Chief among them are aperture, eyepieces, and the mount. So what makes a hobby killer? Many factors add together to make a lousy overall package. Making an informed choice can get you a scope that will provide you with many years of enjoyment. If you’re a beginner, a few minutes reading this article before you buy a telescope can save you a lot of disappointment later. It only takes a couple of nights like that for a person to decide that astronomy isn’t any fun - thus the term “hobby killer.”Īs with so many other things in life, education can help you avoid making frustrating mistakes. I’ve watched people spend all night trying to find something, anything, to look at, often spending their entire time fiddling with the scope rather than observing the sky. When you want to enjoy a night out under the stars, you’re better off with a pair of binoculars or just with your naked eyes than with a telescope that can’t be aimed easily and doesn’t show a pleasing view of whatever you do manage to point it at. It may be hard to believe, but some telescopes are worse than having no scope at all. And every year we face the same problem: how to gently tell some of them that what they’ve got is better suited for a boat anchor than for astronomy. Every January my astronomy club hosts a telescope workshop in which we help people learn how to use the telescopes they got for the holidays or tune up scopes that have been gathering dust in closets.

No mans sky omegon