BBC Sky at Night - UK (2021-08)

Email your queries to

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Steve Richards is a keen astro imager and an

astronomy equipment expert

SCOPE DOCTOR

Steve’s top tip

Do I need to let my telescope cool down

before observing?

Just as unstable air in our atmosphere warps and distorts the

light reaching our eyes from celestial objects, so too does the

air inside a telescope tube have the propensity for spoiling

the view. The column of air within your telescope generates a

miniature version of atmospheric disturbance in the form of

tube currents as it tries to reach temperature equilibrium with

the air outside. These tube currents distort and diffract the

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stars odd smeared shapes, so allowing time for your telescope

to cool down is an important part of the pre-observing routine.

I’m buying my first telescope or set of binoculars.

What can I get for around £500 if I want to look at

the planets and perhaps some other celestial

bodies? I also have a Nikon D5300 DSLR camera,

can I use this for astrophotography?

KEITH WILSON

It would probably make most sense for you

to start with an all-rounder system to get a

feel for astronomy and then decide what

aspect really interests you. Binoculars are a

great idea, but a basic telescope would give you

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£500 budget, a 200mm aperture Dobsonian

telescope would be a great choice – and you’d still

have £100 left to purchase a couple of good

eyepieces to complement the two average ones

supplied with the kit. A 200mm Dobsonian’s

focal length is long enough to achieve

reasonable views of the planets and the

aperture is large enough to allow you to

observe numerous deep-sky objects.

Though the Nikon D5300 is capable of

capturing great images, deep-sky

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bright objects like the Moon and starscapes of the constellations.

online groups and social media

forums, I just wanted to get

the message out there!

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give to anyone thinking about

buying a telescope would be

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motor drives, Go-To systems

and whatever else, and invest

in a Sky at Night Magazine

subscription because you’ll be

lost in a sea of stars without it.

Darren Lee, via email

Only human?

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Sky’, page 8) you covered the

Ingenuity helicopter making

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intrigued me was you said it

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another world.’ Are you trying

to tease us about something

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Neil Graham, Hollingworth

Apologies for any confusion!

‘Human-made’ was used to

contrast the controlled drone

flight with programmed flights,

such as the Sky Crane that put

Perseverance on Mars. – Ed.

Þ A 200mm

Dobsonian

will give good views

of the planets and

the deep sky

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ON FACEBOOK

WE ASKED: What got you into astronomy?

Andi Reeves I’ve always been fascinated with space, but my
wife bought me a telescope for my birthday a few years ago. I
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imagination like nothing before. It blew my mind that I was
looking at something so far away from my little light-polluted
garden, standing there with the biggest grin on my face like I was
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David Jones It was my primary school teacher, Mr Magee. He let
me watch the Apollo 11 Moon landing at school when I was nine.
I went to school in Greenwich and he took me and some friends
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to him and he signed my copy of The Look-It-Up Book of Stars
and Planets. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Wil Cheung$VDVHYHQ\HDUROG,ZDVLQVSLUHGE\6LU3DWULFN
Moore and the Voyager probes. I was set on pursuing a career in
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there’s no money in it. An astronomer makes only £12,000 a
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became an armchair astronomer. Twenty years later I started
to volunteer at a nearby observatory, helping out an average of
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I host my own stargazing events in Northumberland Dark Sky
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Emma Richardson 0\PXPRQFOHDUQLJKWVVKHXVHGWRJHWRXW
the blankets and rugs and we would all cuddle up on top of the
picnic bench in the garden and watch the night sky go by!

Michael Boschat ,QP\PRWKHUWRRNPHWRWKHOLEUDU\,
went to the science section and picked out books on astronomy,
geology and dinosaurs. I re-read the book on astronomy and got
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Your Book of Astronomy and The Boys’ Book of Astronomy by
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KHUHLQ&DQDGDDQGKHZDVQŝWDKRXVHKROGQDPHEXW\HDUV
later I’m still doing astronomy, all thanks to him. It was a sad day
when he passed away, but he is among the stars he loved.

August 2021 BBC Sky at Night Magazine 21

With Steve Richards

Our equipment specialist cures your

optical ailments and technical maladies