Re: Have refractors hurt the hobby?

From: Duff Couillard (kintara_at_telus.net)
Date: 11/05/04 

Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 15:02:22 GMT

I don't believe that the "trash" scopes have unduly hurt amateur astronomy.
I do think that there are a lot of people with a passing interest in
astronomy.
I work in a large corporation with a fairly large staff. When people find
out that I am into astronomy I hear lots of stories of scopes that they have
sitting at home in the basement, or garage, or in the closet. They typically
perk right up when they start talking about the scope that they bought, but
they still don't have the sustained interest to actually go out and use
them.
One very good example is a fellow that I work with directly. He knows of my
involvement in astronomy and would ask lots of questions about telescopes
and observing. Both him and his 15 year old daughter seemed very keen on the
whole prospect. He started talking about scopes that he had seen at Costco
and such, and he was determined that he was going to buy a scope for him and
his daughter to use. I immediately directed him towards Skyview Telescopes
here in Calgary. This business is operated by one of our RASC club members
here in Calgary, and he is very good at matching people to telescopes. To
make a long story short, they were set up with a Skywatcher 6" reflector on
an EQ mount (SK P15075EQ3-2) and three reasonable Plossl EP's. This is a
decent setup for a newcomer. However, that scope has only been used once, to
view Mars last year during it's close approach.
I have tried numerous times to encourage him to get out with his scope, and
have offered to come spend time with him and his family to show them not
only how to get the most out of his scope, but also some of the treasures
that they can view with it. Sadly, the interest is just not there anymore.
In this case I would say that it doesn't have anything to do with the
quality of the instrument.
Clear skies to ya!
Duff Couillard
Calgary

"RichA" <none@none.com> wrote in message
news:8q1mo0pvj1hb6mu6g8612kgmk2gj57sjfd@4ax.com...
> In the Dec. issue, the editor of Sky and Tel in December discusses
> Christmas present telescopes. He of course makes mention of the junk
> scopes, the 60mm 525x refractors and 76mm reflectors that are
> mechanically and optically (usually by their eyepieces) challenged and
> that they do more to turn people off the hobby than turn them on.

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