Popular Questions for John A. Read

(This blog post is written in advance of an interview with Verywell Family Magazine)

What are some tips you can give families that want to enjoy the night sky together?

A lot of people believe you need a telescope to enjoy stargazing. That’s simply not true. You don’t need a telescope and you don’t need binoculars to enjoy stargazing. There is plenty to see with just your eyes.

The most important thing to remember is that you need to get out of the city to experience the splendor of the night sky. At least 30 minutes from the nearest city or big town if you want to see the Milky-Way.

In the days near the full Moon, the Moon is so bright, it outshines most of the stars. If you’re planning a stargazing trip, try to avoid the five days prior and five days after the full Moon.

Look for star parties hosted by your local astronomy club. There are thousands of astronomy meetups across North America each year. At these events, volunteers bring their telescopes and let the general public look through them. A quick google search is all you need to find upcoming events near you.

Do I need dark skies to do stargazing?

There are many things you can see in the night sky, even from the city. In fact, I do most of my stargazing from the city. The observatory where I occasionally work is located downtown. The brightest stars are still visible from the city. For example, if it’s winter, I can pick out the 7 brightest stars in the constellation Orion. If you live at around 45 degrees north latitude, you can see the Big Dipper asterism all year, as well as the constellation Cassiopeia (nicknamed the “Big W”. If it’s summer, you can see most of the stars in the Northern Cross (asterism), as well as the three bright stars in the Summer Triangle (asterism).

Orion Constellation as seen from the roof of a skyscraper downtown.

Burke-Gaffney Observatory - Downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia

You can also see the Moon and planets just fine from a city. These objects are not affected by light pollution.

But for most galaxies and nebulae, light pollution hides these objects even with the largest telescope. These objects require dark skies to be seen by the human eye (cameras can easily see these objects from the city, if you really know what you’re doing).

What are some fun activities you can do with your family while stargazing if you don’t have a telescope?

• Count the shooting stars. If your skies are really dark you will see several in a given night. During a meteor shower, as long as the Moon isn’t up, you’ll see about one shooting star every minute. (Shooting stars are tiny grains of dust burning up in our atmosphere).

• Count the Satellites and Airplanes. There is a LOT going on in the night sky. There are thousands of satellites just a few hundred miles overhead. These are zooming around the Earth at around 17,500 MPH (any slower and they’d fall back to Earth). You can tell the difference between a satellite and an airplane by the speed (satellites appear to move faster) and the fact that airplanes always have blinking lights on them. Satellites are simply reflecting sunlight, and often disappear when they enter Earth’s shadow.

• Learn the Constellations visible during that season. Each season brings a new set of constellations and asterisms to the evening sky. In summer, you have the “Teapot” asterism, and Scorpius constellation (or Maui’s fish hook). In Winter, you have Orion, the Hyades (star cluster in Taurus), The Greater Dog. In fall, you have the great square in Pegasus, and in Spring, you have Leo the lion, and Boötes, which looks like a giant ice cream cone. It helps to have a guidebook like 50 Things to See with a Telescope – Kids, or Learn To Stargaze for Kids, to help you identify these stars.

Two Summer Constellations from the book Learn To Stargaze for Kids.

Summer Constellation and Summer Asterism maps from Learn To Stargaze For Kids.

• The most important thing is to put away any electronic devices (screens kill your eye’s ability to see the stars). And enjoy spending time with, and talking with your family. Stargazing is often a catalyst for amazing conversations.

• I know I said no devices, but a really fun thing to do is to watch the space station or one of SpaceX’s Starlink Satellite trains pass overhead. There are apps you can get on your phone to tell you when these events occur (its generally several times per week), and going to observe these events can be a lot of fun.

What stargazing apps do you recommend?

It’s important to note that using a phone or other devise limits your eye’s ability to see the stars. It takes 20 minutes for your eyes to adapt to the dark so that you can appreciate the spender of the Milky Way. If you look at your phone to try to identify a constellation, then you have to wait another 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust again. The only reason I use stargazing apps is to learn the location of planets like Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and Venus. I do this before I go stargazing, using a free app called Stellarium, which is available on all devices.

