Expert: Tom Whiting - 7/8/2007

Question
Hi I'm Eric, and thank you for taking the time to read this.
 First question, did you buy or build that telescope..........(I love it) and if you built it how can i build my own?(always wanted to learn )

And second, I have always wanted to go to an observitory, can anyone go or do the have to be trained and if so how do you get trained ?..........thanks for your time

ERIC BARNINGER

Answer
Hi Eric,
I assume you mean the picture of my 30 inch portable truss
Dobsonian mounted telescope.  Yes, it is a homebuilt, but no,
I did not build it.  I hired one of our club members who has a
tool shop in his basement to build it for me.  He is currently
building his own 24 inch which is nearly complete, so soon
he'll be free for hiring out for a new job/scope to build.
For more details on the 30 inch scope, see our club website at   http://www.velocity.net/~bwhiting
and punch on "Pictures of the 30 inch" then at the bottom
of the pictures, punch on Bill Mitchell's website for building
details....he's the guy that built it for me...for a price, of course.
The mirror is a Nova Optics mirror, and both took a year to
constuct.  (Just google Nova Optical).  I didn't start out with
a large scope....in 40 years I went from a 6, then 8, 13, 16, 18,
24, then a 30 inch.  Perhaps that was too many steps, but that's the way one progresses in the hobby.
Actually, you can buy a large scope of that same kind...see
www.obsessiontelescopes.com on the web).  And there is a nice book out on 'how to build a large DOB scope', and I think that's also the name of the book, by Kreige, same guy who owns Obsession Telescope Company.  (But, be ready to
invest over $10,000 USD for a 30 inch, and that's just for the primary mirror!)
As far as observatories, I guess anyone can go, especially
when they advertise that they are having an "open house"
night for the public.  Of course, at the very large observatories, I guess they are restricted to those who work
there.  But even if you could get in, you probably wouldn't
enjoy it because no one actually "looks" through a big scope these days.  It's all equipment at the business end of the scope....camera's, CCD's, photospectrometers, spectroscopes, etc. etc.  No one uses the human eye any more, in fact, it's been that way for a number of years. It's all super-photography with computers and digital cameras, and such equipment as this.
The only way to look thru a fairly large scope is, unfortunately, build your own....and that's what I did.

You get trained by getting lots of books on astronomy and
reading them; self-teaching yourself the night sky with a
star chart; take courses in school/college on astronomy, then go to a University where you can major in Astronomy.
That's the best route to go.
Hope all this helps,
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA

PS...Oh, knowledge of the night sky comes first in astronomy,
equipment last.  If you can't point your finger to the Andromeda Galaxy, the Lagoon Nebula, the Beehive star
cluster, the beautiful double star Albireo, the pretty triple
of Omicron 1 Cygni, all naked eye objects....how  are you going to point a small field telescope at them?  You can't, so right now, if you can't do these "simple" things that all us
experienced observers can do, then basically a telescope is
worthless to you, no matter what the size.  The moon, Venus,
Jupiter and Saturn, the Big Dipper and Polaris and Orion....
eventually get pretty boring....if that's the only sky you know.
So make your first task, learning the night sky.....besides,
telescopes are like airplanes....all planes fly but you don't send a bomber to do a fighter's job....so what do you want
to specialize in?  AND you WILL specialize because there is
just too much out there....Deep Sky Objects? Lunar/planetary
detail? Comet Hunting? splitting double/multiple stars?
Variable stars? Asteroid/Nova hunting?  There is a scope
out there that maximizes each one of those activities....and
then, that's the scope to get or purchase.  Otherwise, we'd
all own the same type of scope, wouldn't we?  But we don't,
because everyone has their own special interests of objects
in the night sky.  For instance, a much smaller 8 or 10 inch
long focal length refractor will actually out perform my scope
on details on the planets and moon because that scope is
built for that purpose, but then when it comes to faint DSO's
(Deep Sky Objects) I'll blow him away because my scope
is built for deep sky objects.  Comet hunters would never use
my scope because the field of view is too small an area of
sky.....they want something where they can see 3-5 degrees
of sky....so see, there are different scopes for different folks.
That's why equipment (scopes) come last in our hobby,
not first.  Knowledge comes first.  So make your first "scope"
a simple pair of binoculars...for learning the night sky!
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA