Newly arrived to my blog? Want to know more about me before you dive into my posts? Why not visit the home page first and start your exploration from there:
https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/01/welcome-to-my-new-astronomyastrophotogr.html
And welcome. Welcome to 'UnderSouthWest Skies'. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you find the experience worthwhile. This blog post has been written from my own 'beginner perspective' after doing lots of reading on the topic below. In getting my head around it all, I may have got odd bits slightly wrong; but, like you, I am on a leaning journey, so please forgive any unintentional errors. Meanwhile, clear skies to you. Take care and thanks for visiting Steve aka PlymouthAstroBoy
Buying my first telescope – a beginner’s perspective
This post was first written way back in 2021; first
appearing on www.wherenexthun.logspot.co.uk and has been updated since. I stress that is written from my beginners perspective after having done a lot of reading around on the topic.
“It has taken five weeks of research, emails, posting on
astronomy forums and talking with sales staff at a local astronomy supplier to
finally arrive at my choice of beginner telescope - The SkyWatcher Star
Discovery 150i WiFi
You can find details about it here:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-go2-telescopes/sky-watcher-star-discovery-150i.html
And I will be honest from the start - it is a compromise
and even now I am not 100% sure it is the right choice - but it will see me
through a few years until I have developed my specific astronomical interests
and skills. And then, if need be, I will sell it and buy another one”.
That was the start of that blog those four years ago.
I had arrived at this particular telescope as a result of
having my initial requirements and expectations sifted, sorted, refined and
reassembled into a more realistic set of aspirations and desires. And, it was
in reality, my first ‘painful’ lesson - learning that there was no single
telescope that would do what I wanted.
Choosing a telescope, it seems, requires some degree of
compromise.
So here is a set of questions to consider if you are
thinking of buying your first telescope:
1.
How much money have you got to spend?
(the more you spend, the better equipment you generally get)
2.
Exactly what do you want my telescope to do
for you? What do you most want to look at? (View planets? View Deep
Sky Objects (DSO’s), image DSO’s?) Knowing the answer to this and the question
below will better help you reach the right decision.
3.
How dark are your local skies?
4.
Will you be using the telescope at home
or wanting to travel with it? So, some thinking to do with portability of
your overall telescope rig.
5.
Where will you store it and how much
weight do you want to move about between home and the back of the car?
6.
Do you understand the differences, advantages
and disadvantages of the different types of telescope available?
(Refractors, Reflectors and Cassigrains? If you don't then after reading this blog post, go visit my blog on 'types of telescope for amateur astronomers' at https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/01/my-beginners-guide-to-what-different.html
7.
A manual or GOTO? (Basically navigate and
track manually or use a computerised database and motor which sends the
telescope pointing to the correct location above. You can get manual telescopes
that allow you to fit motor drives and GOTO systems at a later date).
8.
Will you want to image the night sky through your telescope? An important thing to get right! I didn’t. This was the bit I
messed up – I thought I could take images with this telescope above, but sadly
discovered I couldn’t. An expensive mistake to make and very frustrating! If you want to do imaging you will need at
the very least an equatorial mount and a motor drive to track objects. I will do another post on mounts but if you
are thinking astrophotography might be a possibility – consider mounts now!
9.
And most importantly, what do you hope
for and expect to get from starting astronomy?
So, armed with these
questions, it is time to do some reading. Firstly, I would recommend getting to
grips with a basic understanding of telescope types and their advantages and
disadvantages. So, track down my posts on these subjects. Followed by some
basic understanding about mounts and eyepieces – again see my beginner guides.
At that point you will be better informed when you start to peruse the websites
and magazines to gain an impression of the types of telescopes on sale within
your price budget.
Some tips to be going on with. They aren’t in any order of significance. Just tips given to me on various forums and from talks with local astronomers:
·
How the night sky will look through your
telescope will depend on what type of telescope you chose. Telescope type
determines what kind of things we can look at through it. So, we all need
to decide which astronomical objects are the ones we are most interested in
viewing so that we can ensure we buy the correct type.
·
If you just want ease of use and
astrophotography is your aim – take a look at the latest generation of
SMART telescopes – all in one systems with built in tracking and GOTO system
and a sensitive sensor. They work from smart phone and tablet-based apps. https://www.space.com/best-smart-telescopes
and https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/what-does-smart-telescope-camera-do
will get you started on your reading on this topic. But, remember these are for
astrophotography not astronomy!
·
WIFI GOTO telescopes are generally easy to
use and affordable. A smartphone app helps them find and track a DSO using
your phones location system. These telescopes transmit their own WIFI system
and so you don’t need a signal for your smartphone app to work. If you are
looking for a beginner telescope, I might well avoid them though. I think
if I was starting out again, I would have chosen a larger dobsonian telescope
instead. This blogger gives a very good overview of why https://meteorwatch.org/beginners-telescopes-best-telescope-guide-and-review/
·
The larger a telescope’s mirror or lens, the
more light it gathers and so the more you will see. Bigger mirror = brighter
views!
·
Telescope aperture is critical.
Telescopes under 80mm in a dark sky location - great moon viewing, probably see
Saturn’s rings, certainly see bright nebulae and galaxies. A minimum aperture
should be 70mm really. Over 80mm and now into some colour and deep sky objects
being brighter and bigger. Bigger scopes are generally easier to use and if you
live in a suburban area, the bigger the aperture, the better!
·
The higher quality optics you can afford, the
better your viewing experience will be
·
If a telescope advertises a high
magnification of 600x – best avoid it. Somewhat exaggerated capabilities
that will not materialise. Someone told me that a rule of thumb about
magnification is something like this – useful magnification is around twice the
telescopes aperture in millimetres or 50 x its aperture in inches.
·
Whatever telescope you choose, buy from a
reputable astronomy dealer. They will know about the telescopes, answer
your questions, advise you on your requirements. I don’t normally recommend
dealers but here in the UK I have had excellent service from First Light
Optics, Rother Valley Optics and WideScreen Centre. And by that I don't just mean the 'purchasing' experience. These dealers have answered my pre-purchase questions, along with a few 'post-purchase' ones as well 😁
·
Avoid the cheap telescopes from toy and
department stores – they will rarely give you a good viewing experience
One
last point. If you want to start astronomy, then learning to star hop via
the constellations is essential. It is the fun bit of stargazing and I
speak from experience when I say, buying a GOTO telescope first, was not my
smartest move. It didn’t teach me the night sky configurations. It didn’t teach
me star hopping skills. I still to this day don’t have a proper mental map of
the heavens above me and that is a shame!
If
you want to do more thinking and reading on this topic, I found these websites
particularly useful starting points:
https://meteorwatch.org/beginners-telescopes-best-telescope-guide-and-review/
https://meteorwatch.org/telescopes-beginners-guide/
https://www.allaboutastro.com/a-telescope-buyers-guide.html
https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/blog/best-telescopes-for-beginners.html
https://www.ukastronomy.org/pdf/how_to_buy_your_first_telescope.pdf
Footnote: As is the case for all websites and any suppliers or equipment manufacturers I mention - I am not gaining in anyway - not financially, not in gaining page views, not in gaining equipment to test. Nothing! I do not blog to gain in any way.
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