Expert: Tom Whiting - 5/18/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hi, i want to buy a telescope to see the solar system's planets, bright stars, nearby galaxies and constellations.. but i don't know how to choose it, can you tell me how to choose it?.. and you should know that i'm an amateur, i need something that is easy to use, not very big, but is good too. can you help me :):).. i want to know how to choose it.. and if there is a specific recommendation :)

by the way, there was a post from 11/27/2004 by someone named Hassan from Egypt.. i'm from Egypt too and there is no law that prevents you from buying a telescope!.. in fact we have an Egyptian Manufacturer of telescopes, named Voyager. :)

ANSWER: Hi Dina,
Well, if you want a device that views all those things (constellations are too big an area to view except with wide field binoculars and naked-eye)... you'll need at least 2 telescopes, and if you want to comet hunt too, you'll need 3 telescopes!  Telescopes are like airplanes... all airplanes fly but you don't send a fighter to do a bombers job, or a cargo plane's job. Each of those items you mentioned require a different type scope to maximize their performance... planets/lunar detail requires a long focal length; deep sky objects (including galaxies) require a short focal length and preferably a large mirror. Splitting double/multiple stars require a scope similar to the lunar/planetary scope, while comet hunting is best done with a pair of 20 x 100 binoculars for their very large field of view. Variable stars require still another type scope.
So see, you have to determine first where your primary interest is in, before you run out and buy a relatively expensive piece of equipment.  But even before all that, realize that equipment (scopes) come LAST in our great hobby, and knowledge comes FIRST.  How are you going to point a small field of view telescope to an object IF you first can't point your finger at it?  Can you point with your finger the exact location of the Andromeda Galaxy, the Lagoon Nebula, the planet Saturn, the Beehive Star cluster, Orion's Nebula, Globular cluster M-13 in Hercules, double stars Gamma Leonis, Gamma Andromedae, Gamma Virginis, Castor, Cor Caroli, etc ... (ALL naked-eye objects in a dark sky!)...?  If not, you're really not ready for a scope.  (The moon, Venus, and Jupiter, and the Pleiades star cluster only, will get old real quick, if that's all you know of the night sky.)  So forget the scope for 6 months or so, get an inexpensive pair of 7 x 35 mm binoculars, a good star chart, and go out at night and learn (self teach yourself) the night sky.  For more information on how to do this, go to our astronomy club website at
http://www.velocity.net/~bwhiting
and punch on "Tom Whiting's Sound Advice for the New Observer" and learn how to properly enter our great hobby.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA USA

FOLLOW UP:
PS... glad to hear that Egyptian citizens are allowed to own telescopes, after all it was the ancient Egyptians that helped us organize the night sky, way back when.  Sorry, I am not familiar with your "Voyager" scopes made in Egypt... you'll just have to increase your own knowledge about telescopes, and see if they are of very high quality, or not. If and when you purchase one, make sure they have a one month return policy, so you can get your money back IF it's not a high quality (super good image) telescope.
Tom

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Tom, Thanks :).. this is really helpful :)):):).. can i start with a spotting scope instead of a binocular?..

Answer
You could, but I don't know the size of glass up front on your spotting scope. The bigger the piece of objective glass, the better... because the bigger the glass, the more light comes in.  Also spotting scopes are made more for terrestrial views, therefore do not have to be ground and figured to a super-high tolerance like astronomical scopes and binoculars are... are the stars sharp pin-points through your spotting scope, not only in the center of the field of view, but also out almost to the edge of the field of view?  You want sharp stellar pin-points, (with no rainbows or haloes around them) no 'commas' or 'seagull wings' on the stars,... almost all the way across the entire field of view.  Astronomical observing requires the highest quality figure and grind on the mirrors and lenses, to bring ALL the light to a common pin-point focus. (That's why they are so expensive for the high quality lenses and mirrors)!  Terrestrial objects like birds, animals, buildings, people, etc... don't require a super sharp lens (high quality grind and figure). But keeping a pin-point star as a pin-point of light requires the highest of quality; otherwise the image is poor and worthless to you.  It's called resolution as all the light comes exactly to the same focus point... if you don't have that, it's too poorly figured and ground for astronomical observing.  And there is nothing you can do about that, except buy a better piece of equipment.  AND good telescopes are exactly the same way!  The better the grind and figure on the glass, the more the cost, but the better the image is for you. A 12 inch mirror may gather a lot of light, but if its not ground and figured to better than 4 millionths of an inch from perfection, both in parabolic shape and smoothness, it's a piece of junk with fuzzy images... because all the light is not coming to a common focus point, because the figure and grind is not of high tolerance.
Clear Skies,
Tom