I don't have an answer, but I'd look if there has been some related humble bundle in the past. You can either try to "find" it or take a look to the individual books.
As a kid I had a 6.5 inch reflector I got cheap 2nd hand, which was awesome. Looking at Saturn and its rings just sitting there in the sky was something I'll never forget.
Do a search for "star gazing forum" or similar and join a forum that has the most active discussions/users and read past posts to get started. They probably have FAQs for beginners and you can probably get most of your questions answered before spending any money.
I got into star gazing by accident a few years back because I found $250 entry-level telescope, unused new-in-box for $60 at a garage sale. So look for a used scope for your starter because it is cheaper and very common for people to buy expensive equipment then get out of the hobby. Once you get your sea legs you can upgrade knowing what you want to see and the right equipment to do the job.
I also went on line and learned how to use the scope and then went to some local "star parties" which were fun. Do a search for your area and go because you'll learn a lot faster by talking to others. The local club did a field trip/tour of a (small) observatory at a local community college which was great. Another benefit is some of these gazers have dropped a ton of money on advance systems and at the star parties they are more than happy to let you take a peek and look at all sorts of objects that a beginner scope can't see but it was fun to see the planets and the moon, etc. with my own scope too.
I definitely second the recommendation to find a local star party. They are also good because they help temper expectations. Most people assume that what they’re going to see when they get a telescope will be similar to what they’ve seen in astrophotography, and many would-be amateur astronomers are disappointed to find that those complex, brilliant galaxies they’ve seen in photos actually look like slightly-less-black smudges through an average telescope lens.
Going to a star party allows you to meet experienced backyard astronomers who can show you these objects[0] and talk to you about the hobby. That way you have some idea of what you can expect (especially at an entry-level). It’s a wonderful hobby, but it helps to know what you can expect to see (also realizing that the more you look through a lens, the better you’ll get at actually spotting objects).
[0] The other thing that doesn’t always get noted is how damn frustrating it can be to find objects without some experience. My first hunt for a Messier object was a profanity-laden experience. So, having someone present who knows how to navigate to those objects can make it more enjoyable!
It depends on the magnification of the binoculars. Lower magnification binoculars are quite usable hand-held, and they can be stabilized pretty easily in a zero-gravity chair. The nice thing about smaller binoculars is that you can have them on hand in the car. They're great for road trips, because you can get them out for a quick view when you stop under dark skies.
Binoculars are very nice on a tripod, especially with a parallelogram mount, but being able to use them without a tripod opens up many more observing opportunities.
Telescopes need a mount and tripod (or Dobson-style mount) too! The price and barrier to entry with binoculars is smaller than any telescope you can't fit on your table top, and I think they're a great way to wet your feet and make sure you're willing to drag something out into the cold late at night.
I agree with this suggestion, but will add that you should get an affordable tripod to keep your image stable. (Your linked articles, of course, have plenty to add on this topic.) The lucky point here is that binoculars are small enough, light enough, and low-enough magnification that you can get a pretty cheap tripod without it ruining your experience. You can break into the hobby with a pair of 25x70s and tripod for like $150.
Canon image-stabilized binoculars will show you an incredible array of deep-sky wonders. I picked up a used 10x30 set on eBay many years ago and have used them for hundreds of nights of observing. I also have owned and loved a 4" TeleVue refractor for over two decades, but the Canons get used more often. You need to spend $2-3k+ to get a telescope that can beat even the smallest image-stabilized binocs. They are the perfect way to start.
I bought Orion SkyQuest XT4.5 classic dobsonian telescope. It turned out to be really good first telescope for me.
Turn Left at Orion(5th ed) by Consolmagno & Davis is really good book that you should consider buying.
First get 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars and if you remain interested in observation, move onto an 8 inch dob reflector as your first telescope. I got the Zhumell Z8 for $400 years ago when it considered to be the best deal around, but it might not be sold anymore. The usual options would be from Orion, Apertura, Sky-Watcher, Explore Scientific, etc. for $400-550.
r/telescopes has a pinned post about picking a telescope, and weekly threads covering this same question. It was a great resource when I was looking to make the same jump.
I just bought my first telescope last night using that guide, a Zhummel z114 off of Amazon. It was the last one.
A word of warning, it was really hard to find any of the lower price ranges telescopes that they recommend without it being overpriced. The demand is high.
