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Thinking of buying your first telescope?

I can help you with that!

My first scope changed my life!

Let me start out by saying that for over twelve years of doing public star parties. I have been asked about buying My First Telescope hundreds if not thousand of times. So I thought I would put my thoughts on the subject here. Heck there may be one or two people that read it.

Please note; I am talking to the complete beginner here! The majority of this site will be for the benefit of the total newbie. looking to buy "My First Scope"

I personally think every house hold should have at least one telescope. You may find out after some research you may want, or even “need” more than one first telescope!

Some day, you may find yourself with 8 “first telescopes” in your garage that you don’t have any room left to walk in, so you take out all the Christmas stuff, the bicycles, your tools and you leave them outside to make room for all the telescopes you “need”?….(Sorry that was my wife)

ANYWAY

The first time you see Saturn or Jupiter on a clear night through your first telescope. It's something you will never forget.

You will say:

WOW !

Every body does!

Then you start to think... I could get one of these…. My first scope wouldn't have to be to big or expensive ….MY first scope would just be something to set up in the back yard now and then? Maybe at the next BBQ ….I could impress the neighbors...It would be cool! The kids would love this stuff!

At least that’s what I remember thinking about getting my first scope<G> Let me point out here, that I am not a natural born science geek. I am a career construction guy. But once my wife showed me Saturn and Jupiter through her first telescope, a 50 mm refractor (that is really small) I was HOOKED! I only saw an oblong white spot for Saturn and a wavy white spot with lines on it for Jupiter but it was over... I wanted to see more!

I wanted to see ALL THE PLANETS; I wanted to see the flag on the moon! I wanted to see nebulas, galaxies, star clusters, I didn't even know what 90% of anything celestial was called but I wanted to see all of it. Only I knew my first scope needed to be bigger.....Hmmm, but what would I get for my first scope? Where would I buy my first scope and how much could I spend on my first scope? There was a lot to learn...

So I started to research MY FIRST SCOPE

Okay, if you are in the the "I want My First Scope" mode ...Before we go any further, I have to tell you this.

Warning: Astronomy can be addicting!

If you need to have your beauty sleep, or if you don’t like the cold or if you don’t like being out late at night, if you don’t like hanging out with a bunch of great, friendly, intelligent interesting people ….then you should go no further.

With that said ...back to "my first scope".

 On this site we are going to address the very basics of telescopes, eyepieces and telescope mounts. I give a lot of links to sites that will fill your brain till it hurts on the techie or math subjects. Many of the links will take you to Wikipedia or some other source for more information. Go to these places get what you need, come back here and put that info to work. Anything and Everything you learn will help you make an informed decision when you decide to buy your "First Telescope"

The Basic Telescope

First Telescopes are usually made up of three main components. The telescope, the eyepiece and the telescope mount. Each of these can be broken down into sub components.

It is these sub components that can make huge changes in how a telescope operates as a complete system.

The Telescope or "tube" some times called an "optical tube assembly" (or OTA) is known as assembly because there are interchangeable sub components that make up an OTA. Such as secondary mirrors, spiders, focusing assemblies, etc. More my first Scope information here

The Eyepiece: There are so many combinations of sizes and glass and how a lens is ground and really far out math involved that I don't understand, when it comes to an eyepiece ...I wont try to explain it to you...Lets just say its a smaller telescope you use to control the light gathered by the big telescope, and leave it there for now. More info in Eyepiece Basics

The telescope mount: Essentially something that holds the telescope so you don't have to! See more in Telescope Mount Basics

I wanted my first scope to be a good multipurpose scope. Unfortunately I thought my first scope should be able to do everything the hubble can. Boy was I mistaken! I was soon to find out that I may be needing a few My First Scopes to do everything I wanted to do LOL

Ask yourself some questions before you research my first telescope