Today, we are going to use the Saturday lecture series to introduce some telescope design and astronomy into the series. Entrance into amateur astronomy can be as inexpensive as a pair of binoculars or as expensive as tens of thousands of dollars. It is a very relaxing and educational hobby.

Here is an excellent article on purchasing your first scope.

Here is an article about optics in telescopes.

This is the company i use to purchase any and all astronomy related items (i am not affiliated with them in any way).

The best bang for the buck in home astronomy is a Newtonian design mounted on a Dobsonian mount:

Here are the pictures of my 16″ Newtonian on the home made Dobsonian mount.The mirror is very thick and very heavy. so is the tube assembly. All movement points are teflon and the entire structure is on casters. It can move in both right ascension and declination axis.