I'm going to be in some of the darkest parts of the US very soon (Big Bend national park, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce) so can't wait to use it!
I know nothing about buying a telescope, but I went stargazing last year on La Palma. It was fun-but-janky to try and take pictures by holding my phone up to the optical piece. It's super interested to me that I was able to capture a picture of a binary star on my Google Pixel 3a. If some sort of integration w/ a camera or phone is an option on low end telescopes, maybe consider that feature!
La Palma is the 2nd best place in the northern hemisphere to put a telescope, and it's well worth a visit. The island itself is beautiful, amazing actually. And it's super cool to go on tours of the telescopes. I got a chance to visit the Isaac Newton Telescope & the Gran Telescopio Canarias.
> So, I suggest people don't buy a telescope. (How un-commercial of me.) Instead I suggest attending star parties, joining an observing group or club and looking through many scopes before you spend any money.
> .. But before you buy a scope you never looked through, you should probably know the meanings of the words: dobsonian, apochromatic, equatorial, servo drive, periodic error, star test, collimation and shipping damage claim.
That was great advice when it was written in 2006. Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a pandemic, so parties with strangers are right out; I'm booking camping sites for the summer and want to bring a scope with me!
Are you booking camping sites for the summer now? How do you handle unforeseen changes like inclement weather? I've been trying to get more into camping in recent years, but haven't found a way to balance booking early enough and not having plans fall through
For me, one of the deep pleasures of camping is the "you'll live" revelations. Or travel in general.
Beautiful places are still beautiful in bad weather. Often less crowded to boot. If things get really bad, the car is dry and has a heater and there are lessons for proper equipment needs for next time.
I mean it's a multi-year project. Statistically, the weather isn't going get much better, nor is six month forecasting tied to a specific weekend.
Camping skill is the only practical area for improvement. The only one in a camper's control...and to be cliche, most of that skill is mindset.
Short of lightning strikes, grizzly bears, and freezing, I'll live through the weather. Good weather is nice, but it's not a need unless I need something to worry and complain about.
There's satisfaction in a tent that keeps the rain out and a bag that keeps the warm in that is harder to find at home with its running water, electric range, and shingled roof. Maybe it's I don't much think "you'll live" there. Because I don't have to pay much attention.
That's a fair point. I've been wanting to get into more hardcore camping (compared to the campsite, gravel-lot camping most of the people I know do), and it'll only make things easier from the planning/reservation perspective. I think I'll take your "you'll live" attitude and try to get more serious this year. Thanks for the advice!
I am not hardcore. I prefer a site with electric in a ground with hot showers...all things reasonably comparable. What I learned is that they are not bright line features.
Same with weather.
Even if it’s not wrong, Yellowstone is still Yellowstone...so to speak.
Anyway if you go to the Hoh Rainforest, you might get rain...I paid the dumb tax on that. I lived.
I love that about camping. Really pares life down to the essentials, and sometimes you find the essentials aren't what you thought they were.
As for weather, turns out it changes a lot! That's sort of the nature of weather. :) Unless you're mired in a stubborn stationary front, or a deep low that came from the ocean, you'll have different weather on night two.
There is a $20 fee to cancel. Campsites are first come, first serve, reserved on a rickety DNR server or over a phone. Predictably, on February 8, when it first opened, said server was hugged to death:
If you want the good sites, you have to reserve early. The system works great for old rich retired folks who have nothing better to do than call and find open campsites, and for whom the $20 fee for a no-show in their $200,000 RV doesn't matter at all, so I think it's unlikely to change to a lottery system or similarly more fair alternative any time soon.
If you're not willing to deal with the system, more rustic sites are often available. No electric (use solar or a quiet inverter generator), no water (but often close enough to a full-service campground you can fill your fresh tank, drive in, and drive out to empty your grey and black tanks before making the long drive home), but generally less crowded.
Well, thanks for the info, it's good to get a realistic description of the situation. In that case I might just start taking a look at good weekends and hope for the best. Also good motivation to get more serious about backcountry camping!
Seriously though, if you have appropriate gear for the potential range of conditions, you'll likely always be fine. This only gets complicated/expensive/(even risky) at the extremes.
I would second this. The Harvard Center for astrophyics had a public talk every month[1]. Then after, everyone would go on the roof and the telescope club and some grad students/post docs would stand by a dozen or so telescopes all pointing at items of interest. They're love and knowledge of the universe was infectious.
