Expert: Tom Whiting - 10/14/2006

Question
               First, thank you for taking time to review my issue.  My name is Amanda Moody and my father's birthday is Wednesday Oct 18th and he will be turning the big 50.  His wish is to get a telescope to view the planets....I really want to buy him a good one but through research I have found that they can be very expensive.  I have a budget of around $600.  Can you give me any ideas on which one to buy?  Also I would like to take him somewhere in Louisville to a large scale telescope to look through and maybe a good show of our space but I do not know much about what there is here in Louisville because I am from Florida.  Your responses would be of great help to me.

Thank you,

Amanda Moody

Answer
Hi Amanda,
 Yes, good telescopes are very expensive......and this is one
hobby that you have to go 'first class' on telescopes, or else
you have a piece of junk....sorry, but it's just the laws of optics.  But binoculars and telesecopes are a very personal
thing....like getting someone a dog for their birthday...not
a good idea.  (See Below- my answer to "Lara" )...

I have had a similar question before, from a girl named Lara,
about a year ago, so I think I'll go back into the archive files
on Allexperts, and cut and paste my answer to her for you.

As far as Louisville, I'm not familar with that area, but I can
tell you that on the very large telescopes, no one ever
"looks" through them any more....it's all camera's, CCD's,
computers, and monitors, that do the "looking".  That's why
we, who want a decent sized telescope, say a 25 or 30 inch mirror, have to build our own portable scope, at a cost of over $10,000.  The only exception I know to that rule, is the
Warren-Rupp observatory up near Mansfield, Ohio where
amateurs maintain a "visual" 31 inch telescope under dome, and visitors are always welcome.  In fact, on that weekend,
the weekend of Oct 19 thru 21, there is the Hidden Hollow
Star Party there, and I'll be there with my 30 inch portable,
and guests are welcome to that Regional Star Party.

And unfortunately, right now, (October 2006) there are no bright planets to view (they are all on the far side of the sun) until Saturn rises around 3 am, but even it is not well up in the morning eastern sky for good viewing, until about 5 am...but that will all change in another 3 or 4  months.

But to your question, here was my answer to Lara, and I'm
sure it applies to your father too....
(cut and Pasted)

Answer
Hi Lara,
Thanks for the great question....too bad others don't consider
a purchase of that nature before hand, like you have here.

Hands DOWN, get him the binoculars!  Say, a pair of
10 x 50's from either Walmart or K-mart (a blue light special
would work just fine!)....get either Bushnell or the K-mart
variety which is very good too.
And you don't have to spend more than about $80 for them....that's all you...or rather he, needs.
Why 10 x50 mm over the other sizes? Because 35 mm does
not bring in enough light...you need that 2 inches of glass
(50 mm) to bring in a lot of light.  Why no higher than 10 power? Because any higher power and he would have to tripod mount them to use them....
10 power is just about the maximum you can hand hold and
use successfully.

Now as to the why with binoculars over a telescope....
Because a telescope is a very personal thing....first, you have
to first know the naked-eye night sky pretty well to be a
successful telescope user.  If you can't point your finger
to the Andromeda Galaxy, Saturn, the Beehive Star Cluster
in Cancer, all naked-eye objects,  how are you going to point a small field of view telescope at them? You can't.  In our great hobby, knowledge of the night sky comes first, and equipment (scopes)comes LAST.
Also, what does he want to "specialize" in?  (He's probably
not to this point in the hobby, as yet).
Lunar/planetary objects, deep sky objects, variable stars?  Splitting double/multiple stars? Comet hunting?  Asteroids?  Artificial satellites, etc. etc.
Telescopes are just like airplanes....all airplanes fly, but you don't send a bomber to do a fighter's job.  You first decide on
your 'speciality' in astronomy, then you get a type of telescope that maximizes that activity...there is a scope out there that maximizes each of those activities above.

