How To Get Started in Astronomy

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Giant balls of plasma held together by gravity, spinning galaxies so far away we don't know if they exist anymore, cosmic dust borne from supernova explosions—space is awesome. To appreciate it, all you have to do is look up


It's true: You can do a lot of stargazing with a good pair of binoculars. But if you really want to get into astronomy, you need a telescope. And to that end, nothing can—and will—spoil your first foray faster than a bad scope. So don’t settle for anything suspiciously cheap, and make sure you understand the basics.



CHOOSE YOUR TELESCOPE

REFRACTOR
Your classic long and skinny telescope. Refractors bend incoming light through one curved lens into another curved lens just before the eyepiece. This simple setup makes refractors durable and low maintenance, but the high-quality lenses also make them an expensive choice.

REFLECTOR

Great for beginners, reflecting telescopes use a two-mirror system to capture and focus light. They usually have the largest apertures, giving them superb resolution. Reflectors can be big and awkward, but they’re the most economical due to a lower cost-per-inch of aperture.

COMPOUND OR CATADIOPTRIC

A stumpy refractor/reflector hybrid that uses a corrective lens and curved mirrors to greatly increase the focal length. Compounds like Schmidt-Cassegrains are more versatile and lighter than reflecting scopes, but their four optical surfaces significantly bump up the cost.

Aperture: The hole through which light passes, usually the diameter of the main lens or mirror. The larger the aperture, the better the resolution. For beginners, a 6- to 8-inch aperture is optimal. "Really, today, with the light pollution, you almost need to go eight," says Roger Kolman, a 55-year amateur astronomer and second vice president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers.

Focal length: This is the distance a lens or mirror bends gathered light to a focus point. The larger the focal length, the smaller the field of view. So a telescope with a high focal length (say, 1,400 mm) is better for viewing closer objects, such as the moon and planets. For deep-sky galaxies and nebulae, a shorter focal length (sub-1,000 mm) is ideal. "Remember, the smaller the field of view, the harder it is to find things," Kolman says.

Magnification: Cheap telescope manufacturers are always touting magnification power on the box, but that's misleading—just making something bigger isn't helpful if the resolution is poor. Magnification is simply a measurement of the telescope's focal length divided by the focal length of an attached eyepiece.

 

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UPGRADE YOUR SETUP
Eyepiece: An eyepiece changes the focal ratio of your telescope, thus changing the magnification. Certain eyepieces are better for different viewing situations—say, looking at a whole galaxy versus its individual spirals—so you’ll want at least a few extra. The Plössl is a popular style of lens. We particularly like Meade’s Super Plössl series of eyepieces, ranging from 6.4mm to 56mm ($32 to $80 each). When buying eyepieces, opt for a 1.25-inch barrel diameter, which can be used with almost any telescope.

Barlow lens: Placed between the eyepiece and the telescope, a Barlow lens essentially doubles the magnification of any eyepiece, making it a staple. The average Barlow is around $50.

Moon filter: Finding the moon is easy. Seeing it in great detail is a bit trickier—the brightness borders on blinding. Solution: a moon filter. It easily fits on any eyepiece and runs about $20.

Star chart: A star chart that shows the night sky in 2D may seem outdated with so many apps available, but a good one is still a necessity. "I would recommend using the monthly charts in either Sky & Telescope or Astronomy," Kolman says.

The book: Night Watch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe, by Terence Dickinson, is the book you need. Take it from Alan Dyer, who coauthored another popular amateur astronomy book with Dickinson. “Night-Watch is the single best guide to getting started in the hobby,” Dyer says. “I say that even though I get nothing in royalties.”

 

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GET TO KNOW THE NIGHT SKY
Learn your constellations and planets:Think of constellations and planets as celestial land- marks—they help you orient yourself when hunting down unfamiliar objects. And the best way to learn them is to just start identifying and memorizing. "The more legwork you put in in the beginning of your stargazing life, the easier things tend to be later on," Ting says. "Like, oh yeah! That's Orion, that's the Big Dipper, that's Cassiopeia, and now I know my way around."

