What is a good telescope for a teen who is showing interest in astronomy?
What is a good telescope for a teen who is showing interest in astronomy?
Last Updated on Monday, 2 August 2010 12:43 Written by Administrator Monday, 2 August 2010 12:43
Question by justice: What is a good telescope for a teen who is showing interest in astronomy?
What features do we look for?
We are not rich, can we find a good inexpensive telescope?
Can you build a good homemade telescope?
Best answer:
Answer by AstroGeek
Well, although it’s probably designed for kids, you could try out the ‘GalileoScope’ at https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/ I believe the cost on that is under . It’s got plastic optics, but it’s designed to be a decent scope.
If there’s further interest you can invest in a good pair of binoculars as the next step, or save up for a decent 6-10 inch dobsonian reflector (0-500 depending on size and features)
Yes, you can build a decent homemade telescope, but if you want the cheapest route, you’re going to have to grind your own mirror. If you wish to test the astronomical mettle of your teen, I suppose that would be a good way. 
You might try one of the various ‘getting started’ guides on the net (including mine below
Give your answer to this question below!
The key factor is aperture – that is how big the primary mirror or objective lens is – since this governs how much light the telescope can collect. More light means that you can see fainter objects and higher magnifications are practical. For a first telescope where the budget is a consideration you are usually best looking at a Newtonian reflector telescope since these have the most bang for buck. Other scopes may have better optical quality or be better for certain tasks, but at the bottom end of the price scale a Newt usually wins hands down.
Less simple is the choice of mount. Here there are two options to consider: you have the Dobsonian (Dob) and the German equatorial mount (GEM). The Dob resembles a cannon mounted on a gun carriage, whereas the GEM is mounted on top of a tripod as you would expect.
Dobs are the cheaper of the two options, meaning you can get a larger or better quality scope and also slightly easier to set up since there is no polar alignment to worry about. There are people who get obsessed by aperture and will always say buy a Dob for this very reason, but it is important to retain a sense of perspective. The law of diminishing returns applies and in any case Dobs do have some limitations in use. They give you aperture cheap but that is it.
GEMs are slightly more flexible in use, and can follow the night sky very easily (the higher the magnification, the faster the stars appear to move). However, _some_ GEMs are unusably shaky in use. It isn’t really that many – most shaky mounts are a different kind called altazimuth – but try to find some favourable reviews before you buy. (I’ve ignored the conventional altazimuth mount here since it combines the disadvantages of both the Dob and the GEM with none of the benefits.) GEMs do need careful setting up, but the process isn’t really any slower, since for either option the limiting factor is the time needed for the scope to cool down when you take it outside.
The choice between the two is ultimately personal. There is no doubt that a GEM is more flexible and capable but it is also less convenient.
In the $200-300 range you are looking at a 6″ Dob or 4.5-5.1″ GEM – if you go for a GEM try hard for a 5.1″ scope as there are some dodgy 4.5″ scopes out there. I’m not going to recommend specific scopes but Celestron, Orion and Sky-Watcher all have scopes to suit you in their ranges and are well respected. I would steer clear of short tube scopes if you have the option, though. These are shorter and more compact but optical quality suffers because of the reduced focal ratio.
Yes, you can build your own scope. If you want to go down this route get a good book on amateur telescope construction since it is too complex to go into here. Be warned that you will not save much money without expending a _lot_ of time. If you buy in optical components and build them into a standard sized scope you are going to save little if anything.
having owned many, there’s only one real criterion when buying a telescope: How much will it be used?
i recommend buying something that can be set up very fast, is portable, can easily fit in the back of a car, light enough to carry easily, available for instant use.
Meaning, Edmund’s Astroscan. I’ve been stargazing for 50 years, it still the telescope i use more than any other.
http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3002001
hope this helps!
I’d suggest you begin by buying a copy of “All about Telescopes” by Sam Brown. It is a wonderful introductory text.
I would suggest a 6″ Newtonian reflector as a minimum. I built one with my son 30 years ago and he still uses it today. We used the instructions in “all about telescopes”. That telescope would cost about $400 to build today and well over $1,000 assembled. I posted a link to a quality 6″ glass mirror if you decide to build your own with good optics made of optical glass.
Light gathering ability is perhaps the most important thing in a telescope. The bigger the mirror or lens, the more light it gathers. Magnification (or power) is meaningless. A star magnified 1,000 times is still a pinpoint. You must have light gathering ability to see faint distant stars. Good optics are also important because if the focus isn’t perfect you also won’t see much.
I posted a link to some telescopes on Amazon. They are surprisingly cheap and I would be suspicious of the quality of the optics, but they might suffice for a beginner. The lenses and mirrors are undoubtedly plastic. I can’t say they are of poor quality not having used them.
Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner’s telescopes:
http://www.gaherty.ca/tme/TME0702_Buying_a_Telescope.pdf
http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html
http://observers.org/beginner/j.r.f.beginner.html
For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington’s Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley).
You’ll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these:
http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=telescopes/~VIEW_INDEX=0/~VIEW_SIZE=1000000
http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product.php?class1=1&class2=106
Buy from a store which specializes in telescopes and astronomy, either locally or online; don’t buy from department stores, discount stores or eBay as mostly what they sell is junk. Find your local astronomy club and try out different telescopes at one of their star parties:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations
Fifty years ago, it used to be very common for people to make their own telescopes. Nowadays it has become very rare, because commercial telescopes have become relatively inexpensive. One result of this is that it is very hard to find the parts needed to build your own scope. Unless you have a very strong motivation to learn how to do this, and to track down the parts needed, I wouldn’t recommend building your own scope. Because the parts are hard to find, they are very expensive, and a home made telescope will cost many times more than a commercially built telescope. Labour is so much cheaper in China where almost all telescopes are made nowadays.
check this one
http://www.opticsplanet.net/barska-telescope-starwatcher-80mm-refractor-ae11122.html
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advantages of refractor over reflector
http://monsterguide.net/what-is-the-difference-between-refractor-and-reflector-telescopes
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easy to understand guide to help u decide
http://www.my-spot.com/whatkind.htm
Look for large aperture and an (English or German) astronomical mount.
In telescopes, $5000 is considered “affordable.”
If you want to build a good telescope the materials are easy to find. Willmann-Bell will email its catalog. GotGrit and Newport Glass Works have catalogs on line showing mirror starter kits. For a beginner a main mirror project is usually in the range of 4″ to 10″ in diameter. There are a few telescope-making tutorials and books on line
A 4″ mirror can be hogged, ground, polished, figured, and aluminized in a day. It will take a beginner a few weekends.