Telescope Buying Guide

n a b z i l l a ♥ asked:


My friend has his birthday coming up and he’s really into astronomy and the such and has wanted a telescope for a while. I was wondering what would be a really good telescope to get him that isn’t too expensive. Also I would like to know the details, eg magnification or whatever, because im not really familiar with telescopes. Thank you.

Some Thing asked:


I’m buying a telescope and I want to look at planets and stars with it.How can I know that telescope can know that I can see all of that with a telescope?

McDonald asked:


My question is, if we were to build a gigantic telescope that could show us incredible detail on planets, would we actually be seeing what’s happening on the planet in real-time, or would we still see what’s happened several minutes ago because of the fact that light has to travel down to us to see anything. Thats supposing we could view, or record live views through the telescope eyepiece.

By the way, I know how expensive and difficult this would be, but if we in theory did make such a telescope, would we be viewing in real-time?

Cullum Andrews asked:


My telescope needs a good dusting but I don’t want to scratch the mirrors and lenses. I have some sunglasses cleaner and the cloth that comes with it. At first this seamed ideal, but then it dawned on me that perhaps a the moisture can get between the lenses and fog up upon use also the mirrors can scratch from the cloth.

KimT asked:


I’ve been interested with stars and planets recently. I’d love to have a small telescope and i would like to know where can i buy one here in our country.

secretspy007 asked:


I’m making a telescope model and need to creat specifically a a galilean one. How do i make one with household items and if i need specific lenses where or how can i get them?

hello asked:


I have to make a telescope and it has a diverging lens as the eye piece, and a really big converging lens as the objective lens. But i don’t get how to make the ray diagrams, please help!

Ben asked:


I have a 900mm reflector telescope with a manual powered mount, and would like to get into basic astrophotography. Should I just bring my telescope into the camera store and ask, or is it a bit more involved to get the right gear? Where should I go?

Mystro asked:


What do the colors mean? And the shapes?

What do you call an image created by a radio telescope?

Philip M asked:


I purchased my Telescope March 31st, and how only been able to use it 4 times out of this month due to cloudy weather. Hopefully I’ll get to use it for a 5th time tonight. How many nights, on average, do you get to use your telescope in 30 days time?