Filter you flashlight: As anyone who has ever stumbled up a movie aisle knows, it can take awhile for your eyes to adjust to darkness, a process called dark adaptation. To keep your eyes from having to constantly readjust, buy a cheap flashlight with a red filter. Better yet, make your own filter with a rubber band and some red cellophane.

Join a club: There are hundreds of free amateur astronomy clubs around the country. A meet-up, or stargazing party as they're often called, is a great place to learn more and maybe even score some cheap equipment. For a list of local events, visit NASA's Night Sky Network.

When to look for what:

• Dusk and dawn: Because Mercury and Venus are close to the sun and hard to see when it's high in the sky, these crepuscular conditions are best for viewing.
• Winter: We are looking out to the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy's disk, so the sky is rich with stars and nebulae.
• Spring: The Earth faces out from the Milky Way, meaning fewer stars and better conditions for spotting distant galaxies.
• All year round: Look for bright star clusters, such as the Pleiades. As with planets and constellations, clusters help with night-sky navigation.

The best time to view the moon must be when it’s full, right? Nope. The best time is actually when it’s changing from crescent to gibbous, or vice versa. During these transitions, we see sunlight hit the surface of the moon at a lower angle, creating more contrast and showing more surface details than when it is fully illuminated.

CELESTIAL EVENTS IN 2021
January 2-3 — Quadrantids Meteor Shower: This is meteor shower is the first of the new year. While the shower lasts from December 12 to January 12, peak will be around January 3. Eagle-eyed stargazers should be able to spot around 120 meteors per hour in the pre-dawn hours.

February 19 — Spiral Galaxy M81: The spiral galaxy M81, which was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774, will reach peak visibility at 11:56 p.m. EST on February 19, 2021. The galaxy sits roughly 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

March 4 — Asteroid 4 Vesta at Opposition: Vesta is the brightest asteroid in the night sky and second largest in the asteroid belt. (Dwarf planet Ceres has Vesta beat.) In 2007, NASA sent its Dawn spacecraft to visit the two asteroids. Vesta will reach opposition on March 4. Just after midnight, asteroid hunters can find this rocky body at the highest point in the sky, near the constellation Leo.

May 26 — Total Lunar Eclipse: Early birds on the West Coast will be able to spot a total lunar eclipse on May 26. The moon will pass through Earth’s shadow between 2:45 a.m. PT and 5:52 a.m. PT; total eclipse will occur between 4:12 a.m. PT and 4:26 a.m. PT. It’s a great time to take out your telescope and explore the moon’s stunning features.

June 3 — Globular Cluster M13: First discovered by Edmond Halley (of Halley’s comet fame) in 1714 and featured in Isaac Asimov’s short story “Sucker Bait,” M13 is one of the oldest and brightest globular clusters in the night sky. Stargazers can catch M13 in the “armpit” of the Hercules constellation. It will be at its brightest and highest at 12:56 a.m. EDT on June 3.

 

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A Last Word from Neil DeGrasse Tyson

The director of the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium on the importance of amateur astronomers.

If you are an amateur astronomer, that is a badge of honor, not a badge of denigration. If you were at a hospital and said, "I got this. I'm an amateur neurosurgeon," they're not going to let you in the operating room. But people will give an amateur astronomer the red carpet straight to the telescope, because they know the night sky like the palm of their hand.

Amateur astronomers contribute to the field in huge ways. In the professional community, we are not looking at all parts of the sky at all times—we can't. But when you have so many more amateur astronomers in every time zone of the Earth, this is how you discover things. There are dozens of comets discovered every year, and all of this is fair game for the amateur astronomer.

 

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I have the refractor setup. It‘s okay. Cheap. I’ve seen Saturn’s rings but it was still a dot but still big enough to know I’m looking at Saturn’s rings. I need to buy a more expensive telescope. I’m willing to drop a few hundred too.

The eclipse three years ago opened the door to astronomy for me. Never gave a fuck about it before that. Now I have apps on my phone lol. The next total eclipse in the US will be April 8, 2024, and the path crosses through upstate NY which is eight hours away. I will definitely be in attendance