Telescope

1) The refractor is what most people think of when they hear the word "telescope". Refractors gather light with an objective lens at one end and focus the light at the eyepiece at the other end. Refractors were almost extinct at one point, but modern glass elements (including an exciting new artificially grown crystal known as fluorite) have brought the refractor back to prominence.

2) The Newtonian Reflector, invented by Sir Isaac Newton, uses a parabolic mirror at the end of a tube and focuses the light back at the front of the tube, where the eyepiece sits, after being deflected by a smaller secondary mirror in the light path.

1) Learn to spot a few constellations and maybe a planet or two with the naked eye. If you can't point to M42, how do you expect to able to point a telescope (which has a much narrower field of view) there?

2) Subscribe to one of the two major magazines, Sky and Telescope or Astronomy. These will get you started not only with finding celestial objects, it will also acquaint you with the variety of equipment out there. Don't buy anything yet!

basic rules:

1 Never buy a telescope in a department store.
2 "Christmas Trash" telescopes
3 Magnification by itself is meaningless.
4 There's no substitute for optical quality.
5 The smaller the scope, the more often it gets used.
6 The mount is as important as the scope.

more details here : http://findascope.com/

You can get a "light bucket" Newtonian-Dobsonian from a number of mail-order places for fairly cheap. I would go for aperature... 8" minimum and get fewer scope... maybe one instead of a number of them.

If you wanted to get something the whole class could see at once... maybe a Meade or Clestron 10"+ with a CCD camera and plug that into an LCD monitor (a computer monitor) so the whole class can see it. There are image intensifiers out there too that let you see images of things that normally it takes a film/ccd many minutes to absorb enough photons to form am image (Nebula... galaxies, etc).

The small 90 to 120 mm Maksuktov style Meades with the robotics for finding and tracking objects are very popular.

If you are looking to buy a telescope, and want to buy a model that will allow you to get the most out of astronomy, you are going to need some resources. As you read this article, you will soon discover more on how telescope reviews can be a great help.

Summary of Contents:
* Ultimately What Do You Want?
* How Telescope Reviews Can Be Your Savior!
* Buying A Telescope

* Ultimately What Do You Want?
Most people get excited when they see a telescope for sale. What do they do? Right away, they buy! This can be a great impulse, but it could result in you not getting the best telescope for your needs.

This makes taking a step back for a moment, and considering what you want out of astronomy, an important factor. Ask - what do you really want out of astronomy?