This book will provide you with concise informative guides to avoid the pitfalls and misleading marketing when purchasing a telescope or other beginner astronomy equipment for yourself or others. This is NOT a buyer's guide for specific makes and models of equipment because such guides become quickly outdated and useless. This book will teach you how to determine for yourself what equipment best suites your needs. The misleading marketing of some telescopes is so bad that in my opinion it is even more flagrant than the marketing of "snake oil" alternative medicine products. But at least you won't be spending your health care money on beginner telescopes (that comes later after you are more involved in the hobby). With some products you can trust that a name-brand version is a good choice, even if you know very little about the product.. Unfortunately, that is no help with beginner scopes. Strangely, a large number of high end professional telescope companies make junk toy telescopes and use misleading marketing and advertising for these scopes. The aim of this book is to be a short, concise guide to becoming not only an educated consumer when shopping for a first telescope, but also to make sure you are not disappointed with your first experiences using an amateur telescope.
About the Author: Timothy O'Connor has been active in amateur astronomy for approximately twenty-five years. He can be found doing public astronomy outreach at events in Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky. Tim has published two other introductory books, You Can Afford to be a Pilot and Dogs Ride. Tim has made a living for the past twenty years in computer networking, security and technical training. Tim holds some of the highest certifications in the computer training industry and is a certified flight instructor. Tim holds numerous pilot ratings including Advanced Ground Instructor, Commercial Rotorcraft pilot, and FAA Fast Team Safety Volunteer. In addition to technical training and consulting, Tim co-hosted a top-rated radio show for three years on WNOP and has written cover and feature articles for such publications as ROTORCRAFT, EAA Sport Pilot, Sport Aviation, The Experimenter, Light Plane World, Homebuilt Rotorcraft, Powered Sport Flying, The Utopian and has published content in AVWeb, Technology First, jp4 and other publications.