How I did it: Perched on my dining room table (like a three legged bird) is the telescope. My telescope! It stares blindly at the wall with its giant, cycloptic eye.

I have wanted a telescope ever since Jon showed me his sister's. He pointed the white tube at the moon and I looked through the lens... I had never seen the moon that way before. I'd seen photographs, but they were nothing compared to seeing it with my own eyes. I had a real sense of the earth as a planet, suspended in space and dancing with this white friend.

(The moon is so dazzling that when I finally took my eye away from the eye piece, the right side of my vision was obscured by a white blur.)

My telescope (as hinted at before) is a table top telescope. It has short little legs and will sit on the green plastic garden table outside. I will sit on the green plastic garden chairs to use it. I hope to attach it to a proper stand once my health improves enough for me to be able to stand properly too, but until then this should work well for me.

Unfortunately my health has dipped rather a lot since November so I haven't been able to use it yet. No doubt I will write about it when I do - and I am pretty sure you can attach a camera to the telescope too, and so take pictures down the lens!

The BBC Sky At Night Magazine gave this review:

“Its design is that of a traditional astronomical telescope…but its also suitable for watching wildlife. Focusing was with the traditional rack and pinion assembly, which was smooth to use. The lowest power eyepiece (25mm) provided a x16 magnification, which gave an estimated field of view of 2.5 degrees. Stars remained sharp across 75% of the view. With this eyepiece, widefield views were particularly good; open cluster M44 was a delight. These wide views did seem to make the background sky lighter, but we could still make out the brighter Messier objects and even spotted the galaxy NGC 2903 in Leo. At higher magnifications the galaxy group of M65/M66 and NGC 3628 could be seen, and by adding the Barlow lens to the 10mm eyepiece we split Algieba and Castor… Saturn was also clear, with Tian and Rhea visible. Overall score 87%”

Lessons & tips:
    •    The night sky can be overwhelming. If you are not familiar with it, trying to make sense of the salt scatter of stars can seem impossible, especially if you live in the country. City stars (as my friend Steve says) are rather more Zen. The light pollution filters out the fainter ones and leaves you with the outlines of the major constellations. Before you buy a telescope, look at the sky with your own eyes. Identify with the stars and constellations. Knowing who they are will help you more than just knowing what they are: for instance, Orion is a man who is hunting with two dogs. Every night he waves his fist at Taurus the bull. You can make up stories to help you remember the characters that populate our corner of the cosmos (I learnt to remember Gemini and Cancer's position next to each other by imagining that the twins of Gemini were at the beach, looking for crabs).
 
    •    Stellarium is a great free resource you can download. Type in your location and it will show you the sky in real time. It has a handy option that lets you turn the screen red, so you can take it outside with you to star gaze. (Red light will allow your eyes to stay sensitive in the dark, unlike other kinds of light. Astronomers use special red-light torches for this reason - or ordinary ones with red nail polish painted over the glass!)
  
    •    Buy a Planisphere. As with any hobby, becoming familiar with the skills of your craft is essential. A Planisphere is another familiarising tool for the sky.
  
    •    If you can, try some telescopes out before you buy them. Go to your local astronomy club, if you have one, and ask what they recommend for novice astronomers.
  
    •    Ask or look for recommendations on forums.
   
    •    The type of telescope you buy will depend on what you want to use it for and where you're using it from (if you live in a city with a lot of light pollution you will have limited access to galaxies, for example). The answers to these questions will help you decide whether you want a refractor or a reflector, which are the two main types of telescopes.
   
    •    Remember that if this leads to a hobby you love, you will no doubt buy another telescope in the future as you become more skilled and sure of yourself. There is an intimidating amount of choices out there, but don't worry about buying the perfect item the first time round. (It doesn't exist anyway!) Good enough is good enough.

    •    A member on my local astronomy forum told me, if I chose to buy a refractor, not to buy a 60mm lens. 60mm are pretty standard for "beginner" refractor telescopes, but his advice was to go with an 80mm as I'd be able to do more with it and use the telescope for longer.
 
    •    When you have your telescope, practice setting it up inside and a few nights before you want to use it. It can be fiddly to see what to do if you haven't done it before (especially if you are adverse to reading the instructions as I am).

Resources: The Astronomy Cast podcast
(a Fact-Based Journey Around The Universe).

BBC Sky At Night (It
is presented by Sir Patrick Moore, who has presented the show since
1957. He is a Sir and wears a monocle. That alone should make you want
to watch him. It is on once a month).

The Stellarium as mentioned
before. (I have also heard good things about certain apps. You point
them at stars or constellations, and it tells you exactly what you are
looking at).

Wiki How
has more on how to buy a telescope.

Jan 28, 05:53PM PST | 2 comments | 16 cheers