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Ive been asked on many occasionsfor advice about choosing the righttelescope for a school and the honestanswer is that there is no such thing.Te vast array of instruments availablemeans that potential buyers are facedwith a bewildering choice of designs,optical systems and additional gadgets,and prices that range from a fewhundred to several thousand pounds.

Tere are various importanttechnical questions to examine whenchoosing a telescope, which areaddressed in the following sections.For a school there are a number ofadditional considerations based on thedifferent ways that a teacher might

want to use a telescope in comparisonwith the typical amateur astronomersneeds (should one exist).

An amateur will often have a fairlywell defined area of interest (planetaryimaging, deep sky observation, etc),whereas a telescope that is destined fora school classroom might be requiredto show sunspots in the morningand the rings of Saturn in the earlyevening. Adaptability and flexibilityare prerequisites for a school telescope,

so its important to bear them in mindwhen reading articles aimed at assistingin the selection of a telescope becausethese are usually written for theamateur market.

Requirements for a schoolstelescopeGiven the range of uses to which aschools telescope may be put, its vitalto choose one thats capable of quick

and easy adaptation. In this respect, its

usually better to compromise on thesize of the telescopes mirror/lens andensure a greater selection of gadgetsthan simply to opt for the biggesttelescope your budget will allow. Whenchoosing a telescope for school use,you need to remember the who, what,where, why and when that lie ahead.

Who?Te first question to consider is whowill be using the telescope? Is it aimedat the elite members of the astronomyor science club who will treat it withreverence or will it spend time in thehands of lower-set groups who may notbe quite as respectful? Many telescopes

are not robust enough to cope with thedegree of maltreatment that they couldsuffer if they are destined for regularclassroom use/abuse, so this will haveto be a factor in your choice.

What?Te use to which the telescope will beput will to some extent be defined bythe who discussed above. If yourehoping to make regular, detailedobservations of the satellites of the

Jovian planets youll need a verydifferent instrument to the one thatwill be used more often as a prop toillustrate the uses of lenses and mirrorsin refractors and reflectors.

Te question of gadgets is againan important consideration. Will yoube making naked-eye observations,attaching a good old-fashioned SLR tomake use of the school darkroom orposting high-resolution digital images

directly onto the school website?

Choosing atelescope for

a schoolDr Paul Roche, National Schools Astronomer

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Where?Does the school have a permanenthome for the telescope or will it needto be packed and unpacked fromthe science prep room? If a portablesolution is required, considerationneeds to be given to the necessity of asuitable mount (will a simple tripod door is there a convenient location wherethe telescope can rapidly and easily beset up nearby?) and to storage space forwhen the telescope is not in use.

Unless the school has the space andbudget to establish an observatory,I would argue for a small, portablesolution in most cases. An instrumentthat can be moved around, along with

its mount and associated paraphernalia,by a group of Year-7 pupils will beinfinitely more successful than one thatrequires a squad of lab technicians andthe rugby team to unlimber. Look formanoeuvrability and ease of setting up/taking down remember that you mayhave various users, of miscellaneousshapes, sizes and levels of clumsiness,often with little or no experience ofhandling this kind of instrument.

Why?What is the purpose of the telescope? Isit to be used as a prop in optics lessons,as an inspirational tool to motivateclasses before starting an astronomytopic or a serious piece of kit foradvanced students project work?

And why bother? Tis may seemlike an odd question to raise in aleaflet aimed at helping you to choosea telescope, but, with the increasing

access to robotic telescopes available

through programmes like the NationalSchools Observatory and the Faulkeselescope Project, do you really needto spend money on your own? Couldthe money be better spent on whizzysoftware to ensure that you get the bestfrom the images you can obtain online?Or how about planetarium softwarecapable of transporting your students todistant worlds (and dont tell me youvenever wished for that in the past)?

When?It may seem like an obvious statement,but your potential users will most oftenbe unavailable when your new telescopeis sitting within its well oiled dome in

a suitably dark location. You shouldconsider using it as a solar instrumentbecause the impact of close-up viewsof the Sun cannot be underestimated.Showing your class a view of their localstar complete with spots, flares andassorted interesting features can dowonders for the membership of theafter-school club that will be using thesame telescope on cold nights to imagedeep-sky wonders.

Finally...Once you have considered thesequestions, go towww.astronomy-education.comfor a series of pagesto help you through each stage of thedecision-making process and someregularly updated examples of whichparticular telescopes will satisfy yourvarious potential needs.

Produced by the Education Group of the

Institute of Physics