Telescope Buying Guide

Shanna Banana asked:


I remember in about the 5th grade this guy came into our class and he had a really big telescope. We used it to look at sun spots. I remember the guy saying he was just an amateur astronomer, and that he had spent like $30,000 on this telescope.
Does anyone know where I could buy something like that?

Robert asked:


During the Transit of Mercury a few years ago, an Astronomy professor on campus had telescopes set up. Some were set up to project an image through the viewfinder onto a white sheet, and some had filters over the lens to view it directly. I wanted to try this with my own refracting telescope, and I swear one of the “filters” he was using was simple aluminum foil. Problem is, I can’t find ANY info. out there on whether this is safe or not.

guitarboy asked:


iv always thought the idea of being able to see a planet through a telescope for myself would be awesome but i don’t want to spend a tonne of money in order to do it. what are the cheapest telescopes i could get that would provide i good picture of these.

Jeep asked:


When you look into the sky, you don’t see galaxy next to galaxy. You see star next to star.

Even if you had a telescope, you would *still* see star next to star. So how is it possible, that this Hubble telescope sees galaxy next to galaxy?

Bit confusing…

barb71 asked:


Its for my science project I need to list four parts of the eye and relate them to the refracting telescope. Thank you!