Robert (gurdonark) wrote,
Robert
gurdonark

everything to see but the eyepiece

Last night's mail brought in a very interesting eBay purchase. It's a little beginner telescope called a Meade Compact Refracting Telescope. It's a little 60 mm. "rich field" scope, which is a fancy way of saying it's got a short tube and a 2.4" aperture and isn't really designed for looking at astronomical objectives in detail, but instead will be good for low-magnification views of less difficult things. I've had fancy telescopes before, but this time I wanted something simple that could double as a viewing scope for birds.

Bare holly bush in January, Springfield Park, Rowlett, north Texas

Now, though, I face a challenge--to find the right eyepiece. The scope tube I bought did not come with eyepieces, so that I must go out and find my own. My reading this morning indicates that one can spend as much as one wants to spend on an eyepiece. I know a few bits of telescope wisdom, though:

1. people go haywire with high magnification on cheap telescopes, when a cheap telescope actually provides its best results with very low magnification; and

2. the main problem I have with telescopes is that I want a very rich field of view, rather than having to worry constantly about pointing the tube in just the right way.

My hope is that I will have fun birding and looking at the moon in this scope. But right now I am aiming to have fun finding the perfect inexpensive lens to use with this scope. Then I will focus on how to make my point-and-shoot somehow magically take pictures through the lens.
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