which telescope should i select?

[asutoshjha]

I was studiying about proxima B and other planets, i was so exicted to know about peoxima centuri so i googled the word
i have not any knowledge of telescopes , how to select the one to see the farthest objects that I CAN

[Ylem]

First welcome to TSS

There isn't any perfect scope, that's why you see that many of us own several. They are like tools, each one kind of has a purpose.

A few things to keep in mind, of course you have cost, by chosing a budget we can help a bit more.

Size, if you go too big, they get harder to carry outside. Do you have stairs in and out of your dwelling?

Then, sadly because of the pandemic, scopes are a bit harder to find in stock.

My first recommendation is to pick up a pair of binoculars to start out.
75% of my observing time is with binos, even though I own several scopes. A simple 7x50 or 10x50 will open up amazing skies!

Stick around, learning about the different available scopes is a lot of fun.

[turboscrew]

What's your budget? $100? $100 000?
And it's not so much about the distance, but brightness of the objects.
Here's a very simple simulator, so you can get some idea what you can expect to see with what kind of telescope.
https://www.stelvision.com/en/telescope-simulator/

You could also check our General Astronomy Subforum and Astronomy Reports under it.
The reports are usually textual descriptions about what the observer has seen, but there can, sometimes, be pictures too, like: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19136 .

[gregl]

Something to be wary of are the telescopes in big box stores. They are usually unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. Before you buy I strongly, strongly urge you to see if there is a club in your area that will let you look through some of their scopes. A bigger one is not always better.
I echo the advice from Ylem to get some binoculars first. There is a lot to see through them including large objects that telescopes don't show well. I like 7x50s as they are easier to hold steady over the commonly recommended 10x.

As to seeing the farthest objects, there is more to visual observing than that and some of the best things to look at are relatively close. Two books I recommend you add to your shopping list are: Turn Left at Orion, by Guy Consolmagno and Dan M. Davis; and Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing The Universe, by Terence Dickinson.

After you've spent some time with your binoculars and those books, then you'll have a better idea of what type of telescope to look for.

[Lady Fraktor]

Just so you are aware a amateur telescope will not let you see exo-planets themselves though you will likely be able to see the star they are related to.

[asutoshjha]

WIKI AND GOOGLE Also helped but I NEED ARTICLES and then few practicals

[OleCuss]

WIKI AND GOOGLE Also helped but I NEED ARTICLES and then few practicals

I'm really not sure you would benefit from most articles. There are huge numbers of articles out there about choosing a telescope and a whole lot of them are worse than useless. You'll generally get better information about choosing a telescope from this forum. The wealth of knowledge is immense and comes from people who have been using telescopes to study the skies - and have studied the telescopes - for years and decades.

On this forum they can help you tailor your telescope choice to your interests, your budget, your physical abilities, your transportation options, your atmospheric and ambient conditions, etc.

All that said, your options are always limited and perspective is necessary.

Now all that said, if you want a telescope which will show you details in the Centauri system? Put up a budget of $20 million and you still aren't going to be seeing exoplanets. You could buy the Hubble Space Telescope and you still wouldn't be seeing the exoplanets.

To see tiny dim things at huge distances you need huge aperture and either no atmosphere or the ability to avoid the deleterious seeing effects of the atmosphere. To make it worse, there is no telescope planned which would allow you to see an exoplanet with the eyepiece. If you somehow managed to come up with trillions of US dollars and the tech to make a telescope which would allow you to see an exoplanet through an eyepiece - you would be blinded by the nearby star.

You end up having to use digital cameras to have a hope of detecting exoplanets.

Oddly, you don't really have to have a very big camera in order to detect exoplanets. IIRC, the STEALTH system which was one of the pioneers in the exoplanet search used a 4" refractor paired with a very good photometry system. A great mount, a very good camera for its time, a good observatory for protection, computer software and great expertise on the part of the operators.

Anyway, on this forum you can find people who could write the book on telescopes and astrophotography. Heck, some actually have written such things. But by their nature an article and a book are not written for you. Here on the forum you can find people who will help you find your best option. The nature of such a search is always such that we are better at telling you what not to get than we are able to tell you what to get - but there really is no avoiding that.

[turboscrew]

I think, the first step is to tell your (approximate) budget, and what kind of stuff you would like to see.
And whether you might later become interested in astrophotography or not.

My first advice is to get bigger F-ratio than 4. (f-ratio = focal length of the telescope / aperture).
Eyepieces that can handle fast scopes (F-ratio < 6) tend to be expensive. F-ratio >= 6 is much more forgiving.

I don't know your environment, like light pollution or typical steadiness of the atmosphere, but atmosphere typically limits the maximum usable magnification to around 300x - even if the telescope itself has maximum magnification of 1000x.

For reflectors, there is also minimum magnification. It has to do with exit pupil of your system (telescope + eyepiece).
If the exit pupil is (much) bigger than your eye-pupil, when you are observing, you see a shadow of the secondary mirror, and that will restrict what you see.

With my scope, I can't see the whole great Orion nebula, because my minimum magnification is too big. It doesn't fit the view.

Just some very basic things to think about. A good telescope is always a compromise of several things.

Also, there is a selection between refractor and reflector. I let others to argue on that.

When it comes to distances, the star clusters and nebuli that can be seen with amateur equipment, are all part of Milky Way - our own galaxy. But in a good dark place you can see the Andromeda galaxy with naked eye - it's big and it's relatively close, but much further away than nebuli and the star clusters.
Maybe someone else could give examples of far-away galaxies that are well visible with a typical amateur telescope (whatever that may be).

