buying a scope for school

I am looking to buy a basic 8" Dobonian to be used at a K-5 school. Any ideas on which one to buy (mostly based on optics, durability, price. Thanks!

I would not but a Dob for use with a K-5 group of kids. Are you the science teacher? Are you going to man the scope? Who is going to adjust the mirrors when they go out of allignment?

Children in this age group have an attention span of only several minutes. They do not have the patience to sit arround and wait every time the scope needs to be recentered. You need a scope with slo motion dials or one that can be locked on to an object and allow a whole group of kids to observe before you move on the the next object.

I have been teaching kids in K-8 for four years now. In that time I've taught over 1000 kids and their parents. Although I haven't used any Dobs, I have used Newts and Refractors without tracking motors and several with tracking motors and plenty of binoculars. The binoculars get used the most by the kids because they can easily get moved around. The scopes that get used the most are those on equatoral mounts with slo motion tracking or with motors that can get locked on after acquiring an object. It's not even the big scopes. The kids aren't affraid to go up to a 90mm scope and turn the dials to get back on an object. But if they can't see something in 60 seconds, they're gone, off to the next thing. A big scope is overwhelming to a small kid. They don't seem to want to mess around with something that is as big as them.

FWIW, I would look for something a lot smaller and a lot more usable by kids before I went out and bought a Dob. Kids don't need big they need easy. Don't get them frustrated early on. Keep them involved.

edz

This same question generated quite a few contributions last december. If you go to Search Forums and enter "School" you can read the opinions, but there is no clear consensus.

My .02-- short refractors let you find stuff pretty easily, they are durable, portable, familiar in concept, don't need much adjustment, and are particularly good on bright objects like the moon and planets, which are easier to see from most school locations than dim galaxies (which kids won't find very spectacular to look at under the best of circumstances). I think these are all school-type virtues, particularly in the lower grades.

Steve

Hello Allen!

Try:

http://www.telescope.com

Orion has their 6" SkyviewPro reflector on an EQ mount with free tracking motor for less than $500.

I agree with everybody here, as I have 3 kids, and even though they love astronomy, if the item is not on the eyepiece, they'll lose their interest quickly!
You'll be better off with a scope like this one... it will keep the objects on the eyepiece for a very long time.



Clear dark skies!


Ivan

So Allen,

Now let me offer you a link to CloudyNights for Teaching Kids Astronomy. You may find something you will be able to use in this collection of posts. Two years ago CN ran a little contest and asked user/teachers to submit an article on how they teach kids. I submitted. I didn't win the contest, Anthony Lutton won. Here you will find a tremendously varied collection of articles on how people approached keeping kids interested at the scope. My post is titled "A complete Astronomy Presentation".

http://www.cloudynights.com/commentary.htm

Page down to the section Engaging Kids at the Telescope

I hope you find all this stuff useful.

edz

I've taught Earth Science and Astronomy to 9th graders for 12 years and just use dobsonians. I'm always with the kids when we're stargazing. I've taught people of every age from 4 yrs. to 90 with these scopes, most with my old blue Coulter 10". The only way I'd want an equatorial mount would be if it was on a permanent pier. I collimate before starting and tell everybody that they can't break anything- just don't touch any glass surface (secondary or eyepiece). A significant percentage of people who look through the scopes think seeing the Earth's rotation was one of the coolest things I showed them. For little kids, I like to use my Astroscan. It's bulletproof and kid resistant. My advice-get a scope that can be bumped into and used, not one that needs to be polar aligned and worried about.