Video Amateur Astronomer Bruce Berger Talks About Meteors and Telescopes (Video) 36
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Bruce Berger is an IT
guy, but he's also an amateur astronomer who takes at least one aspect
of astronomy more seriously than most sky-watchers. Not
content with what he could buy when he first wanted a telescope of his
own, Berger set out to make one -- it turned out so well, he says
he'll never part with it, and he's made several others since, and
taught many other people to do the same. In this pursuit, he's also
been a long-time member of the Amateur
Telescope Makers of Boston, including a stint as the group's
president. (Berger's custom license plate reads "SCPMKR.") In the video
below, though, I caught up with him in Maine between evenings watching
this year's spectacular Perseid showers (and without any of his
home-built scopes to hand), to give some insight about what would-be
skywatchers should consider in looking at scopes. It's surprising just
how good today's telescopes are for the money, but it's easy to be
ripped off, too, or at least disappointed. (And besides avoiding
department store junk, building your own is still Bruce's strongest
advice.) Ed note: This Video is Part 1 of 2. Part 2 will run tomorrow.
Telescope size (Score:4, Informative)
Refractors have two main disadvantages, one, the larger the aperture, the thicker the lens has to be as well, making the lense heavy. IIRC it also requires longer and longer tubes to focus the light.
A reflector mirror on the other hand can be much shorter for the aperture size and the mirror can be lighter than a similarly sized lens, as it only needs to be a reflective film or coating on a lighter substrate, as long as it has minimal imperfections.
Really good and large mirrors are expensive though. Here is a place that will sell you good mirrors if you want to make your own. http://zambutomirrors.com/mirrors.html [zambutomirrors.com]