The sci.astro.amateur FAQ I have maintained here is very out of date. It was last significantly rewritten in 1998; though amateur telescope engineering and design are largely unchanged, the commercial aspects (such as the buying guide and list of vendors and references) are quite badly obsolete. It is now kept in the archives. I will keep this set of files here indefinitely, but will not make any changes to them. The original author of the FAQ does maintain a more up-to-date version, in a different format, at his personal Web site.

The archived s.a.a FAQ is not licensed under the license generally applicable to astronexus.com. It is copyright 1995-2006, Slc. Dennis Bishop.

A couple of years ago, I compiled some of my own suggestions for newcomers. Here's a summary, which is still quite applicable today:

My first suggestion is the same as many other people's: Go visit an astronomy club or a public star party and ask the people there. Folks at public star parties are usually quite friendly and will often let an interested person try out their scopes for a little while. Once you've seen how different types of scopes behave (how they move, what they show, how easily they are set up and put away), you'll have a much better idea of what you want.

Additionally, I highly recommend getting familiar with the night sky. Learn the major constellations; be capable of recognizing a dozen or so when the sky is clear and there isn't much moonlight. If you have a pair of binoculars, even little 25mm "pocket" models you take to football games, spend some time exploring the night sky with them. You'll be surprised at what you can see, and you'll learn more about how to observe things without even being aware of it.

A good beginner's scope will have the following features, regardless of price, design, or accessories:

• Easily set up. Not too big, too heavy, or too complex. Ideally, it's something you can take outside in one trip, at most two, and then set up in just a few minutes.
• Reasonable quality. To an extent, you get what you pay for, but even fairly inexpensive scopes will perform well if competently designed.
• Good for a wide range of targets. After you get some observing under your belt, you'll have a better idea of what kinds of objects you like to observe. At the beginning, though, you'll want something that shows pleasing views of a wide range: the major planets, double and multiple stars, and at least the brighter star clusters and nebulas.
• Good basic accessories. At a bare minimum, you will want at least 2 eyepieces (ideally, 3) and a finding device of some sort. Many scopes only come with 1 eyepiece, and some inexpensive (but otherwise perfectly good) scopes come with an inadequate finder. If your prospective purchase lacks some of these items, you'll want to budget some extra money for them.

Some Things I Suggest

Given all this, I generally make two suggestions to new
observers:

1. A 6" (150mm) or an 8" (200mm) Dobsonian reflector
2. A 4" / 100mm medium to long focus refractor (roughly, f/ratio of f/8 to f/12)

At the moment (early 2006), good vendors of the Dobsonians are Orion Telescopes and Discovery. For the refractors, look at Orion Telescopes as well, and then look at any dealer that carries Celestron or Meade telescopes, such as Astronomics, Anacortes, or Oceanside Photo and Telescope. For higher but still fairly reasonable prices (about 75-100% more than Orion, Celestron, or Meade), Stellarvue is a fairly new refractor manufacturer with a very good reputation.