A Brit’s Guide to the World of Stargazing

My first telescope was a relatively frustrating computerized 4” Maksutov-Cassegrain which I got for Christmas as a kid. My parents were lulled into buying it by sponsored “reviews” and marketing which I sent to them, having fallen for it myself. While it wasn’t terrible, I had no idea what I was actually going to be able to do with it until I got to try out the telescope and was relatively disappointed by its lack of capabilities. This disappointment kept me from becoming more interested for a year or so until I got another telescope. While my situation wasn’t nearly as bad as receiving an outright “hobby killer”, I’d prefer nobody else has to go through the same experience when it can be avoided with honest and professional reviews and product recommendations.

My goal at TelescopicWatch is to provide accurate information on telescopes that’s free of embellishment or exaggeration, as well as informative content on the night sky and astronomy at large.

A lot of advertising for all sorts of products today is based on superlatives and attempting to take advantage of emotions. Telescopes in particular often are advertised with something other than the actual capabilities, optical quality etc in mind, such as claims of outrageously high magnifications or leaning heavily into the computer technology bundled with the instrument. Likewise, a lot of sky guides are focused only on the “best” or showpiece objects which are well-known to amateurs or lack information on what it exactly is you are seeing at the eyepiece. I aim to solve this with my work.