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The first question has to be, what does he want to use the telescope for?

Truly speaking i have no idea about different purpose of a telescope. she is just 15 and have some chapter about stars and moon in her school and now she suddenly discover an astronomer in herself and want to view them on telescope. Poke tongue | ;-P

Ravi Khoda

Okay, so she's interested in astronomy. That's eliminates the ones that are intended for things like bird watching.

I'm a huge fan of the Celestron range of telescopes, and would recommend something like this[^] for someone who was looking to get into astronomy.

thanks will check this out

Ravi Khoda

I agree that the Celestron telescopes are of good quality.

A 76mm (3") objective (main mirror) will show just enough to get you frustrated. It is very good for looking at the moon, but when it comes to looking at the planets - you will barely be able to see Saturn's rings if the seeing is good.

If you live in a city, the range of viewable object will shrink even further.

I would recommend a slightly larger telescope - 114mm (4.5"), which is still small enough to be portable, but will allow for higher magnification.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

--Winston Churchill

Agreed - but I recommended this as a good starter to get the astronomy bug. My rig is much more expensive, and Hannah (my youngest), got the bug off this model and has moved up from there when it was obvious that she was serious about it. Ultimately, it's a cost to enthusiasm balance.

Decide your budget then pop along to Celestron[^] ( I have an older model Astromaster and it is very good for planet spotting)

Be careful though - when it comes to prices of telescopes, the sky really is the limit.

I'm assuming that your cousin wants an astronomical telescope.

A beginner's telescope should be small and portable - it should be easy to move it in and out of the house, or pack it in the car for travel to an observation point. Another consideration is whether they live in a city or in the country; if they live in the country, they will be able to see more with a smaller telescope.

A good beginner's telescope should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. Based on this advice, I would choose a Newtonian Reflector with one of the following mounts:

An equatorial mount - more complex, but simplifies compensation for the Earth's rotation
An alt-azimuth mount - simple and reliable
A Dobsonian mount - a type of alt-azimuth mount - relatively cheap, but used with larger telescopes.

It is extremely important to get a mount of good quality. A telescope which vibrates will show poor quality images, and lead to frustration.

A telescope of good size for a beginner will have an objective (main mirror) size of 4.5" - 6" (114mm - 150mm). It will come with a variety of eyepieces, and have a finderscope to aid in finding the object to be seen. I would avoid the laser finders, and get a 5x24 or 6x30 finderscope (5x magnification, aperture of 24mm).

The telescope will come with a selection of eyepieces (usually 2 or 3). The magnification is calculated by dividing the focal length of the objective by the focal length of the eyepiece. Don't be impressed with claims of "high magnification". It is very rarely possible to use magnification of higher than 40x-50x for each inch (25mm) of objective mirror; most nights the seeing won't even be stable enough for this.

For a telescope of the sizes discussed here, you typically want one eyepiece that gives a magnification of 30x (for viewing the moon and other extended objects), one that gives a magnification of 60x-80x, and one that gives a magnification of 120x-150x. As mentioned above, you won't often be able to use higher magnifications.

Amateur astronomy can be a very rewarding hobby. I hope your cousin makes the most of his gift.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

--Winston Churchill

Here's one[^]

If it's not broken, fix it until it is

I don't know; will it fit under her bed? Smile | :)

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

--Winston Churchill

That depends on the size of the bed

If it's not broken, fix it until it is

ravikhoda wrote:
terrestrial and astronomical

Terrestrial is what you get a teenage boy Big Grin | :-D

Astronomical is what you get a girl interested in the stars

I'll get my hat.

Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.

Corporal Agarn wrote:
Terrestrial is what you get a teenage boy

Doesn't that depend on whether he is interested in heavenly bodies or Heavenly bodies? Smile | :)

(running and ducking)

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

--Winston Churchill

There is an expensive Celestron model that takes a database of stars' locations and lets one train the telescope on any specific star one chooses to view, correcting for one's location on earth.

Locating a celestial object should be easy as pie with that device.

Unless you have money to waste, this is not a model that I would recommend for a beginner.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

--Winston Churchill

Used one of them about a decade ago. It was incredible. At the time, GPS and electronic compasses were simply not available for the inexpensive mass-market, so we had to tell it the lat/long and also orient its base. From there, it knew where it was and what it was looking at. It even had a feature that would take you on a tour of sorts, visiting interesting bodies along the way. It was rather small and nothing like the 18" diam one we've looked at the moon with, but the tour left us speechless.

That was by far one of the neatest things I've played with. Using a manual one to look at the rings of Saturn was another exciting moment. Too bad I didn't take a 35mm photo - that'd be neat, having a negative that was chemically changed by the light that had actually bounced of the surface of the ringed planet.

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." - John Lennon

Aperture width is much more important than magnification - the more light it collects, the better.

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I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
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Pride of ownership through making it yourself: http://www.scopemaking.net/dobson/dobson.htm[^]

(Not necessarily that big.)

Thanks to all of you for providing feedback. I will check this out and will let you know which one i bought.

Ravi Khoda

Best thing to do here before spending any money; find a local astronomy club and attend one or more of their skywatches, or stargazing evenings. Something similar to this is ideal: http://nhastro.com/skywatch.php[^]

This accomplishes several things, all without spending lots of money on equipment. 1. it gives you exposure to astronomy as a hobby. 2. It gives you a better idea of whether there is a true long term interest in astronomy. 3. You get to sample a variety of telescopes and their usage. 4. You meet a bunch of hobby astronomers that really know their stuff.

A good telescope is going to be fairly expensive. A cheap telescope is much more likely to turn the budding astronomer away from the hobby than anything else.

A friend of mine had, as a child, a 6" newtonian reflector with a manual (not motorized) equatorial mount. It provided enough detail that we could recognize nebulae that we'd seen photos of, and brought in enough light that you could use it successfully in the city. It was easy to move outdoors when he wanted to use it. The mount doesn't matter a bit if you're going to use your own eyes to look at stars. It matters a lot if you want to hook up a camera, because an equitorial mount tracks the stars' motion with a single degree of freedom so you can make long exposures. In those bygone days of film that wasn't an issue for kids, but in these digital days, it might be.

It was pretty fun for a summer, but after a couple of years he had moved on.

The following is a true story, it happened last week. None of the names have been changed to protect the innocent; they are all guilty, in whole or in part, of being involved in a crime against humor.

A pair of co-workers were discussing cell phones, battery life and how much longer batteries are lasting. A portion of the conversation follows:

Tim R : Batteries are lasting a lot longer. What kind of technology are they using?
Michael: I think they're using lithium ion.
Tim R : Are they working on someone new?
Me : I heard they tried NaCl, but were told they can't - it's a salt (assault) and battery.

Mein Gott.

Each time someone makes a joke like this a Polar bear dies. Luckily Cartesian bears seem unaffected.

Geek code v 3.12 {
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- r++>+++ y+++*
Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
}

You should be put in a cell and charged!

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I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================

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