City Telescopes

[Rich Riddle]

We have property on a hill overlooking the city of Cincinnati. As a crow flies, the buildings and other landmarks are between 3/4 mile and about 10 miles away. Every time someone visits he wants to look through some sort of telescope. Any idea on what would be good for looking at buildings that close? It also would make sense if it worked mostly during day hours. The photo will give you an idea. Thanks.

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[Tony Zona]

My wife has an 18-power to 36-power zoom terrascope from Orion.

I have a 20 power by 80mm binocular for both astronomy and scenic viewing.

You should have a tripod with either of them. For my binos I have a homemade parallelogram counter-weighted mount on the tripod. You can find directions to build them online.

The parallelogram mount allows you to find something and then raise or lower the viewing device for taller or shorter people, and not lose the target.

Then if you decide to look at the sky at night, be prepared to be impressed.

[Wade Lippman]

The rule of thumb is in daylight the front lens should be 3 times the power. 20x60 is most common and affordable.
I bought a Barsha 20-60x60 because it was really cheap on Amazon; like $25. It is surprisingly decent at 20x, and nearly useless at 60X. I expect more expensive ones will be better at 60X, but they will still be very dim.

[James Baker SD]

Almost any telescope will focus on that range with no problem. Problem occurs if you want really close focus, say 25 feet. Whatever you get, making sure that it shows an upright, true left to right image or it will be confusing on buildings. A zoom eyepiece would be nice if you need to cover a large range of sizes. Either a refractor (all lenses) or a cat (lens and mirror with eyepiece at the back) will be more suitable for daytime viewing than a Newtonian (eyepiece on the side of tube at the front). Extremely high power is probably not necessary, so large aperture is not necessary. Good tripod is a must. Big binoculars are nice as well.

If you want to also use it at night, the moon and planets survive light pollution from the largest city pretty well. Planets are not big however, so now you might want to go up in aperture, have a scope that accepts multiple eyepieces (low power for Cinci, high power for planets).

Nice picture, I haven't seen Cincinnati since my last relatives pasted away back there. Took my parents back there for their birthday present to visit our remaining relatives and my Dad and I went to Riverfront stadium while my Mom talked with her sister. Marge was having a special event, giving away a used car during the 7th inning stretch (yeah, it was a while ago). Near sellout crowd and we got tickets 3 rows from the very top of the stadium. After we climbing, climbing, climbing to our seats I asked my Dad (in his early 80's) if he wanted if he wanted a dog and a beer. He said, "only if you go for them by yourself". Reds lost to Houston that night, but it was a good evening with my Dad.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I'd use my spotting scope. Swarovski is the best in my opinion.

[Myk Rian]

I'd use my spotting scope. Swarovski is the best in my opinion.
Spotting scope here also. 15x to 45x Simmons.

[Jim Matthews]

Every time someone visits he wants to look through some sort of telescope

At Cincinnati, Ohio? The best view is from the Roebling Bridge, in your rear view mirror.
The best parts of Cincinnati are in Kentucky.