If you have a pair of binoculars already, get some kind of tripod for them, or improvise something with a reclining lawn chair -- anything that can stabilize the binos and let you point them upwards comfortably. It's surprising how much you can see with medium-quality binocular if you can keep them rock-steady.
A six or eight inch Dobsonian telescope is a good next step. The entry-level models are cheaper than they look, and the optical reach greatly exceeds that of cheap department-store refractors. Last I checked, pandemic reality had made them hard to find new, but they occasionally go for a song on Craigslist.
Look up a forum called Cloudy Nights for much, much more info.
Our astronomy society tries hard to persuade newcomers not to buy a telescope until they're sure they will actually get it out more than once, and in the meantime to borrow a club telescope. Your local club might also have a stock to lend out.
If you do decide to buy, pay attention to the tripod and mount. Get something with heft that won't wobble when you breathe on it - no matter how good the optics, if the scope is bouncing about you're not going to have a great experience.
I don't have much telescope experience, but I flipped one just so I could see Neowise and the big takeaway for me was that, possibly more important than the telescope is the stand. If the stand is unstable or hard to adjust, you will not be happy with your experience. Ideally, the controls to move the scope will have very fine-grained tuning abilities, with very little wobble or difficulty in adjustment.
The recommendations about binoculars are definitely worth considering.
However, if you're ready for the telescope, my advice is to spend as much money as your budget has on getting the biggest aperture you can buy.
More light = more better.
Auto-tracking is nice, but learning how to find objects in the night sky is a fun and worthy exercise, and if you have a big aperture you'll actually be able to see the things your telescope points to.
A few things to keep in mind:
* You're not going to see DSOs (Deep Sky Objects, like nebulae and galaxies) from the middle of a major urban area. You need access to a dark site. (Search for "light pollution map") Planets are easy to see from anywhere, cities included (though the viewing is always better the darker the sky is).
* Many objects in the night sky will look like little fuzzy gray spots to your eyes, no matter how awesome your telescope is. Don't expect a Hubble experience from a 6" scope (or 8, or 12+).
* Don't expect to take photos through your telescope, either. You might manage to get some cool shots of the moon (which looks _amazing_ in a telescope, btw), but true astro photography is a whole 'nother beast (both fun and expensive).
With all that as background, I'd recommend a 6" or 8" Dobsonian if you've got the budget. Something like an Orion Sky Quest XT8 or XT6.
That's not entirely true. Bright DS objects you'll see just fine if you step away the tiniest bit from super-bright lights, you don't need a "dark site".
My place is right next to a brightly lit pool (which I hate with a passion ;), and M42 is visible just fine. Even with the naked eye. Same goes for photography - I've got a few pictures of M42 that are pretty darn cool, with a single exposure and a Canon DSLR. I've collected excellent single-exposure shots of Jupiter & Saturn during the conjunction.
No, it's not as spectacular as the stuff you see when you look at images you find online, but it's still a "holy shit" moment the first time you manage to.
You should just be aware that you'll quickly learn the limitations, and getting a taste for DSOs/star photography means you'll likely develop a desire to do more. ("I wish I could see X"/"I wish I could take better pictures") And that starts getting expensive. (But that's true for any hobby that requires you to buy things, there are always more toys ;)
Yes, M42 (Orion Nebula) is spectacular and doesn't take much equipment or dark site. I have a large framed photo of M42 on the wall here which I took with just my DSLR from my driveway near streetlights.
I'm getting kinda old and miserly but I still am deeply in love with stargazing.
I recommend to anyone who wants to try it out: get a phone app with VR so that you can easily spot where a star you want to see is, by waving it over your head. This will give you a transparent Earth and you can start to get a bit of a cadence for when stars are rising and setting.
Tracking the sun with a VR app as it sets, even if sitting inside your house on a chair, is such a cool way to sew together some concepts that sound obvious but only may be after this improvement to your vision. Seeing the orbit of Venus dotted around the setting Sun, you will quickly understand why we call it the Morning/Evening Star as it barely scopes above the visible horizon.
Learning why we call it the Dog Days of Summer is also a delight that a VR app can sew together for you as well.
I'm a novice, an absolute one - I love this hobby regardless. Spend 4.99 on a nice VR app and see if it only entices you further to open your wallet for a telescope.
I've tried one of those apps (Night Sky?), but I always find it's well out of alignment, stars being much further to the left or right than the app seems to indicate, things being closer together than they seem from my own perspective, etc.
