Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 12/22/2007

Question
QUESTION: I am planning to Buy a telescope. Can you suggest which type of Telescope shall buy as Beginner. If possible can you guide me is it possible to purchase the telescope from Baroda, or Pl. suggest from where shall I get. I do hope for your valued Guidance soon on this topic.   Regards .... Hiren, Baroda

ANSWER: Hi,
Hiren, I am from Baroda too!
Nice to hear from You.

Actually i need to know what it is that you wish to see.
If you are a beginner, it would be better to buy a good binocular with good resolving power.
DO NOT BUY THOSE CHEAP RUSSIAN things costing 150 - 250 rupees.

In astronomy nothing comes cheap.
So knowing what you get for the money spent is very very important.

Dont go for the fancy stuff advertised in THE TIMES etc, where you get eye pieces with magnifications such as 300 etc and the telescope has a collecting dia of 50 mm only.
At that magnification with that small collecting area, the image may be as good as invisible! (Light will spread out with magnification, making the image faint, so higher collecting area of objective lens / mirror is required.

If you are going for a refracting telescope you will require eyepieces corrected for chromatic and spherical aberrations. (these become prominent at higher magnifications).

There was a good indian telescope manufacturer in India and i did see the rings of saturn and moons of jupiter thru it, way back in 1990s, but it was costing more than 5000/- then.

Check out if that one is still around. Buy only if they gaurantee you can see satur's rings clearly and without haziness.

Else use any american connections you have and buy the MEADE model of refracting/reflecting telescope.
do buy the barlow eyepiece (it helps you in first locating the object to be seen suing lower magnification and larger field of view. Then you use it and double the magnification and halve the field of view.

These things cost about us dollars 100.

You will need the tripod too (collapsible 6 foot high) as at higher magnification, slightest movement makes the image swing wildly out of view! Also the earth's 1/4 deg per minute movement takes the image out of field of view every minute!! So tracing screws for fimer adjustments are required. All this is available on the meade Telescope.

get model info on the meade website, and order thru relatives in the us.

Else get a US or European Binocular with
1 - magnification > = 10
2 - lens dia 70 mm
3 - Field as wide as possible.

With a Japanese one purchased 40 years ago, we could see the moons of jupiter all aligned in a line equally divided about jupe himself, and changing positions on daily basis!

But getting good binocs with reolvig power is difficult unless you buy the authentic ones from us or europoe.
(carl ziess lenses etc).

Hope that suffices.
Do not spend good money hastily on local stuff, sorry to say, you may not get what you expect.
Simply because local demand is NOT high for people to produce reliable and good product.

Jayen


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

QUESTION: Dear Sir Sorry to disturb you again, I had come accross the Wesite of Indian Telescope manufacturer Tejraj & CO. while surfing for available telescope in India, as i have no US/Europe connection. I am pasting the Brief Specs of the same. I request you for your advice

Astronomical Telescope (40x to 333.2x)
Choice of either stand : Metal Tripod / Pier Stand

Each telescope is a complete working telescope for visual observation and includes :- Complete optical telescope tube, three eyepiece 25mm, 16mm and 12mm that gives 40x, 62.5x & 83.3x magnifications, one variable Barlow, 4x Barlow lens, 7x 25 star finder telescope, STARTRACKER SYSTEM operating manual, Altazimuth metal mount and a choice of either stand : metal tripod 32"H or pier stand - (heavy metal construction) 28"H.
Optical Design : Newtonian Reflector
Primary Mirror :Diameter 100mm / Focal Length 1000mm. F10 (240x Power)
Resolution : 1.1 Arc - Seconds
Visibility : Can see 12 Magnitude Star.
Astro Eyepiece 1.25"OD : 1) 25mm efl, 2)16mm efl, 3)12mm efl. (40x, 62.5x & 83.3x)
Variable Barlow 1.25"OD :(1.5x = 2x = 2.5x = 3x). (60x to 250x in conjunction with above eyepiece)
Barlow Lens : 4x. (160x, 250x, 333.2x).
Finder : 7 x 25 STRAIGHT FINDER Telescope
Eyepiece Mount : RACK-AND-PINION Focuser 1.25"
Tube : 140mm Dia. X 940mm length (approx.).
Mount : Altazimuth Metal Mount with partial locks

Regards, Hiren, Baroda

ANSWER: Hi,
Seems real good!
The newtonian reflector means it uses a concave mirror as main "collector" amd lenses at second stage for magnification.

The 1.1 arc second resolving power will make it possible to see the satellites of jupiter (they can be seen by naked eye under certain conditions even).

lookup the links on that page to the respective wiki pages for the galilean moons. Mind you in my binoc observations (1970s) we would see the moons as specks alligned in a line (orbits are coplanar roughly with the plane of the solar system and we see the orbits edge on, making the satellites seem to move back and forth along a line) on each side of jupiter, and over 1 day, would change position.

This will also show you rings of saturn, the amniotic gas around the stars of the pleades cluster (west of orion, further to the red star Aldebaran. [Mriga Nakshatra; Pleades are the Krittikas. When the sun passes them we have Kartik mas if i am not mistaken, but check it out].
In the geeta krishna says "masanam margasheershoham"..
Krishna tells Arjuna "amongst the months, I am margasheersha " meaning I am the first amongst the months..marga-sheersha, magsar being the first month. Kartik must be near to marga-sheersha (head of the deer of the mriga nakshatra or "orion").  

Ask the manufacturer in writing if their telescope can resolve the moons of jupiter and the rings of saturn. If the reply in the affirmitive, but it.

Also clarify if they have "fine travelling screw adjustments to "manually track" objects to counteract the earth's rotation, at higher magnification.

The 100 mm reflector is a good idea. With my binocs i was collecting on 3927 square mm area (two objectives of 50 mm dia. This telescope will collect on 7854 sq mm, making the images very powerful indeed!

Lastly ask them if they have servicing network in case you run into difficulties. Dont run into the sell and forget type of setup.

Lastly if you dont buy, dont be disheartened, as nowadays, the hubble heritage gallery on the web enables one and all to see the sky without ever owning a telescope!

best luck, do tell me the price of the setup.
regards
Jayen

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

QUESTION: Dear Sir, The Entire Set is Available at Rs. 5700 + Taxes + Handelling Charges. The Supplier does not have any service arrangement in Vadodara. Hoeever they are ready to help incase of things brough to Mumbai Incase of Problem.

Answer
Hi,
That is ok!
As i said, the market for telescopes in india is not that big to get these facilities.

i forgot to paste the link!
just type "galilean moons Wikipedia" in yahoo search pane and select the first two links!
that page has individual links to the 4 galilean satellites, again on wikipedia.
purchase & enjoy.
regards,
Jayen