Today, I am going to write an article of Select Your First Telescope. I am going to divide them into two parts. This episode will tell you what you should take caution of the specification of the telescope. 
It is really confusing for us to choose a telescope. There are mainly three types of telescopes which are widely sold. They are refractor, reflector and catadioptric. The telescope shown at the right is a Meade 8″ LX90(catadioptric).
First of all, you must know some important factors. Magnification(also known as Power) is one of the least important factors in selecting a telescope. Many of you will ask this, “Why? Isn’t higher magnification, the better the telescope is?” Obviously, it is not. It is not related to the light gathering ability of the telescope but aperture is. You can push the magnification level but I don’t think you will be satisfied with the image which is just only a little bit larger but the quality is affected severely. There are manufacturers who state their telescopes magnification level can go up to 700X but the apertures of the telescopes are so small! Get rid of them! 
Let’s talk about the most important factors of the telescopes, the aperture size. I would like to make it simple and clear so I won’t use any “technical based” words. Aperture size is related to the diameter of the primary mirror of the telescope, the light gathering lens. The bigger it is, the greater light gathering ability you have. But, it’s not always the bigger the better. The bigger the aperture size, the heavier the telescope is. Will you bother to carry a 30 kg telescope every night? I won’t.
That’s all for today, I shall continue the Episode II tomorrow which tells you the different types of telescopes.
Add New Comment
Thanks. Your comment is awaiting approval by a moderator.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Add New Comment
Trackbacks
(Trackback URL)