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Re: [Phys-L] astronomy binocular buying advice (John Denker)



As for telescopes:

Nowadays you're more likely to see a buggy whip or a medicinal
leech than you are to see an astronomer looking through the
eyepiece of a telescope. For professionals, and even for serious
amateurs, it's all CCDs.

As a side benefit, a whole class can look at the CCD image
at once (rather than taking turns at the eyepiece).

May be true but there is a large segment of the population that does not believe “scientific" images are real. By using a simple optical system where the observer can see there is nothing but glass in the eye path the argument that something inside the black box (electronics?) caused the image is moot. And it says one doesn’t always need state of the art equipment to observe neat stuff. It is all part of making science believable through simplicity. Once one believes, well yes, then go on to ccds and whatever.

It is also known that displaying work done by others does not capture a person’s interest as much as if they do it themselves. By having a person actually look through a telescope and see the object they become a lot more interested in what that object is about because the object is part of their experience. Once they have seen the image for themselves, then by all means go on to the displaying and analysis of images. Otherwise, for many, it is just entertainment and the learning aspect is lost.