by Peter West
Consider the simple but so versatile Dobsonian. In 8″ or 10″ (what I have) the Dob is just a light metal tube with a mirror in the bottom resting on a fibre-board lazy-susan type mount. Unlike cheap (anything under $500) telescopes available on Amazon or from stores like Wal-Mart which can be mechanically unstable and optically compromised the Dob is a great telescope for viewing the Moon, the planets and even deep sky objects (under dark skies). While expensive telescopes with “go-to” mounts are great once you know what you’re doing and you’re willing to make the investment and electronic-enhanced telescopes like the new SeeStar S50 which makes producing images of nearby objects doable at a great price and makes for terrific second scopes (I’m looking seriously at buying one.) They don’t teach you much about astronomy.
The sturdy Dob on the other hand being all manual all the time will with a good star guide (I recommend Turn Left At Orion) teach you astronomy. There is no more magical moment than viewing the rings of Saturn or the visible moons of Jupiter or dropping down into a crater on the Moon while looking with your own eyes through your own Dobsonian telescope. There are lots of highly respected and knowledgeable astronomers who despite investing thousands of hours of viewing through telescope systems costing tens of thousands of dollars never sold their first Dobsonian telescope. BTW the big white tube in the centre of the photo is my 10-inch Dob setup for another night of star-gazing from Bronte Heritage Park in Oakville, Ontario.
