by Joseph Mohr

Created on: July 23, 2007

Beginning amateur astronomers often rush out and buy a telescope. For many reasons this is not a great idea. Buying a telescope takes a little research. Buying a good telescope is an investment in a great hobby that can last a lifetime. Buying a piece of junk off the shelf at Wal-Mart will result in a piece of junk sitting in your garage for an eternity or until the next yard sale.

Surprising to many would be amateur astronomers is that many things in the night sky are visible without a telescope. Some things are far better to see in a set of binoculars. Wide views that come with the use of a set of binoculars is preferable for viewing things such as star clusters, some galaxies such as Andromeda, and in many cases the moon. Other objects can be viewed in binoculars but without the enhanced size that you get from the various eyepieces that can be substituted into a telescope. Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon are very visible in any regular pair of binoculars. All are visible, in fact, to the naked eye. In fact some nebulae are visible to the naked eye. The Orion nebula looks like a wispy little cloud at the belt of Orion but in binoculars or a telescope it is more clear that it is not a cloud at all.

The first thing that any amateur astronomer should set out to learn is the various constellations. This is not because constellations are cool to learn about themselves. They aren't. But being able to find the various constellations gives you the ability to also find other objects in the night sky in relation to the position of those constellations. On various astronomy sites on the net you can often find event calendars that indicate that you can find a particular comet in the constellation of so and so this month or that you can find some other important object this month in a particular area of the sky.

Granted, many of the newer telescopes have computer indexes in them now and these can find objects for you. That is great but not always a viable option. Sometimes you will want to take a scope somewhere out away from town (unless you live away from a major city) to get a better view that isn't washed away by light pollution. Having access to electricity may not be an option. It never hurts to learn how to find things without the computer.

Buying telescopes is an important consideration. Before spending the money learn a little about them. Do not rush out to the local department store and buy some junk off the shelf. You will be wasting your money.

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