Telescopes always make great presents

Got someone on your holiday gift list who loves astronomy and stargazing? Maybe that someone is you.

Well there's much to choose from. There are books, magazine subscriptions, software, and of course, telescopes. What I want to do for you this week in Starwatch is give you my recommendations for astronomical gift giving.

I can't possibly list everything, but I want to take a shot at what I think are the best buys.

As far as books, I have several picks for you. One of them is “The Backyard Astronomer's Guide” by Terence Dickenson, published by Bookmaker's Press. It's a great overall book for the hobby of amateur astronomy and stargazing.

Along with star maps and charts, it has useful information on observing with or without telescopes, celestial photography, and a lot of great information on our visible universe. It also has a wonderful accompanying website with great updates.

Throwing all humility to the wind, I also recommend my new book, “Stars, a Month by Month Guide to the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications.

There's also my first book, “Pennsylvania Starwatch” published by Voyageur Press.

Both books have user friendly star maps for every month of the year as well as detailed individual constellation charts, along with the locations of clusters, nebula, galaxies and other celestial delights.

There's also telescope information, star lore and much more. I think and hope you'll enjoy them. “Pennsylvania Starwatch” is a larger coffee table book while “Stars” is much more compact and wonderful to take in the field.

As far as a book on stargazing for young children, my favorite right now is simply called “Stars” by Mary Lyn Ray, published by Beach Lane Books.

It's a great book for youths in early elementary school that really does a great job explaining the basics.

As far as magazines, a gift subscription to either Astronomy Magazine or Sky and Telescope magazine would be wonderful. Both have news, great articles and columns, star maps with the positions of the planets, and great accompanying websites. In my opinion Sky and Telescope is a superior publication but Astronomy Magazine is better designed for beginners.

Without a doubt, my absolute favorite recommendation for astronomy software is the app Sky Walk. There are other apps and software like it, but I think it's the best.

With Sky Walk you can load it in your iPad or iPhone and hold it up into the night sky and it will display with good accuracy what stars and constellations you're gazing at with all kinds of great information.

It will even play soothing celestial music to add to your heavenly experience. Unless your giftee doesn't have an iPad, consider Sky Walk a stocking stuffer as it's only 99 cents.

Now for telescopes. The best brands in my opinion are Meade, Celestron and Orion.

Before I get to specific recommendations, 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.

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 spin offs 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 60 mm refractor, which means it has a 60 mm 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.

They are definitely more expensive, but if you ever want to do serious celestial photography you need this kind of scope.

All three types of telescopes 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 and then track it across the sky.

These are called “go-to” systems that are very nice to have but do add to the cost of the scope.

They are worth it though.

Here are some recommended scopes for this holiday season:

Celestron AstroMaster 90 EQ Refractor Telescope

It's great for a serious beginner. It has a large 90 mm objective lens that brings in a lot of light and has a wonderful mount.

The telescope retails at around $400 but it often goes on sale.

Orion 8 Inch SkyQuest Intelliscope

It has an eight-inch wide mirror and is a wonderful and easily portable telescope for the whole family.

A computerized navigation system can really help in locating faint objects.

It retails for less than $650. For about $1,000 you can get the same model with a “go-to” and tracking motor.

Celestron CPC 1100 GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain

This scope has a precise GPS “go-to” tracking navigation system.

If you want to step up into the art of astrophotography this is the scope to get.

I have one and love it. You can buy one for around $3,000.

No matter what kind of telescope you get or give, read the instructions thoroughly.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul and is author of the book, “Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at www.adventurepublications.net.