Don't think it's the phone, it's a fairly new one etc (has all the AR bells and whistles on it).
Perspective is very important. Sometimes - especially when looking for a specific item when doing something like stargazing, it’s amazing what else you find along the way.
None of the apps I've seen use AR. As far as I know, they are 100% gyro & compass based. These tend to need to be calibrated. G-maps has a built in calibration tool, I believe there is a calibration option in the android dev tools, and there are several apps that claim to calibrate as well.
I've been meaning to dive into ARCore, and on my list was a constellation based compass & gyro calibration app.
As others have said, binoculars are a great option, and high quality options are available that are much easier to use for astronomical observations…AND hold their resale value. I own a pair of Canon image-stabilized binos (10x50s). They were expensive compared to a high quality telescope and mount, but I take my binoculars out 50 times more frequently than my 8" Meade SCT telescope.
You will get all kinds of advice! My short answer is buy quality used equipment if you can. Assuming you've outgrown binoculars:
If you're broke, get on craigslist and get a used 6" or 8" dobsonian.
If you have the budget, my advice is to get on craigslist and look for a used name brand telescope with at least 6" of aperture and an equatorial or computerized fork mount, and a pile of eyepieces and other accessories. This will probably be a Celestron 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain (there are a number of models, and there have been even more) and will cost $500-$2000 depending on its age, condition, accesories, etc. Yes, new ones more or less land in that range but expect to get a good deal on the bundle of accessories. It's not what I chose, but they're popular because they're at a sweet spot of portability and versatility.
There are many other options. I like the approach in the book Real Astronomy with Small Telescopes, but I live where it's usually cloudy and like to be able to bring a small telescope with me when I travel.
https://www.amazon.com/Astronomy-Small-Telescopes-Step-Step/...
I second the recommendation for the Cloudy Nights forum.
Secondly, I‘ll go against the grain and suggest you don’t start with a binocular or manual dobsonian, but with a motorized goto telescope. They come in many varieties and for a start, pretty much all of them are good. Celestron has a series of telescopes called Evolution and if it’s in your budget, an Evolution 6 will be a good scope for a long time. They also have smaller & cheaper scopes with Go-To that will work well too.
What’s Go-To? You tell the telescope what you want to look at, and it drives right to it and keeps the object centered within the eyepiece. The last part is quite important as even at average magnifications, objects tend to move out of the center (where it’s sharpest) quite fast. Many scopes can also be controlled via your phone with an app such as SkySafari - sometimes that requires an extra adapter for the scope though.
Why this path? I followed the usual advice of getting a binocular, then a small dobsonian and barely ever had the drive to use them due to finding objects to observe in city skies being hard. The scopes just collected dust for the majority of the year.
I just made the jump to a bigger scope with Go-To to a) make visual observations more interesting for me (more observing, less searching), and b) pursue a newly discovered interest of mine called Electronically Assisted Astronomy. Think Google‘s night photo mode but for a telescope, allowing you to see galaxies and nebulas in all their glory from home!
Agreed. You can't talk the dobson crowd out of anything, and dobsonians are cheap, and they do work. Most beginners, though, if they can afford it, would be better off with at least an equatorial mount with a clock drive if not a goto mount.
The bigger the better, so get a 10/12/14" dobsonian. They're cheap, dumb, easy to set up, you'll be able to see a lot, and it will last forever.
Refractor telescopes are extremely expensive to get a good one, otherwise the image quality is awful, and either way they are so limited in aperture and weight that you'll be able to see very little through them.
Don't buy anything off Facebook saying they've used some computer technology to make an amazing telescope. Yes computer technology helps some scientific applications but consumer wise it's all BS.
Reflector telescopes can be okay in theory and can be a good middle ground between the price/aperture of dobsonians and pricier options (my first scope was a reflector so I have a special place in my heart for the image they provide!) But you may as well save your money and get the dobsonian instead, because if you wanted to use a reflector for computer tracking and astrophotography you'll spend so much money on the mount and cameras and add ons that you may as well have bought the pricier option in the first place.
Don't get a fork mounted Celestron CPC. It's the same issue; more expensive, not as good as a dobsonian, you get computer tracking but can't use it for astrophotography.
That just leaves schmidt–cassegrain telescopes. If you want to do imaging you may as well jump here and try to buy a package that has it all including a really really good mount. The only downsides are that you'll be spending $10k-$20k. If you weren't interested in those things... may as well get a dobsonian.
