Parts of Refractor Telescope

Video Transcript

"Probably the number one asked question I get is how to choose a telescope. There's a lot of telescopes on the market, they don't have to be expensive to be enjoyed as a matter of fact. Probably the best telescope to begin with, after testing probably hundreds and hundreds of low cost telescopes, would be a refractor. This is an example of a refractor. The way you can identify a refractor is it has the lens in the front of it as opposed to a reflector which will have the mirror in the back. Generally of the refractors I've tested from about 60 millimeters to about 100 millimeters, the lenses are usually very good. The problem is, in choosing this, and this is very important, check the eyepieces. The eyepiece quality will determine what you can see out of the telescope. A lot of your lower cost telescopes will have plastic eyepieces. This will never do, the plastic will cause all kinds of aberrations. There's some very low cost eyepieces out there that will be identified on the side of the eyepiece called "Kelner's", "Plossl's". I can't even tell you how much better it will be if you choose a telescope like that. After you choose a telescope, and I like refractors, moderate focal lengths, they'll be about two foot long, and about 60 - 90 millimeter sizes, the next thing you've got to have is you've got to have a sturdy mount. So go up to the mount, because you'll usually see an example set up in the store, hold your hand on the mount down and try to shake the telescope that's on it. If it shakes freely then you're going to have a hard time, because even if the optics are good, the image is going to move all over the place and you're not going to be able to enjoy the telescope. So, there's many, many companies that make refractors, very low cost. I've seen them as low as $49 and all the way up to about $300 you can get one. Again, refractor, glass eyepieces, very sturdy tripod. That's very important because you don't want it shaking while you're using your power through there. The eyepieces are key. After you find a refractor, the Kelner 's you'll probably want with these eyepieces, and the smaller ones you won't like because the eye release is very hard to see out of, you'll want to get something in probably the 25 millimeter range down to about 12 millimeter range. After you do that, it doesn't matter whether it's a Kelner or Plossl, just stay away from the plastic ones and go for as much rigidity as you can get."