Talking about telescopes
If there's someone on your holiday gift list who loves the stars — and that someone may be you — there is so much to choose from. There are books, magazines, software and of course, telescopes.
Before I get to specific recommendations on telescopes, I really want to emphasize that the main mission of your telescope is to gather as much light as it can, because the more light that enters your scope, the clearer the image is going to be.
Magnification or "power" is controlled by which eyepiece you use. Most telescopes come with two or three eyepieces that give you different magnifications. With each increase in magnification, the object will lose some clarity, but the more light you can gather in your scope, the clearer you'll see with those higher magnifications.
For most celestial objects you really don't need all that much magnification. Usually 100 to 200 power magnification is just fine for galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. You'll especially use the higher magnification eyepieces on planets and the moon.
There are three basic types of telescopes: reflectors, refractors and Schmidt Cassegrain telescopes. There are also spinoffs of each type of telescope.
Refractor telescopes gather light with the objective lens, the one where light enters the scope. The wider that lens is, the more light-gathering power you'll have. The minimum you'd want to have is a 60mm refractor, which means it has a 60mm objective lens.
Reflector telescopes gather light with a concave parabolic mirror and the end of an open tube. The image gathered by the mirror is sent to the eyepiece with a flat mirror that bounces the image outside the tube to the eyepiece.
Minimum diameter on reflector scopes should be at least six inches, but my suggestion would be eight inches for only a little more money. Reflectors are my favorite type of scope and I dare say many amateur astronomers agree with me. You just get more bang for your buck.
Schmitt Cassegrain scopes are basically a design combining the optics of both the reflector and refractor scopes. While these scopes are generally more portable, they are more expensive.
All three types of telescope use various mounting systems with optional electronic clock drive systems that will track whatever you're looking at as it moves along in the sky, keeping your target in the field of vision.
You can even get mounting systems that will automatically direct the telescope at whatever you desire. These are called "go-to" systems that are very nice to have but add significantly to the cost of the scope.
Let me cut to the chase. The following three telescopes are my favorites.
• The Meade 70AZ-AR Altazimuth Refractor. It has a 70mm objective lens that retails for $79.99. This would be a great telescope for kids. You can buy it at www.telescopes.com.
• The Orion eight-inch SkyQuest Intelliscope (with an eight-inch wide mirror). A wonderful and easily portable telescope for the whole family. It retails for less than $500 with an optional computerized navigation system for about another $100. You can buy it with your scope or get it later. Their Web site is www.telescope.com.
• The Meade 8 Inch LX200R is a good buy if you want a nice Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope. I recommend this one. It has a navigation system and clock drive system. You can buy one for $2,699 at www.telescopes.com.
No matter what kind of telescope you get or give, read the instructions thoroughly.
One more thing. Always use your telescope outside and make sure you let it sit outside for at least a good half-hour to acclimate to the temperature. If you don't let the component of your scope cool off, you might get some real funky, fuzzy images.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the new book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.
