Star Parties for Testing Telescopes

Video Transcript

"When considering what type of telescope you'd like to buy as your first instrument, it would be very nice to go and look and see what different instruments do, how well they see the sky, and what they can show you. A good way to do this is to go to star parties or places where amateur astronomers meet, greet and show off their equipment. And they love to do it. Most astronomers sit out at night alone, they see incredible things and they look for opportunities to pull somebody to the side and, and get them to look in the eyepiece and see the beauty that they see. So it should be fairly simple if you're on the internet, of course. Look for a astronomy club in your area. They'll hold meetings at certain times of the month or have star parties. Observatories at college campuses often have public nights and amateur astronomers will be on hand there to show their instruments. And it's good to get the experience of people who have actually been out, used different kinds of telescopes before you purchase yours."