[Greenman]

WIKI AND GOOGLE Also helped but I NEED ARTICLES and then few practicals

If you have an interest in astronomy the first thing to understand is that observation is key to understanding, not google or wiki.

Forget eco-planets, no telescope invented can view them. Observations, as such, are by typically measurements made whilst the planet passes it’s star, and are wholly in the hands of professional astronomers.

It is not a science for the impatient, and to gain anything from it you have a very steep practical learning curve.

As for what telescope you need, none just yet. Start simple (as suggested) with binoculars, and find you way around the sky. Once you have more knowledge, you will be aware of what interests you (and the likelihood of being able to do it), and then forum members can suggest potential set ups.

[WilliamPaolini]

Hello asutoshjha. Selecting a telescope is a very personal thing. So it all depends on each person's likes and dislikes in managing and operating equipment that really best guides which telescope will be best. Sure the capability of the telescope (i.e., how far it can see as you put it) plays a part, but it is only one of many factors that will make a telescope right for you. Some telescopes require a lot of setup time others do not. Some telescopes need electricity to operate, others do not. Some telescopes have mounts that will find and track celestial objects, others do not and require the operator to find the object in the sky manually (the type I prefer). Some telescopes need tinkering more often, like periodically adjusting the optics so they are in best alignment, others do not. Some telescopes take effort to get them thermally stable when used in the winter when it is cold, while others take little to no effort. So with all those differing attributes comes pros and cons to their capabilities, so it is really a question that is so complex that the best way to approach it is really to find a local observing club and try some of the different telescope designs so you can determine which telescopes and aperture sizes would require more effort than you like, which have capabilities that are too limited for your likes, and which have the mix of features and operational effort that is just right for you. The link below lists a few clubs in India and hopefully one of those is close to you. When the run an outreach effort (i.e., an observing night open to the public), you can go there and see and use many different telescope types and talk to the amateur astronomers to find out more of what might be the right mix of things that will work best for you. So I would start there. And if you are impatient and would like something right away just to experiment with, then I would say get some binoculars to do some observing of the heavens (I recommend 10x50 bincoulars), or get a small 80mm Refractor that is on a stable mount and just start out with the Moon and Planets, then some of the brighter open clusters and nebulas and double stars to get your feet wet. While an 80mm telescope is not extremely capable, it is fun to use at night and works just fine on many many celestial objects, plus it also makes a great scope to use in the daytime for wildlife spotting. Good luck!!

https://www.go-astronomy.com/astronomy- ... ntry=India

As far as the overall process to become adept as amateur astronomy, realize that it usually takes a good amount of time to get up to speed and be effective in your observing. So one needs some dedication to realize one's goals. This short article gives a good overview of the things that matter in the process.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-r ... astronomy/

There is also a nice book that goes over all the considerations for a telescope and all the things that are important in observing. So might be good for you to get and read that book to better understand all that is important when doing amateur astronomy. It is called The Backyard Astronomer's Guide. Here is a link to their website so you can take a look at the book --

https://backyardastronomy.com/

[turboscrew]

To give some idea of the costs, I got my scope (12", 1200 mm focal length, F/4) secondhand for about 1800 eur. The mount, solid enough (barely) for AP - CEM120 - weights 27 kg and costs a bit more than 4000 eur (now 3990 eur, though). A Tri-Pier 360 to put the mount on top of, weights 19 kg and costs 900 eur.
Just ordered a 5 mm eyepiece good for my (fast) scope - DeLite - for 339 eur.

Then again, you can get a 6" dobsonian, that accepts 50 eur eyepieces, for about 450 eur.
(No need for separate mount or tripod.)

[Baurice]

I was studiying about proxima B and other planets, i was so exicted to know about peoxima centuri so i googled the word
i have not any knowledge of telescopes , how to select the one to see the farthest objects that I CAN

OK I have personal bias as a writer but you need a few good books to know what is up there to see. Had I had the right sort of information at the time, I would not have abandoned astronomy at age 14 and restart a full 26 years later. I'm now another 26 years further on and finding new stuff to look at and photograph. Yes, don't forget the last bit. Most of us stop talking about Plossls and start talking about pixels. Ironically, I only trod the photographic route because I needed to illustrate my books. Now, most of my astronomy is with a DSLR camera, without a telescope in sight.

[mikemarotta]

. I was studiying about proxima B and other planets, i was so exicted to know about peoxima centuri so i googled the word i have not any knowledge of telescopes , how to select the one to see the farthest objects that I CAN

Welcome! India is a big place. Can you see the constellation called The Swan and The Northern Cross? The tail of the Swan (head of the Cross) is named DENEB. It is 2600 light years away, nominally the farthest single star that you can see naked eye. If you can find the W of Cassiopeia, nearby you may see a smudge of light: the Andromeda Galaxy.

Almost any telescope will reveal the skies to you. Before you invest in your own instrument, allow me to suggest that you "borrow" one from NASA.
Observe With NASA: OWN is a project to let you take pictures with a robotic telescope. Try this website:
https://mo-www.cfa.harvard.edu/OWN/index.html

They have tutorial videos and they walk you through the process. It took me about five hours to learn. I still have some problems. But I took these:

You got a lot of good advice here about what to buy for yourself. It is not an easy decision. Stay active here and you will find a lot of people who will support your learning experiences.

[mikemarotta]

WIKI AND GOOGLE Also helped but I NEED ARTICLES and then few practicals

Are you close to any of these clubs and associations?
https://www.go-astronomy.com/astronomy- ... ntry=India

You can learn a lot from being a member of a group that can help you. Many clubs have instruments that they lend to members.