Finder Scopes

The narrower  the field of view, the less area you can view.With a narrow field of view (FOV) it can be difficult to locate deep sky objects in the night sky.

To overcome this, a finder scope is often mounted on the telescope to make it easier to locate objects. A finder scope has  a field of view much wider than a telescope. Finder scopes make it easier to locate objects, and are useful when aligning the scope to the night sky and are especially useful with computerized “go-to” telescopes.

What follows is a brief explanation of finder scopes and what I use. Continue reading Telescope Buying Guide For Campers (Part 6) →

Eyepieces

Most telescopes come with one inexpensive eyepiece. One of the first purchases a new telescope owner will make is a selection of eyepieces. Online astronomy forums have hundreds upon hundreds of pages debating what eyepieces are the best. Some amateur astronomers have invested more money in their eyepieces than they paid for their telescope!

Time to discuss eyepiece basics. Continue reading Telescope Buying Guide For Campers (Part 5) →

Powering Your Telescope

If you buy a telescope with “Go To” functions, which I advise, you’ll need a way to power it. Motor driven mounts such as the NexStar Alt-Az mounts cannot be manually adjusted to view objects. As discussed in Part 3 of this series, eight AA batteries can power the NexStar telescopes. Unfortunately the batteries don’t last very long. Continue reading Telescope Buying Guide For Campers (Part 4) →