How do you identify the stars and constellations?

My kids and I have red headlamps, these are about $10 on Amazon, and sometimes they come in packs. These help preserve your night vision (as long as you don’t shine them in each other’s faces). The headlamps can be used to see where you’re walking, and to read the stargazing guide books like Learn To Stargaze for Kids or 50 Things to See with a Telescope - Kids, which are designed specifically to be readable under red lights.

I want to buy a telescope for my child, what telescope should I buy?

It’s important to note that telescopes, in general, are precision scientific instruments. Using them correctly requires some skill. How much skill they require depends on the telescope’s design. For example, dobsonian telescopes are generally pretty easy, whereas any telescope with EQ in the name tends to be incredibly challenging. Telescopes with AZ in the name can be easy or difficult to use depending on the design. If the telescope is mounted on what looks like a simple tripod (like most telescopes marketed at kids), it’s probably near impossible to view things high in the sky. When you’re buying a telescope for a child, parents have to realize that they’ll probably have to learn to use the telescope to locate objects first, then let the child see the object through the eyepiece.

If you go on Amazon and search for “kids telescopes”, you will not find any capable of providing decent views of the night sky. I’m pretty sure most of the reviews are fake, too. Almost all of the telescopes on Amazon targeted at kids are just toys, or what I call “bird feeder” telescopes. They’re not designed to point at the sky, and they’re not designed to track objects as they move across the sky. Sky and Telescope magazine calls these “Hobby Killers”, and there are a LOT of them on the market.

I have a set of requirements for any beginner telescope:

1. Does the telescope have at least 4 inches of aperture (about 100mm)?

2. Does the telescope come with a red-dot or bullseye finder? (no finderscopes!)

3. Can the telescope’s mount move effortlessly left-right, and up-down and attach to the telescope with a vixen style dovetail? (Dobsonians are great but no EQ mounts for beginners.)

4. Can the telescope balance precisely on the mount and stay fixed in place when released? (no camera tripods or yoke & rod mounts)

5. Can the telescope point straight up, and if it’s a refractor, does it include a 90-degree diagonal?

What should I look for in a telescope for kids?

Basically, you want a telescope that is trivially easy to use for both kids and adults, and there is really only one telescope design that meets that requirement, and it’s the table top Dobsonian. You also want to make sure the telescope comes with a finder (surprisingly, some telescopes don’t include a finder, and are therefore, pretty useless).

Two telescopes that my kids find easy to use are the Zhummel Z100 and the Orion SkyScanner 100mm.

If what you see though the telescope isn’t capable of making you go “WOW” then it’s not a great option for kids.

My son (7 years old at the time) using a Z100 Telescope to see Jupiter.

What about telescopes for adults or families?

For families, a larger Dobsonian is a safe option. An 8-inch Dobsonian telescope will provide views of thousands of objects, you just have to know what you’re looking for. The new StarSense DX line from Celestron is also nice since it uses your cellphone to help you push the telescope directly to your targets. Note that only the LT series of StarSense falls into Sky and Telescope’s “Hobby Killer” category due to the poor mount. I realize that cost is a big issue for a lot of people, but the reality is that a capable telescope cost more than a few hundred dollars.

My son (6 at the time) using an 8 inch Dobsonian telescope.

There are exceptions, however, Costco has been known to carry the Omni 102AZ refractor for as low as $139 USD. As far as I know they have never included this telescope on their webpage or anywhere online for that matter. Folks have only found it by going into the store. I really like the views through this telescope. It’s also upgradable as you grow in the hobby. I made a video about this telescope that can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdEh4EODjV8 . I actually know several professional astronomers who own the Omni 102AZ, and they use it as a grab-and-go telescope. They’ll use it for easy view of the Moon, planets, or even that recent comet (E3 ZTF).

I have a grid of telescope I recommend at every price point on the homepage of LearnToStargaze.com .

Using the Omni 102AZ from Costco.