(Otherwise, we astronomers would all have the same exact scope, wouldn't we?  But we don't!  Why?
We don't... because we purchase or build the exact scope for our favorite activity out there.  And you (he) WILL specialize
eventually,  as there is just too much out there not to.

Of course, if you really want to spend that much money,
$350-400 then consider getting him one of those new-fangled
"image stablizing" binoculars...they are a little more
pricy because there is this button you push while observing,
and it compensates for human hand shaking....so they are
quite a bit more expensive...but really worth it if you want
to spend that much....but for just learning and observing the
night sky, it's really not necessary.
And By the way, binoculars do a surprisingly good job
on the night sky.  In fact, they get you half-way to a good
high quality 6 or 8 inch (diameter of the mirror) telescope
for a fraction of the cost of a high quality scope.
Binoculars are easy to carry (set up time for a scope is
about 30 minutes), easy to use, looking straight through
(most scopes you are looking at a right angle to the view)
and the image is erect (it's inverted in good astronomical
scopes...on purpose....another story).
Plus, for a high quality, decent scope that actually works,
you are looking in the $400-$500 range for a top notch
6 or 8 inch Newtonian Reflector telescope...brand names
we recommend are Orion, Discovery, Hardin, and Antares.
(We use to recommend Meade and Celestron...but Meade
went public a few years ago, and Celestron was bought out
because they went bankrupt....and in my opinion, both
have gone way down hill since their hay-day time period
of the 1980's.)

Also, if you don't accept my advice, at least AVOID the
standard 'department store' telescope like the Plague....they just don't work!
They look pretty, but they are a big pain and don't deliver
high quality images......Tasco, Bushnell (the telescope, not
the binoculars), Sears Penney's, E-bay, galileo, etc etc.  We are one of the few hobbies that you have to 'mail-order' a good, high quality telescope, of the names I suggested above.  Don't ever purchase a "local" telescope from a
"local" store...they are junk, and you may as well throw
the money down the toilet.  BTW, you'll find many of those
dept. store scopes at garage sales, for around $25...Why?
Because the owner knows that they just don't work.
Oh, they work ok on the moon, ships in the lake, tree leaves,
etc.  But that's it....don't try to split a double star of only
3 seconds of arc of separation....they don't have the fine optical grind on them to do that....that's why they are cheap to begin with.   The optics on a fine scope have to be ground
and figured to at least 1/4 wavelength of light (bare minimum)
to be useful, and that's why they cost so much.  (Sorry,
just the laws of optics which we all have to obey if we want
an acceptable image).
All my scopes are ground to 1/10 wavelength (2 millionths
of an inch from perfection)...but one has to pay for that
exquisite image that my scopes can achieve.
Using his binoculars, your father will read up and learn all
this...ours is a knowledge hobby, not a flashy visuals hobby.
Also, try to get him to join a local astronomy club, if one
exists...here he will meet up with other astronomers, go to
their observing sessions, and look through their equipment
and scopes...then as he progresses, he will eventually know what he wants to specialize in, and know what kind of scope he can really put to good use.
So get him the binoculars, let him learn more, then eventually
he will know what kind of "airplane" he is ready for, later.

Hope all this helps,
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
President - ECMOG

And for even more info, please go to our club website
at
http://www.velocity.net/~bwhiting
and punch on and read, "Tom Whiting's Sound Advice
for the Novice".  (Print it out for your father).
And also pictures of my new 30 inch portable truss-DOB
Scope.  And if you need any more advice or assistance,
feel free to contact me directly at
bwhiting@velocity.net
as I am a retired USAF pilot with lots of time on my hands,
especially in the winter (cloudy) months.


FOLLOW UP:
Oh, and with the money you've saved by getting him
a pair of 10 x 50 mm binoculars, please consider also getting
him a one year subscription to Sky & Telescope magazine,
Our "Bible" because it tells you ahead of time what
is happening in the night sky...we all subscribe to it,
and it has the monthly evening star (sky) chart in it for
learning the night sky!
At
http://skyandtelescope.com/
Tom