One thing I wanted to mention that everything bar the dobsonian is going to be extremely heavy. For the reflector and Schmidt's you'll be carting a 25kg mount, 25kg of weights, then trying to hoist a 25kg scope onto the mount with one hand and slot it into a tiny rail in the dark while your other hand fumbles for a tiny screw clamp that holds it in place. There's a reason people get into the hobby and then give up.
A dobsonian you basically lift the tube and plop it anywhere onto the base and you're good to go. So unless you're fit, don't bother even getting started with anything except the dobsonian.
As dobsonians are cheap, they're easy to buy and sell, and so if you don't hang around in the hobby then you'll be able to exit quietly and not feel much of a loss. If you do become an enthusiast and jump to the top end there's no loss either, because it'll be such a nightmare to set up, you'll still be using the much larger and better dobsonian for all of your normal viewing.
Make sure it has a good tripod. A friend had one and it was frustrating because the scope moved pretty easily, so between viewings it was out of wack. (It wasn't just the sky moving as it does...)
For pure observation nothing beats an 8 inch dobsonian reflector telescope. If you want to do astrophotography, it's important you have a tracking mount, but those can be _very_ expensive.
You should consider what you want to look at. I made a telescope (ground the mirror, etc.) and discovered that looking at stars isn't interesting to me. But the big planets, moon and sun are amazing. If you want to explore the limits of resolving binary stars or hunting faint deep sky objects, you will want a different device than if you want to see the rings of Saturn which are surreal to see with your own eye.
First I second the phone app (see what I did there?). The first thing you should work on, if you haven't already, familiarizing yourself with the sky. It is very frustrating to buy a scope and spend hours just trying to find an object, only then to spend more time trying to figure out if what you're looking at is actually the thing you think is. This on top of learning how to use the scope itself.
Next, read books on astronomy/star gazing and watch a some videos on stargazing, using a scope, general astronomy, etc. You don't need to have a PhD or anything, but a general working knowledge will serve you well. Also, before you lay out the $$, see if there is a local astronomy club near you (I'll bet there is). Clubs usually host a public stargazing night which is a perfect opportunity for you to get a little scope time and ask questions (and make some friends/connections in the hobby).
If, after all this, you still have the bug it's probably safe to plunk down your hard-earned cash on a wonderful 6" or 8" dobsonian scope. I bought mine about 30-ish years ago and I still have it and use it from time to time. Orion 8" dobs used to be the standard for starting out. You can still pick one up for about $450.00.
Here's my advice to save money on good astronomy equipment. Go to 'wwww.astromart.com' and pay $15 for a year's membership that gives you access to the classifieds section.
I am a very infrequent hobbyist but have bought quality equipment through astromart. Good quality telescopes have very good resale value if you take care of it.
The best telescope for the beginner is the one they can take out easily into the field and use it often.
A good quality 7x50 binocular is good to start with and then move onto something a little bit more substantive like a 3" refractor or an 8" reflector like a dobsonian or a newtonian with a tripod.
Also install a good piece of astronomy software like Stellarium or similar to virtually navigate your night sky and become familiar with constellations and the bright stars that you can see with the naked eye.
Beware this can become quite an expensive hobby if you fall into the rabbit hole.
160 comments
[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 237 ms ] threadI got into star gazing by accident a few years back because I found $250 entry-level telescope, unused new-in-box for $60 at a garage sale. So look for a used scope for your starter because it is cheaper and very common for people to buy expensive equipment then get out of the hobby. Once you get your sea legs you can upgrade knowing what you want to see and the right equipment to do the job.
I also went on line and learned how to use the scope and then went to some local "star parties" which were fun. Do a search for your area and go because you'll learn a lot faster by talking to others. The local club did a field trip/tour of a (small) observatory at a local community college which was great. Another benefit is some of these gazers have dropped a ton of money on advance systems and at the star parties they are more than happy to let you take a peek and look at all sorts of objects that a beginner scope can't see but it was fun to see the planets and the moon, etc. with my own scope too.
Going to a star party allows you to meet experienced backyard astronomers who can show you these objects[0] and talk to you about the hobby. That way you have some idea of what you can expect (especially at an entry-level). It’s a wonderful hobby, but it helps to know what you can expect to see (also realizing that the more you look through a lens, the better you’ll get at actually spotting objects).
