The Astronomical Curmudgeon

Telescopes, not binoculars for newcomers

I’ve seen it said many times – ‘The best telescope for a newcomer is a pair of binoculars’. I disagree. The best telescope for a newcomer is, well, a telescope. At public star parties do the people who look through your telescope get excited about dim galaxies or about dim smudges of light? Of course not. You do, because you understand what you’re looking at.

The public gets excited about what they are seeing when it is nice and bright, and when you have a good story to tell about it. Saturn, Jupiter, and the Moon are the ‘wow’ objects for public star parties. After those, bright clusters (the Pleiades), a nice asterism (the coathanger) or a colorful double star (Albireo) are great public star party objects.

The telescope market has changed in the last few years and there are now quite a few choices of telescopes that are inexpensive. In fact you can get a 3” reflector with two eyepieces and a finder for under $50. With this, and other inexpensive telescopes the owner can see Saturn’s rings, the moons of Jupiter, the craters on the moon, and many bright nebulae and clusters.

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Outreach… Sharing the Sky

By Bill Pellerin

Houston Astronomical Society

GuideStar Editor

Don’t miss an opportunity to share the sky with someone. It helps swell the ranks of sky watchers, increases support for our shared goal of keeping the skies dark, and it introduces the public to an activity that can become a lifelong passion. How do you get started? This short article will give you a few ideas.

Venues

You will need to find venues for sharing the sky. Some amateur astronomers have been successful doing ‘sidewalk astronomy’ events. These involve setting up their telescopes in high foot traffic areas and inviting passers-by to look through their telescopes. These usually well-lit urban environments don’t provide dark skies, but the moon, the bright planets and other bright objects can be shared.

Other amateur astronomers have been successful bringing telescopes to organized events, to schools, to places of worship and so on. How do you connect your volunteer group to these events?

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