What is the first object you should look at in a beginner telescope?

Definitely the Moon. The Moon is our nearest neighbor in space, it’s close enough that with a small telescope you can explore the craters, valleys, and mountains. And because of how the shadows fall on the Moon’s surface, the Moon looks completely different every night! This is why we wrote the book 50 Things to See on the Moon.

How the Moon appears in a small telescope (iPhone photo).

What is the most amazing thing you can see through a telescope?

Definitely Saturn. Saturn should be pretty easy to find in any decent small telescope. You’ll see the rings, and its largest moon, Titan.

After you’ve observed the Moon and bright planets, it’s time to move on to deep sky objects. There is a list of 110 objects called the Messier List. This is a list of 110 of the brightest galaxies, star clusters and nebulae. Seeing all 110 objects is a popular goal for beginner stargazers. (Which is what my book 110 Things to See with a Telescope is all about).

I just bought a telescope, what barlow and other accessories should I buy next?

I get this question more than any other. Here’s the thing, most people who ask this questions haven’t even used their telescope yet. They don’t know what it can, and cannot do. It’s best to become an expert at with what you have before you dive into extras. Also, barlows make objects appear larger, but they don’t make objects appear better. The resolution of your telescope is limited by its aperture (the diameter of the big lens or mirror that collects light from space).

That said, generally, the eyepiece is the first thing you want to upgrade. Sometimes a good eyepiece costs as much as the telescope. For small telescopes, I like a premium 25mm Plossl eyepiece for deep sky objects (look to pay about $60, you get what you pay for). I’ll add a 2x barlow for planets ($30). For my larger telescopes, I like a quality 20mm 2inch wide field eyepiece for observing of deep sky objects (~$300) and a 2x 2 inch barlow for planets ($100). The eyepiece generally has to be paired to the specific telescope. For example, Celestron’s Premium 5mm X-Cel eyepiece works great to provide great views of the planets with the Omni 102AZ mentioned above, but try to use this with Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) and the magnification will simply be too high, and the planets won’t look as good.

Where can people reach you?

I’m the host of LearnToStargaze on YouTube, and I try to respond to every comment. That’s the best way to contact me if you have specific questions about stargazing or telescopes.

What are you up to these days?

I’m a Master in Space Systems Engineering Student at John’s Hopkins University. I’m actually the only person on my team who isn’t currently an Aerospace engineer. I’m on a team of six people and we’re currently designing a constellation of 8 spacecraft for detecting forest fires (note that this is a school project, these spacecraft already exist, and are already in space).

As I said, before, I’m also the host of LearnToStargaze on YouTube, and the author of the Things to See with a Telescope series. My wife and I also just purchased 26 acres of land in Nova Scotia, and we’re planning on created a designated dark sky location where stargazers can come appreciate the night sky without worrying about city lights. It’s also a place for people to come to learn to use a telescope, and have someone give them a guided tour of the night sky.

Have you ever seen a UFO?

I’ve never seen anything I couldn’t explain. If I see something flashing or moving oddly in the sky, I’ll take a photo, and record the time. Then I’ll use software to see which satellites, airplanes, or balloons are in the sky. I have ALWAYS been successful in identifying the object, and it’s always been something mundane. Identifying objects in the sky is something savvy astronomers get quite good at. This is way people who look at the sky as a profession almost never report seeing UFOs.

The most common UFO sightings by the public (including pilots) can be traced back to the planets Venus or Jupiter. These planets are very bright, and if you’re driving down a dark road at night, and the planet is behind the trees, there is an optical illusion that creates the impression that the light is following you. In reality, the planet is just so distant, that it doesn’t change position as you move.

But I saw on CNN that military pilots report seeing UFOs doing impossible things. What’s going on there?

Based on the videos and reports I’ve seen, the objects military pilots are observing most likely fall into one of five categories: birds, other airplanes/balloons, sky lanterns, lens flares, or Venus/Jupiter optical illusions. I give it a 99% probability that the objects they’re observing fall into one of these five categories, with the other 1% being something even more mundane.