[0] The other thing that doesn’t always get noted is how damn frustrating it can be to find objects without some experience. My first hunt for a Messier object was a profanity-laden experience. So, having someone present who knows how to navigate to those objects can make it more enjoyable!
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/binoculars-h...
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/how-to-choose-1st-...
Also, you'll need a planisphere or star atlas (or app), and a red torch so you don't ruin you night vision.
Binoculars are very nice on a tripod, especially with a parallelogram mount, but being able to use them without a tripod opens up many more observing opportunities.
The Messier objects and some of the nebulae are just awesome.
If the binoculars can also be used for wildlife I'd be willing to spend a bit more for them.
A word of warning, it was really hard to find any of the lower price ranges telescopes that they recommend without it being overpriced. The demand is high.
I'm going to be in some of the darkest parts of the US very soon (Big Bend national park, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce) so can't wait to use it!
https://www.reddit.com/r/telescopes/comments/i0tzkw/_/
Also, here's some photos from the stargazing outing => https://photos.app.goo.gl/oCamaWZwfH2HwykBA
La Palma is the 2nd best place in the northern hemisphere to put a telescope, and it's well worth a visit. The island itself is beautiful, amazing actually. And it's super cool to go on tours of the telescopes. I got a chance to visit the Isaac Newton Telescope & the Gran Telescopio Canarias.
Telescope visit photos => https://photos.app.goo.gl/JcD1bCUb1asU9VcE8
This one looks like it works with binoculars too: https://www.amazon.com/Photography-LUXUN-Mount-Quick-Smartph...
> So, I suggest people don't buy a telescope. (How un-commercial of me.) Instead I suggest attending star parties, joining an observing group or club and looking through many scopes before you spend any money.
> .. But before you buy a scope you never looked through, you should probably know the meanings of the words: dobsonian, apochromatic, equatorial, servo drive, periodic error, star test, collimation and shipping damage claim.
Beautiful places are still beautiful in bad weather. Often less crowded to boot. If things get really bad, the car is dry and has a heater and there are lessons for proper equipment needs for next time.
I mean it's a multi-year project. Statistically, the weather isn't going get much better, nor is six month forecasting tied to a specific weekend.
Camping skill is the only practical area for improvement. The only one in a camper's control...and to be cliche, most of that skill is mindset.
Short of lightning strikes, grizzly bears, and freezing, I'll live through the weather. Good weather is nice, but it's not a need unless I need something to worry and complain about.
There's satisfaction in a tent that keeps the rain out and a bag that keeps the warm in that is harder to find at home with its running water, electric range, and shingled roof. Maybe it's I don't much think "you'll live" there. Because I don't have to pay much attention.
Same with weather.
Even if it’s not wrong, Yellowstone is still Yellowstone...so to speak.
Anyway if you go to the Hoh Rainforest, you might get rain...I paid the dumb tax on that. I lived.
As for weather, turns out it changes a lot! That's sort of the nature of weather. :) Unless you're mired in a stubborn stationary front, or a deep low that came from the ocean, you'll have different weather on night two.
https://www.mlive.com/news/2021/02/cant-reserve-your-favorit...
If you want the good sites, you have to reserve early. The system works great for old rich retired folks who have nothing better to do than call and find open campsites, and for whom the $20 fee for a no-show in their $200,000 RV doesn't matter at all, so I think it's unlikely to change to a lottery system or similarly more fair alternative any time soon.
If you're not willing to deal with the system, more rustic sites are often available. No electric (use solar or a quiet inverter generator), no water (but often close enough to a full-service campground you can fill your fresh tank, drive in, and drive out to empty your grey and black tanks before making the long drive home), but generally less crowded.
Seriously though, if you have appropriate gear for the potential range of conditions, you'll likely always be fine. This only gets complicated/expensive/(even risky) at the extremes.
May this pandemic wind down..
[1]https://www.youtube.com/user/ObsNights
If you have a pair of binoculars already, get some kind of tripod for them, or improvise something with a reclining lawn chair -- anything that can stabilize the binos and let you point them upwards comfortably. It's surprising how much you can see with medium-quality binocular if you can keep them rock-steady.
A six or eight inch Dobsonian telescope is a good next step. The entry-level models are cheaper than they look, and the optical reach greatly exceeds that of cheap department-store refractors. Last I checked, pandemic reality had made them hard to find new, but they occasionally go for a song on Craigslist.
