John Watson

Image Processing Software

Digital cameras all use the .JPG format as standard, which is ideal for subsequent processing on a PC.

Observing the Solar System

The Sun, Moon and planets of our Solar System include some of the most interesting objects for our small telescope.

How to Buy a Budget Telescope

We should first reiterate that by ‘budget’ telescopes, we are in the main referring to telescopes that can be bought through non-specialist shops, department stores, and on the Internet.

The Next Steps

The picture below shows John’s ‘portable’ telescope, a 10-in. (250 mm) Meade LX200, shown with a piggybacked CCD camera. The laptop PC can operate the Starlight Xpress MX5-C CCD camera and – simultaneously – automatically track celestial objects to a very high degree of accuracy. Unless you are a weight-lifter, this is about the largest telescope that can sensibly be regarded as remotely portable for one person.

Photography and Imaging

The eye can only see what is in front of it at any given time; no matter how long you stare at a dim object, it won’t seem to get any brighter. This is not the case with a camera, which is why photography is such a powerful tool for astronomers. When you use a camera to take a normal photograph the shutter (be it mechanical or electronic) is usually open for a tiny fraction of a second, to ‘stop’ the motion of moving objects. Typically this ranges from 1/100 s to 1/2,000 s for a modern camera, hand-held. As you might expect, ten times more light arrives on the CCD (charge-coupled device) chip (that replaces the film in a modern digital camera) if the shutter is open for 1/100 s than it does if it is open only for 1/1,000 s. Obviously, this is not the same way that the eye works.

Trying Out Two Typical Budget Telescopes

Finally, it seemed appropriate to devote some space to providing at least a couple of reports on one or two of the better budget telescopes.

Observing the Stars and Galaxies

Come now to the stellar heavens, where there is a great deal of scope for the user of a budget-priced telescope.

How to Use a Budget Telescope

As we have noted, much depends upon your circumstances as an observer, and on your main interests. One great advantage of a budget telescope is that it will certainly be lightweight enough to be portable, so that if you happen to live in a badly light-polluted area you can simply put the telescope in your car and drive into the country. If you are not a car owner and live in the middle of a city, the best solution is to move home – but of course this isn’t always practical! There’s some good advice for city dwellers in Bob Mizon’s book (from Springer), Light Pollution: Responses and Remedies.