I need to buy everything, but what?

[Pigster]

I understand that I am being lazy and need to do the research myself (which I am doing in parallel to posting on here).

I taught GCSE astronomy at my last school and was given no budget, so there was no chance of getting ANY equipment.

I have moved to an independent boarding school and I asked if I can teach astronomy (on top of my core subject). They said I could and have asked me what equipment I need. Budget at least £2000, probably pushing twice that, if I say I need it.

In case you don't know about the astronomy specification, the following things are taught and perhaps should be backed up with observations:

• Observing lunar features + eclipses
• Counting / tracking Sun spots + filtered observations of the Sun
• Rare events, e.g. a transit, occultation, comet etc.
• Long exposure photography of meteor showers
• Long exposure photography of star trails to measure the length of the Sidereal Day
• Constellation photography esp. to show the effects of light pollution and/or stellar density
• Messier objects observations
• Measuring the light curve of a variable star

I think I'm looking at a digital camera which I can (somehow) force the shutter to stay open on a nice stable tripod, also a telescope, with an adaptor for the camera. I read that a large telescope is not used as often as smaller ones, since they are heavy etc. but night viewings aren't going to be spur of the moment - I will have to organise several kids and all the permissions needed to get them out of their boarding houses in the middle of the night, so night viewings will be planned and will happen!

Beyond that, I am looking for advice on options. Should I even be looking at more than one telescope? one for the day time needs and one for night time?

I have read a thing to two and am very happy to be given a series of links to general advice sites, but my requirements are quite tailored to the GCSE and my budget is rather embarrassingly good for such a n00b, so am hoping for perhaps more specific advice than that I am reading on the sites I've found so far.

[JamesF]

Just to throw some ideas out...

I think some sort of equatorial mount would be a good idea, but to decide what you really need to know what you're going to put on it.

For solar and lunar work, I was tempted to suggest something like the Skywatcher Skymax 127 as it works quite nicely with the Canon crop-sensor DSLRs (the EOS1100 or 1200 would be fine), but perhaps it's also worth considering the Evostar 120 (or even the 150 if you wanted to go mad and it was ok for solar).  For a school the Evostar might be a better bet for white light solar because you could use a Herschel Wedge rather than a film filter which probably has benefits from a safety point of view.  Either has a suitable focal length for full disc lunar and solar imaging, though the 127 Mak can be a bit tight on a crop-sensor DSLR when the Moon is at perigee.  A reasonably well-aligned mount wouldn't mean that was a problem though.

I might be tempted to think about one or two different focal length lenses for the camera (the 200mm 2.8L Canon lens has a good reputation, for example, and the 50mm f1.8 (I think) works nicely for wider field).  With a ball-head mount you could put that on the EQ mount without a telescope for long exposure wide-field imaging.

For night-time visual use I think I'd suggest the biggest dob you can get away with, or if you want to allow several students to use them at the same time, perhaps something like a couple of 200P dobs.

Other things you might want to consider are a Windows PC to control the mount and/or camera, a few red torches, perhaps some slightly better spec. eyepieces, Telrads or similar if you go for the dob idea, T2 adaptor for the camera, EQDIR connector for the mount.  A copy of Astro Photography Tool or Backyard EOS doesn't cost that much and allows you to set exposures of any length you like on a Canon DSLR.  There'll probably be odd things like spare USB cables, power connectors and so on that might also be useful.

James

[Pigster]

Ta muchly.

I'll focus my research on your suggestions.

[JamesF]

I'm sure others will be able to chip in with suggestions regarding the Herschel Wedge.  I don't have one myself precisely because I use a 127 Mak for white light solar and they're only suitable for refractors, but there are a number of different people making them.  Despite this lack of experience I'm inclined to believe it's a better choice for a school than a front-fitting filter that might fall off, get forgotten, be damaged and so on.  The front-fitting film filters are perfectly safe, but having children of school age myself I'm all too aware of some of the associated issues

James

[Astro Imp]

Be aware that children have a short attention span. My point is, what are the pupils who are not using the equipment going to be doing while waiting their turn? If the answer is getting bored there lies trouble, horsing around in the dark around delicate scientific equipment is not a recipe for success.

Thinking about the above, investment in some cheap bins and planispheres to aid navigation might be worthy of consideration.

Good luck.

[Pigster]

We don't have typical children at our school, only 100% perfect angels.

[Bart]

We don't have typical children at our school, only 100% perfect angels.

Wow, impressive...

The cheap binoculars was a good suggestion, though, just in case any of those angels have been putting up a facade, and are in fact, normal.......

Barry

[ronin]

Actually very little of what you list appears to indicate astrophotography in a serious way.

So not sure how relevant an equitorial mount is.

The only one that seems to require it is:

Constellation photography esp. to show the effects of light pollution and/or stellar density

For star trails you specifically do not want the scope to move or track.

Most of the remainder is observation so Alt/Az or EQ is immaterial for that.

My first thought was something like a CPC.

To keep a DSLR open buy a remote timer from Amazon, £25.

Bunch of eyepieces, if a 5mm was usable on whatever scope you decide on I would suggest you simply buy the BST Starguider set and get the whole lot at £300.

Whereever it is used you will need power.

[DaveS]

I'm thinking that if you've a bunch of kids lining up to view the same thing then an EQ mount will at least keep it in the eyepiece while they barge each other out of the way (I went to public school myself, I *do* know), whereas with a dob the object will be well gone and someone will have to push the wretched thing in two directions to find it again, wasting more time. Even if it's not driven you only have to push around one axis.

Do you have funds to construct, if not an obsy, then at least a secure shed affair so the scope can be put on a pier and left set up between sessions? That would save a heck of a lot of time.

[Pigster]

I'm at an international school and the kids, mostly from east Asia, treat their teachers like gods.

The GCSE isn't a stargazing course, the equipment will mostly be used for the coursework, so the kids will be taking turns. They have to do aided and unaided observations of various things, so while some are waiting for the equipment, they can be busying themselves with the unaided observation. When they 'get a go' they'll be each looking at / photographing different things.

[DaveS]

OK. I think though that if several pupils will be wanting to observe various objects in different parts of the sky, and time is limited then a well set up GOTO could make things easier, which brings up the permanent set up so it can be got going with the minimum of fuss. I know some of the "dob mob" will go on about "the thrill of the chase" but that's not really the point, making useful observations is.

Just a thought, *two setups?* so that perhaps one group can be "doing" Messiers / DSOs while another does planetary? Or if the moon had wiped out DSOs, one group can be doing lunar while another does planetary? And two or three pairs of bins for general familiarisation?