Look up a forum called Cloudy Nights for much, much more info.
I used one similar to this on my honeymoon: https://www.rei.com/product/155737/mountainsmith-trekker-fx-...
If you do decide to buy, pay attention to the tripod and mount. Get something with heft that won't wobble when you breathe on it - no matter how good the optics, if the scope is bouncing about you're not going to have a great experience.
You can then see sunspots and can watch eclipses unfold.
However, if you're ready for the telescope, my advice is to spend as much money as your budget has on getting the biggest aperture you can buy.
More light = more better.
Auto-tracking is nice, but learning how to find objects in the night sky is a fun and worthy exercise, and if you have a big aperture you'll actually be able to see the things your telescope points to.
A few things to keep in mind:
* You're not going to see DSOs (Deep Sky Objects, like nebulae and galaxies) from the middle of a major urban area. You need access to a dark site. (Search for "light pollution map") Planets are easy to see from anywhere, cities included (though the viewing is always better the darker the sky is).
* Many objects in the night sky will look like little fuzzy gray spots to your eyes, no matter how awesome your telescope is. Don't expect a Hubble experience from a 6" scope (or 8, or 12+).
* Don't expect to take photos through your telescope, either. You might manage to get some cool shots of the moon (which looks _amazing_ in a telescope, btw), but true astro photography is a whole 'nother beast (both fun and expensive).
With all that as background, I'd recommend a 6" or 8" Dobsonian if you've got the budget. Something like an Orion Sky Quest XT8 or XT6.
My favorite book, by a light year, is "Turn Left at Orion". It'll help you find thousands of cool things in the night sky, and it's great for beginners on up. — https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundreds-Telescope/dp...
P.S. Definitely checkout r/telescopes for additional advice and info.
My place is right next to a brightly lit pool (which I hate with a passion ;), and M42 is visible just fine. Even with the naked eye. Same goes for photography - I've got a few pictures of M42 that are pretty darn cool, with a single exposure and a Canon DSLR. I've collected excellent single-exposure shots of Jupiter & Saturn during the conjunction.
No, it's not as spectacular as the stuff you see when you look at images you find online, but it's still a "holy shit" moment the first time you manage to.
You should just be aware that you'll quickly learn the limitations, and getting a taste for DSOs/star photography means you'll likely develop a desire to do more. ("I wish I could see X"/"I wish I could take better pictures") And that starts getting expensive. (But that's true for any hobby that requires you to buy things, there are always more toys ;)
I recommend to anyone who wants to try it out: get a phone app with VR so that you can easily spot where a star you want to see is, by waving it over your head. This will give you a transparent Earth and you can start to get a bit of a cadence for when stars are rising and setting.
Tracking the sun with a VR app as it sets, even if sitting inside your house on a chair, is such a cool way to sew together some concepts that sound obvious but only may be after this improvement to your vision. Seeing the orbit of Venus dotted around the setting Sun, you will quickly understand why we call it the Morning/Evening Star as it barely scopes above the visible horizon.
Learning why we call it the Dog Days of Summer is also a delight that a VR app can sew together for you as well.
I'm a novice, an absolute one - I love this hobby regardless. Spend 4.99 on a nice VR app and see if it only entices you further to open your wallet for a telescope.
Don't think it's the phone, it's a fairly new one etc (has all the AR bells and whistles on it).
I've been meaning to dive into ARCore, and on my list was a constellation based compass & gyro calibration app.
$1,500 sound like the right ball park?
https://www.amazon.com/Canon-10x42-Stabilization-Waterproof-...
If you're broke, get on craigslist and get a used 6" or 8" dobsonian.
If you have the budget, my advice is to get on craigslist and look for a used name brand telescope with at least 6" of aperture and an equatorial or computerized fork mount, and a pile of eyepieces and other accessories. This will probably be a Celestron 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain (there are a number of models, and there have been even more) and will cost $500-$2000 depending on its age, condition, accesories, etc. Yes, new ones more or less land in that range but expect to get a good deal on the bundle of accessories. It's not what I chose, but they're popular because they're at a sweet spot of portability and versatility.
There are many other options. I like the approach in the book Real Astronomy with Small Telescopes, but I live where it's usually cloudy and like to be able to bring a small telescope with me when I travel. https://www.amazon.com/Astronomy-Small-Telescopes-Step-Step/...
