Sideways Orion

Gifting a telescope December 9, 2020

So you think you might want to give someone a telescope for the holidays, and you don’t know where to start. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Of course, my first piece of advice is to consider binoculars instead.

Binoculars are great. They’re easy to use, and don’t require any accessories. They’re also super useful for all sorts of other things, like bird watching, sporting events, or opera (though really, good astronomy binoculars are a bit bigger than opera glasses!) A good pair of 7×35 binoculars can hang on the hook next to the door, so they’re ready for use in 10 seconds. They’re easy to carry on a hike, or stick in the glove box or carry-on for travel. They’ll pull in mountains on the Moon or the moons of Jupiter even in the city, and if you find someplace dark, they’re easy enough to hold to be able to spot the beehive cluster in winter or M13 in the summer. Add in a tripod bracket and lightweight tripod and you’re ready for a tougher challenge, like the rings of Saturn or the ring nebula, still in under 10 minutes.

When looking for binoculars, the first number is magnification, the second is aperture. Magnification makes details easier to see, but without aperture there won’t be any details. Aperture determines how much light the binoculars (or telescope) can collect. The more light, the brighter and more detailed your image. Usually though, he want to be able to hold binoculars. The bigger the aperture, the heavier the binoculars get. I recommend sticking to something 10 x 50 or smaller, unless you use a tripod.

But, if you’re sure you want a telescope, the most important thing is to get something they’ll use. Nothing beats trying out a scope before you buy it. Check with your local library, since many have telescope loaner programs. Or get in touch with your local astronomy club to see if they have a beginners night. If you’re lucky, you might even have a camera or hobby shop that carries good telescopes. Of course, in the time of Covid, anything in-person is hard. Checking places that do reviews, like Sky and Telescope magazine or the https://www.cloudynights.com/ forums is a great place to find out if a ’scope is worthwhile.

For a starter ’scope, you want something lightweight but sturdy, quick to set up, and easy to point. There are few things more frustrating than watching Jupiter zip randomly through the field of view because the telescope won’t stay steady.

I really like tabletop newtonian telescopes as a starter. These telescopes have a mirror in the bottom to collect the light. The mirror is usually 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and that size is what determines the aperture. I’ve used a Celestron FirstScope and found the views were decent, and the ’scope was easy to use and sturdy enough to do some traveling. Orion and Meade make similar telescopes which also get good reviews. I recommend getting a small folding table to go with it. To use these telescopes, you basically set it on the table and push the tube around to point it. There are no frills, no bells and whistles. You’ll need to know you way around the sky to really use it, but you won’t break the bank on it either. I’m still using the 4″ tabletop ’scope I got for Christmas 40 years ago! Expect to spend $50 – $100.

A slightly bigger newtonian style telescope is called a Dobsonian. These are meant to sit on the ground. They’re easy to use and give you a lot of bang for your buck. However, they take up a lot of space and they’re unwieldy to move. They’ll also require some periodic maintenance, called collimation, to keep all the elements aligned and the view looking good. On the other hand, you can often find used ones in the Cloudy Nights classifieds! Orion made these popular, but all three companies make good versions. Several companies also make dollies for these so if you can store it someplace where you don’t need to move it over high door sills or up and down steps you can really get a lot of aperture for the money. I recommend starting with a 6 or 8 inch, with a focuser that accepts 2”wide eyepieces. A used 6” can be found for $200, and there really isn’t an upper limit.

You’ll find Newtonian style telescopes with tripods in the 3 – 6” size too. However, the tripods are often flimsy or hard to use, and I haven’t found one that I could recommend.

I’ve also checked out a few 60 and 70mm refractors, but a 3 – 4 inch mirror is so much better than a 2 -3 inch lens that I can’t recommend a small refractor. The one exception is the Galileoscope, which I love as a teaching tool. It comes completely disassembled, and can be used as an optical bench, if you want to experiment with the lenses. Really, its a nice optics science kit that can be assembled into a mediocre telescope. If you’re willing to spend $200 – $300, Orion and Celestron make nice refractors in the 80 – 90mm aperture size. Meade also makes them, and usually for a little less money, but I’ve found their tripods to be flimsy, with sharp edges. You might be able to find a Meade telescope without a tripod, then find a better mount, but that’s probably more effort than you want to put in. Or look for one that is closer to the $300 mark, and gets good reviews.

Those companies also make some entry-level go-to telescopes. Go-to is the term for a mount that will automatically move the telescope to the target for you. I’d be wary of any of those that cost less than $500, even used. They can be rather tedious to set up and align, and some of the control parts can’t be replaced when they become outdated. There’s also “Push-to”, which is where there is some device that will tell you which way to move the telescope. These are usually add-ons you install yourself. They’re popular with Dobsonian owners, and are an economical way to get a telescope that will tell you where you should point.

There are other companies out there too. You’ll find Tasco and Bausch & Lomb in department stores and even drug stores. They’re usually ’scopes to avoid. There are also several companies that make really fantastic telescopes, but are much more expensive. There’s even a company here in Michigan, Planewave, that makes stunning telescopes on ingenious mounts, but way outside my price point! Orion, Celestron and Meade make high end telescopes as well. Once you’re looking at those, you’re net looking at a starter ’scope anymore, and it’s probably not going to be a good gift unless you have input from the person you’re buying it for.

Meteor Shower Season 2019 August 1, 2019

Late July & Early August is full of meteor showers!

Two different showers originate in Aquarius. They tend to be low activity, but the July 30/August 1 new moon give you a better chance than usual of seeing something good!

Of course the most famous shower of the year is the Peseids. This year they peak around August 13, just in time for the full Moon. Fortunately, this very active shower not only has a high number of meteors at its peak, it has a really long period of activity before its peak.

There are also a couple other minor meteor showers, and you might catch one of two of those in the wee hours. Check out the AMS Meteor Activity Outlook for this week (July 27 – August 2) for more details.

It’s best to observe in the early morning hours. Meteors happen when the Earth runs into debris floating in space. In the early morning, you (the observer) are facing the same direction that Earth is traveling through space, so you’ll see more of the debris hitting the Earth. Also, at the beginning of August, the Moon will set early, and darker skies are important!

In the first week of August, you might spot 10 – 20 meteors per hour. Look eastward until about 3 AM, then turn southward until sunrise.

Here’s a map of the eastern sky at 1 AM on August 1st. Perseus is on the left (NE), Aquarius on the right (SE).

Looking east from Ann Arbor at 1AM August 1st.