Light Pollution

With such a bewildering range of telescopes available, how is the beginner to choose a scope that will be suitable and encourage him or her to pursue their interest in astronomy? Unfortunately the sheer range of telescopes available makes making a decision difficult if you are new to the field and there are plenty of traps for the unwary.

There are several considerations including the ease of set-up, practicality, portability, the location you will be viewing from and of course your budget. As for the power of your scope, its important to understand that will be determined by the diameter the lens or mirror, which we call the aperture. The larger it is the more light you catch so the more you can see.

For those in cities of suburban areas there are practical reasons to favour small refractors. They are easy to store away and grab on a whim for casual observation. They can be used for land viewing too (an image corrector is usually required) and need minimal maintenance. They also tend to deal with city and suburban light pollution better than reflectors. They tend to be more expensive than the same size reflectors but the smaller sizes used by amateurs this is not so much an issue.

Reflectors on the other hand are great where there is less light pollution and storage is less tight. They need a little maintenance and set-up time but they are an economical way to achieve wide apertures and so can let you see more. At the extreme end this class includes those huge dobsonian telescopes you see on turntables but you need a lot of room to store those!

There is another class known as catadioptric telescopes, they are in some ways a mix of the reflector and refractor and are popular with more experienced observers but generally not so favoured by newcomers. They often come with computerised navigation however so a few of the lazier beginners jump straight to these!

I’d sincerely recommend thinking about the location you’ll be viewing from and how you will store your scope or move it about when you are using it. The more practical it is the more you are likely to use the scope and enjoy it! I’d also recommend not choosing the computerised navigation scopes as half the fun is in learning to navigate your own way around!

By: Aidan James

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