{"id":27094,"date":"2019-11-28T19:24:19","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T05:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=27094"},"modified":"2019-11-28T19:37:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T05:37:14","slug":"christmas-telescopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/?p=27094","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Telescopes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We just received the Costco<\/a> Christmas sales mailer. Every year there is a telescope featured, promoted as a gift. Not just slightly featured either, but included on the front page of the flyer, the first thing you see when you pick the mailer up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Celestron<\/a>
A typical inexpensive telescope, the Celestron Astromaster 130EQ<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The telescope this year is a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ<\/a>, the typical small reflector on an equatorial mount. The deal includes several eyepieces, filters, and a cell phone adapter for afocal photography<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those of us with long practical experience just cringe when we see such telescopes. These cheap telescopes are usually more of a frustration to would be amateur astronomers than useful. Cheap ‘scopes have deterred more folks from the hobby than we will ever know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We used to call such telescopes ‘department store telescopes’ in a very negative way. With the demise of department stores it is now stores like Costco and Walmart that now sell such telescopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These light German equatorial mounts are usually wobbly and difficult for beginners to use. There really is no need for a small mount to be equatorial unless you are doing long exposure astrophotography, and that requires a motor drive and more stability than such a light mount provides. A more stable alt-az mount<\/a> is far more user friendly and would be a better choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have repeated the line so many times… A telescope is one of those things when you want to buy a decent one or do not bother. A cheap telescope will get used once or twice, then sit in a closet for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally I think at least 5 or 6″ aperture is the minimum for a beginner’s telescope, about 125 or 150mm. Anything less will put a lot of the best nebulae and clusters out of reach, reducing them to dim shadows of the beauty they provide in a larger ‘scope. If you can afford it buy an 8″ telescope for your first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expect to pay at least $500-$1200 for an entry level<\/a> telescope<\/a> worth buying<\/a>. If you can, get advice from someone with experience in the hobby before putting your money down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better yet, attend a few star parties with your local astronomy club to see for yourself what is available. No need to own a ‘scope to attend, generally folks will invite you to look through theirs and cheerfully answer your questions about the equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your price range is around $100, consider a good pair of binoculars<\/a> instead. These will be more useful, can be used for stargazing, and much more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We just received the Costco Christmas sales mailer. Every year there is a telescope featured, promoted as a gift. Not just slightly featured either, but included on the front page of the flyer, the first thing you see when you pick the mailer up. The telescope this year is a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ, the typical … Continue reading “Christmas Telescopes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1110],"tags":[2703,771,158],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Celestron130EQ.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27094"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27143,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27094\/revisions\/27143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darkerview.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}