The MoonshotMastery Academy
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SHELF II · TELESCOPE

“The telescope came out twice, showed me a blur, and now it lives in the hall cupboard.”

Choosing and Setting Up Your First Telescope

Refractors, reflectors and catadioptrics compared honestly, mounts that do and do not wobble, aligning the finder in daylight, collimation, cooling, and the eyepieces that are worth buying first.

A small white refractor telescope on a tripod under a starry sky with trees on the horizon

What you will be able to do

  1. Choose a telescope and mount that fit your sky, storage and budget
  2. Set up, align and collimate a telescope without help
  3. Pick magnifications that suit the target and the night

Night log: the units

  1. UNIT 01 How a telescope works: aperture before magnification 6 lessons · 1 h 12 min
  2. UNIT 02 Refractor, reflector or catadioptric 7 lessons · 1 h 24 min
  3. UNIT 03 Mounts: alt-azimuth, Dobsonian and equatorial 8 lessons · 1 h 36 min
  4. UNIT 04 Finder alignment and first light 6 lessons · 1 h 12 min
  5. UNIT 05 Collimation and cooling 7 lessons · 1 h 24 min
  6. UNIT 06 Eyepieces and filters worth having 6 lessons · 1 h 12 min

What is included

  • Three common beginner telescopes set up from the box on screen
  • Finder alignment in daylight and why it saves the first night
  • Collimating a reflector, step by step, with a cheap tool
  • Eyepieces, magnification and why more is usually worse
  • 18 months of streaming access

Who it suits

New and nearly-new telescope owners, and anyone deciding which telescope to buy.

Questions about this course

What do I need before I start?

A telescope. Nothing has to be bought in advance: the course opens with what to choose and why.

How long will it take me?

There are 40 lessons, 8 h of video in all. At about 3 hours a week that is roughly 3 weeks, but the pace is yours: clear nights decide more than the calendar.

How long can I watch it, and is there a tutor?

You can stream every lesson for 18 months from when access starts. The lessons are recorded: there is no live tutor and no marking, and the videos cannot be downloaded.

Pairs well with