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The Next Step

Although Rao and Rosenberg say you can spend years looking through binoculars, the telescope will open up more viewing possibilities—if you're willing to put in the effort. "Scopes are complicated; they're not that easy to use," Rosenberg says.



Operating a telescope requires an entirely different set of skills. Unlike binoculars, which offer total freedom of movement, most telescopes come with equatorial mounts that follow the rotation of the sky. Because of this, the scope must be properly aligned to the celestial pole—the point around which the sky appears to rotate. Once the scope is aligned, astronomers find objects in the sky by their celestial coordinates of right ascension and declination—the astronomical equivalent of latitude and longitude, with right ascension basically representing longitude on the celestial sphere and declination representing latitude. Because telescopes have a narrower field of view compared to binoculars, you have to rely on these celestial coordinates to find objects in the night sky. And a misaligned telescope will make the search impossible.



In addition, the cost takes a considerable jump from binocs to scopes. "Telescopes are not cheap," Plait says. For example, the Edmund Astroscan, a basic entry-level telescope Rao recommends, will run you $230. "After you've fiddled around with binoculars for, let's say, a year or two, then the next step would be to get that particular telescope," he says. Plait explains that the right telescope depends on your needs.