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Things to keep in mind for Telescope
For all the amateur astronomers out there, you must be planning to invest in a telescope, if you haven’t already then this is the perfect place for you to plan your first telescope. Here are the four key points you must remember for a better experience. Before we get into the technical parts, we will see below all the telescope parts.
Types of Telescope
There are three types of telescopes –
-Refractor
-Reflector
-Catadioptric
Refractor Telescope have a lens at the front of the tube. They are also low maintenance.
Reflector telescope have a mirror at the rear of the main tube and gathers the light. These are the least expensive type, but you’ll need to adjust the optical alignment everytime.
Catadioptric or Compound Telescope are the instruments which uses the combination of lenses and mirrors also have compact tubes and relatively light in weight.
First thing first, the telescope you choose regardless of the type, the aperture is the most critical aspect of a telescope as the aperture is the diameter of the mirror or lens of the telescope. The bigger the aperture, the better the picture quality. Also, a bigger aperture means a bigger telescope. So you must keep that in mind if you want to travel with your telescope. The brightness and sharpness of the image are also determined by the aperture. As a thumb rule, your telescope must have at least 70 mm (2.8 inches) Aperture and more for a better experience.
The second objective for choosing a telescope is by determining the telescope magnification (power). It is simply the objective’s focal length divided by that of the eyepiece which you’ll find on the barrel. For example, if a telescope has a focal length of 500 mm and a 10-mm eyepiece, then the magnification is 500/10, or 50x. Usually, the telescopes come with one or two eyepieces which can be switched with the different focal lengths for magnification.
Thirdly for a telescope, there are mainly two categories for the mounts:-
-Altitude-Azimuth (Alt-Az)
-Equatorial
In both mounts, the telescope’s optical tube can point around the sky.
For a telescope the mount matters the most as to the deep space and celestial objects, it must be aligned with the motion of the thing we want to see about the movement of the Earth.
Fourthly the budget for the telescope. From a beginner’s point of view in the market there are a lot of options in every price range. On a personal level, I would suggest K-SON 80-mm Aperture 720-mm Focal length Refractor Telescope with AZ mount and1¼” 10mm Kellner eyepiece, a 1¼” 25mm Astroscopic Eyepiece, with a 3x Astroscopic Barlow.