99Percent

I want to buy a decent telescope and get into observing the sky. There is just one problem - I live in two cities that have awful light polution, and in Texas the altitude seems too low, but that can be just a misconception. In Mexico I could go camp to some high altitude mountains near Mexico city but I am not sure how safe of a proposition that would be.

How do you go about finding good safe locations to view the skies? Is it even worth it? How about good amateur astronomical clubs, or camps and tours? Any good links on the web?

TIA

Walross

Hello 99Percent,

may I recommend <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/155209507X/qid=1037075823/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-6649099-4927251?v=glance&s=books&n=507846" target="_blank">The Backyard Astronomer's Guide</a>, by Dickinson and Dyer. They go over everything that someone just starting out in the hobby should know, and go into great detail about telescopes and binoculars, as well as naked eye astronomy. I was given it as a birthday present many years ago, and it's proven invaluable ever since. Oh, and their attitude is that there's plenty of cool things to see, even with the naked eye in the most light polluted cities. Regards,

Walross

seesaw

Walross is right that book is nice to start learning astronomy.

Shadowy Man

Dark skies are more important than high altitude.

Wyz_sub10

My advice - buy a good pair of binoculars first. Get acquainted with the sky and what you can and cannot see.

Also, when buying a telescope, get a good mount and tripod.

Late_Cretaceous

A good beginer's telescope I would recommend is a Dobsonian mount. THe telescope looks a bit like a canon on a lazy susan, but they are ever so simple to use- cost a fraction of a complicated german equatorial (many of which are crap anyways), and can be built from scratch in you garage over a couple of weekends if you have tools. As long as the mount is stable and whiplash/vibration free it can provide years of service. I know many "serious amature astronomers" who swear by dobsonians. I have one myself. It takes less then 2 minutes to set up.
If you are going to invest in a telscope, get one with a good mirror and eyepieces.

As far as observing locations. THey can be hard to find on one's own. You don't want to wind up tresspassing of private property, or worse - set up you telescope just moments before carloads of partying teenagers show up. Most major cities have astronomy clubs, many of which have locations where people congregate. The best thing to have when starting out observing is other people who are interested and experienced to show you how to observe, and what to look at. Plus, there is safety in numbers.

AbbyNormal

My advice is to hold off on the telescope purchase. A good telescope is an investment which can bring many years of use. But if you become frustrated with it, added to the frustration of bad skies and not knowing your way around the stars, it will end up collecting dust.
Pick up a current issue of Sky and Telescope, see what's up this time of year, then see what you *can* see from your backyard. The light pollution can actually sometimes help in this regard as it filters out a lot of the "background noise" of fainter stars, leaving the brightest ver easy to see. Get a feel for where stars, constellations, planets are in relation to one another. Then go for a drive...you'd be amazed how quickly the sky darkens by just driving an hour away from the city. Find a spot you like...even better look up the local astronomy club and see where they go.
Spend some time up front just taking in the sweep of the sky, without binoculars or telescopes. It will help later, and you can see some pretty neat things with just the naked eye.
As far as a first telescope purchase, dobsonians are probably the best for first-time buyers. They're simple, relatively inexpensive, and you get a lot of aperture (a measure of how much light you can gather) for the buck. Just my $0.02.
Have fun.

atrahasis

I have a good advice,

Change your lifestyle completely as in try sleeping during the day so that you are awake all night......otherwise you never get to see most of the stars unless of course you borrow a lift with NASA and go into space......KOOL!

The next advice i would give is.....try to make friends with astronomist astrophysicists and so forth, to start with, write a mail to Tom Van Flandern and ask him where he started.......[TVF is a planetry mechanics expert]....

Best
Xisuthros

Asha'man

The Backyard Astronomers Guide that Walross suggested is indeed a good book. It was just revised, so make sure you get the new edition.

Starting with Binoculars is also a good plan. You can learn the sky, making it easier to find things later on. If you go this route, make sure you put them on a tripod, hand-held binoculars just don’t work well for looking at the sky. There are a number of lists and books on binocular astronomy.

As for a telescope, I have a mixed opinion. The Dobsonian mounted reflector allows you to get a larger aperture for the money, and can give good views. On the other hand, the Dobsonian mount does not support a cheap clock drive, so you will be continually adjusting the telescope to compensate for the rotation of the earth. At low magnifications, this isn’t much of a hassle, but it will become annoying when taking high power looks at planets.

The other thing to consider these days is what is called “GOTO,” which is having computerized electronics and drive motors on the mount, allowing the scope to point itself to interesting objects in the sky and then track them. The price of Goto scopes has dropped considerably recently, with both Meade and Celestron offering several options below $1,000. The big advantage of Goto is that you spend more time looking at things, and less time searching for them. If you enjoy hunting for things, it may not be worth the money, but I just paid a good bit for Goto electronics on my scope.

You can also get Digital Setting Circles. This is the electronics part of a Goto system, without the drive motors. You still push the scope by hand, but the electronics tells you very precisely where to point the scope. These are available for Dobsonian mounts, but won’t provide tracking.

Lastly, I’d advise not jumping into a quick telescope purchase. If you get something that doesn’t suit your needs, you will be frustrated and drop the hobby, probably for the wrong reasons. There are tons of children whose interest in astronomy was squashed by the cheap department store telescope they got for xmas. Poor optics and a shaky mount will turn even the easiest of targets into a bouncing blur.

Spend some time with a local astronomy club, observing through other people’s scopes. (I’ve never met an amateur astronomer that didn’t want to share his views through the eyepiece!) Find out what works and what doesn’t. You may be able to pick up a good deal on a used scope, and even get instructions on how to use it from the former owner.

Asha'man

Oh, one more item:

<a href="http://home.attbi.com/~psmcd/clubs.html" target="_blank">Texas Astronomy Clubs</a>