Telescopes Basics

The view of the Moon through a small telescope

When you tell someone you are an amateur astronomer, they quite often ask, "What sort of telescope have you got?" The answer of an f/10, 12-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain will either send the questioner into a frenzied state of excitement, or total silence before they move on to the next subject.

The second question, if they get this far, is, "What is its magnification?" And this idea of magnifying images must be sorted out immediately, especially if you are thinking of buying a telescope.

The Magnification of a telescope means NOTHING whatsoever. You should NEVER consider magnification when buying one.

This might sound odd, I mean surely you are buying a telescope in order to see things bigger? True, but any telescope that is worth buying will do that anyway. What you must start to do is worry when telescope makers use high-magnification as one of their selling points, such as a small telescope displaying "WITH A WHOPPING 200 TIMES MAGNIFICATION! - You're almost in Space!". In fairness, I am not saying these telescopes are uselss, but you will find them quite limiting in a very short period of time, especially if you intend to be a keen stargazer.

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