Secondly, I‘ll go against the grain and suggest you don’t start with a binocular or manual dobsonian, but with a motorized goto telescope. They come in many varieties and for a start, pretty much all of them are good. Celestron has a series of telescopes called Evolution and if it’s in your budget, an Evolution 6 will be a good scope for a long time. They also have smaller & cheaper scopes with Go-To that will work well too.
What’s Go-To? You tell the telescope what you want to look at, and it drives right to it and keeps the object centered within the eyepiece. The last part is quite important as even at average magnifications, objects tend to move out of the center (where it’s sharpest) quite fast. Many scopes can also be controlled via your phone with an app such as SkySafari - sometimes that requires an extra adapter for the scope though.
Why this path? I followed the usual advice of getting a binocular, then a small dobsonian and barely ever had the drive to use them due to finding objects to observe in city skies being hard. The scopes just collected dust for the majority of the year.
I just made the jump to a bigger scope with Go-To to a) make visual observations more interesting for me (more observing, less searching), and b) pursue a newly discovered interest of mine called Electronically Assisted Astronomy. Think Google‘s night photo mode but for a telescope, allowing you to see galaxies and nebulas in all their glory from home!
Refractor telescopes are extremely expensive to get a good one, otherwise the image quality is awful, and either way they are so limited in aperture and weight that you'll be able to see very little through them.
Don't buy anything off Facebook saying they've used some computer technology to make an amazing telescope. Yes computer technology helps some scientific applications but consumer wise it's all BS.
Reflector telescopes can be okay in theory and can be a good middle ground between the price/aperture of dobsonians and pricier options (my first scope was a reflector so I have a special place in my heart for the image they provide!) But you may as well save your money and get the dobsonian instead, because if you wanted to use a reflector for computer tracking and astrophotography you'll spend so much money on the mount and cameras and add ons that you may as well have bought the pricier option in the first place.
Don't get a fork mounted Celestron CPC. It's the same issue; more expensive, not as good as a dobsonian, you get computer tracking but can't use it for astrophotography.
That just leaves schmidt–cassegrain telescopes. If you want to do imaging you may as well jump here and try to buy a package that has it all including a really really good mount. The only downsides are that you'll be spending $10k-$20k. If you weren't interested in those things... may as well get a dobsonian.
One thing I wanted to mention that everything bar the dobsonian is going to be extremely heavy. For the reflector and Schmidt's you'll be carting a 25kg mount, 25kg of weights, then trying to hoist a 25kg scope onto the mount with one hand and slot it into a tiny rail in the dark while your other hand fumbles for a tiny screw clamp that holds it in place. There's a reason people get into the hobby and then give up.
A dobsonian you basically lift the tube and plop it anywhere onto the base and you're good to go. So unless you're fit, don't bother even getting started with anything except the dobsonian.
As dobsonians are cheap, they're easy to buy and sell, and so if you don't hang around in the hobby then you'll be able to exit quietly and not feel much of a loss. If you do become an enthusiast and jump to the top end there's no loss either, because it'll be such a nightmare to set up, you'll still be using the much larger and better dobsonian for all of your normal viewing.
Next, read books on astronomy/star gazing and watch a some videos on stargazing, using a scope, general astronomy, etc. You don't need to have a PhD or anything, but a general working knowledge will serve you well. Also, before you lay out the $$, see if there is a local astronomy club near you (I'll bet there is). Clubs usually host a public stargazing night which is a perfect opportunity for you to get a little scope time and ask questions (and make some friends/connections in the hobby).
If, after all this, you still have the bug it's probably safe to plunk down your hard-earned cash on a wonderful 6" or 8" dobsonian scope. I bought mine about 30-ish years ago and I still have it and use it from time to time. Orion 8" dobs used to be the standard for starting out. You can still pick one up for about $450.00.
I am a very infrequent hobbyist but have bought quality equipment through astromart. Good quality telescopes have very good resale value if you take care of it.
The best telescope for the beginner is the one they can take out easily into the field and use it often.
A good quality 7x50 binocular is good to start with and then move onto something a little bit more substantive like a 3" refractor or an 8" reflector like a dobsonian or a newtonian with a tripod.
Also install a good piece of astronomy software like Stellarium or similar to virtually navigate your night sky and become familiar with constellations and the bright stars that you can see with the naked eye.
Beware this can become quite an expensive hobby if you fall into the rabbit hole.