 Hold up. Wait. Stop. Before you go to the nearest telescope store and demand to see the showroom, there's a couple things that you need to think about before going out and buying that telescope. This is your space pod for June 5th, 2015. There are a series of things that will dictate what telescope you should actually buy. There's lots of different variables involved in it, and you should look at all of those variables before you actually go out and get your telescope. And probably one of the first ones is what kind of sky do you have? I live in Los Angeles, a wonderful place to call home. But the sky's not so much. You see, 20 million other people all thought that LA would be a good place to live as well. That means that there's an incredible amount of what we call light pollution. This is excess light that's being thrown into the sky, scattering around off of particulates in clouds, and ruining what would be a pristine view. So no matter how big of a telescope I buy, or how big of a telescope you buy living in a light polluted city, you're not going to be seeing much. Luckily, I have places nearby that allow for dark skies, such as Joshua Tree National Park. But when you look through your telescope for the first time in dark skies, don't expect to see something absolutely amazing, like what the Hubble Space Telescope would give you. And speaking of scene, one thing that all amateur astronomers seem to have in common, even those deep into their observation histories, is that they often don't get good glass to look through. eyepieces are essential to getting the most out of your telescope. And there's something you should never skimp on. You get what you pay for is absolutely true in the world of eyepieces. Most telescopes will come with what we call an inch and a quarter style eyepiece. And they're a good place to start if you're unsure that you want to make this a hobby. But when it's time to step up and start dropping those dollars, two inch eyepieces will be your friend. And most of us who take astronomy seriously prefer the view with two inch eyepieces. Amount is something that's often overlooked. And for good reason, because when most people own a telescope, they point at whatever in the sky on that night. Simple mounts are great for the grab and go. But if you really want to take in the sky, go-to mounts will be your best friend. These are computer controlled systems that will compensate for the Earth's rotation. Go-to mounts are called so because they literally go to the target that you may want to view. As a bonus, you often will learn what's in the sky because of the way your go-to mount operates. They're also exceptionally handy for astrophotography. Taking imagery in the digital age is much simpler than back in the days of film. All you need is a DSLR and a special adapter called a T-Ring. This allows my DSLR to be attached to the back of my telescope. With the go-to mount tracking my target, I can now take richly detailed imagery of a multitude of objects. There's a lot more to astrophotography, but we'll save that for next week's SpacePod, which will be all about it. Thanks for watching this SpacePod. I'm Jared Head. Don't forget to comment, like and subscribe to us on social media. And also don't forget to help donate to our Patreon campaign. If you want to keep seeing us do all of these amazing Space Pods and continue to bring you great spacey goodness, help us out just a little bit if you can. So, until next week, keep exploring.