: you manually track your Dobsonian telescope and the software on your smartphone helps you find the targets in the sky.
+ telescopes with GoTo
+ telescopes with Push+ mounts
There are two types of observing:
Enjoying the visual impression live, or recording the objects photographically. Both have their appeal. Maybe you feel drawn to astrophotography because you are already practising photography in your spare time. Which interests you more?
For beginners, we recommend starting with visual observation because this way you get to know your telescope, and gain practical experience of the starry sky. This will keep you busy for some time, because there is a lot to learn and discover.
Practice makes perfect
Astrophotography is then the second step, if this is actually what you want to do. Dobsonian and other altazimuth-mounted telescopes are intended for visual observation. Whereas telescopes with an equatorial mount and a GoTo system also allow long-exposure astrophotos of nebulae and galaxies.
Many amateur astronomers either decide to be a visual observer, or to focus on cameras, technology and image processing. One reason is the quite different demands that visual observing and astrophotography place on telescopes and the observer. There is no ideal instrument for both.
Question: ask yourself what interests you more: visual observing or photography? Then you can set off in the right direction now, and don't have to make expensive detours later.
+ telescopes for astrophotography
The Moon and the planets are among the first objects you discover in the starry sky.
It is fascinating to immerse yourself in the landscape of the Moon and to feel almost like being in a spaceship floating over its surface, or to see Saturn with its rings, or Jupiter with its moons and cloud zones, live in your telescope.
If you want to mainly observe the solar system, a refractor telescope is ideally suited to this. The Moon and planets are bright objects, they do not need much aperture and benefit from the high-contrast image produced by a refractor.
Do you want to dive deeper into space and marvel at nebulae, globular star clusters and galaxies? Then reflector telescopes are perfect for you. For the same budget they have a larger aperture than refractor telescopes, and collect more light.
However, you should not expect that a live galaxy, through a telescope, looks anything like that in a photo. The view of a galaxy that is millions of light years away sometimes lies at the limit of perception. However, with the knowledge of what you are observing and a trained eye, you can see many details. And the challenge is also half the fun.
Marcus is a stargazer, content creator and book author. He has been helping people to find the right telescope since , nowadays through his writing and his videos. His book "Mein Weg zu den Sternen für dummies Junior" advises young people, and those who are still young at heart, what they can discover in the sky.
As a coffee junkie, he would love to have his high-end espresso machine by his side under the starry sky.
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