A Word of Advice to Those Thinking of Buying a Telescope

[etsatlo]

Something that I've not seen mentioned very often that is absolutely crucial to consider before spending any money on a telescope is to consider how much you enjoy looking at things with just one eye. 

It doesn't matter how big the aperture is, how good quality the eyepieces are or how dark the skies are near you, if you don't like squinting to peer with only one eye then it's all going to be for nought. 

If that sounds like something that could potentially apply then I would recommend looking into binoviewers or electronically assisted astronomy (so that you are viewing an image on a screen). You may also want to consider binoculars but those probably won't show the types of objects you're imagining e.g Saturn's rings.

Clear skies.

[ONIKKINEN]

An eyepiece with good eye relief and a wide field of view does wonders to reduce the squinting effect. With my pentax XW10mm the experience is very smooth and easy to my eye which is not at all the case with a simple plössl for example.

Still just one eye though, but the difference in comfort (and price...) is huge.

[Cosmic Geoff]

Some people may not enjoy using just one eye, but the only way to know if you will get on with this or not is to obtain (or borrow) a starter telescope and try it.  For beginners on a budget, neither electronically assisted astronomy (which requires a substantial outlay) nor binoviewers (which have a significant cost, and not all telescopes work with them) are an option.

Binoviewers potentially give an enhanced view, but are more difficult to use than a single eyepiece. Making the two images merge can be tricky.

Binoculars are a reasonable option for a beginner but restricted to low magnification.

Edited July 4, 2022 by Cosmic Geoff

[Gfamily]

It's worth letting people know that because you're in the dark, you can keep both eyes  open - which makes it much more comfortable.  

[Zermelo]

2 hours ago, Gfamily said:

It's worth letting people know that because you're in the dark, you can keep both eyes  open - which makes it much more comfortable.  

Or, if there's too much ambient light, an eyepatch.

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Gfamily said:

It's worth letting people know that because you're in the dark, you can keep both eyes  open - which makes it much more comfortable.  

Has to be quite dark for that to work well though. Too often there is too much LP around so you see too much with your ‘spare’ eye.

Binoviewers are the obvious answer to the OPs problem, though as said by others they can be fiddly and do add complication to the setup. 

[Mr Spock]

One eye is fine. I've looked through binoviewers and can't get on with them.

[Dinglem]

I can only see properly out of one eye, so one eyepeice works fine for me.

[etsatlo]

Really good to hear peoples experiences and reaction to this.

As some of you say, keeping one eye open is certainly a possibility though for me, as others have mentioned, the light pollution precludes that. I have tried the eyepatch idea though found it gave me eye strain after only a short while. 

The cost concern raised with respect to both the binoviewer and EAA camera is very valid, though as many of us have found, there is no free lunch in this game! I've certainly found the modest investment in a planetary camera provides excellent ROI and could certainly use a DSLR in lieu of that which many may already have to hand. 

[DaveL59]

Never had a problem using one eye even tho I've used a lot of binoculars for daytime stuff too and 2-eye is preferable to me in those situations. But then if you use a still or video camera a lot you're usually working one-eyed then too. For sure back when I did use an SVHS camera with B&W viewfinder it wasn't fun trying to work with the other eye open and seeing full colour, very disconcerting lol.

Edited July 4, 2022 by DaveL59

[Ags]

I never have a problem with using just one eye, especially when I remember to remove the lenscap from the eyepiece. 

[FenSkies]

I am in the strange position of my eyes being so different that, at astronomical focusing distances, there is not enough adjustment in binoculars to compensate. So, easy decision for me 😀

[Gabby76]

I use both single vision and binoviewers depending on the target. 

One thing you can try for one eyed viewing is to only look for 30-40 seconds then take a break. This is useful when using eyepieces like a jewelers loupe.

Switching viewing eyes helps as well., train them both

 

[Ed the Fox]

I swap from one eye to the other every couple of minutes or so to give the viewing eye a bit of a rest.