S.A.A Telescope Questionnaire - beta 1

I liked Bill Greer's questions a lot and just thought Question number 9
should be added (see below). More suggestions are welcome!

When we have 'consensus' on its contents, we should keep a copy of it
somewhere. So if a regular S.A.A poster sees someone with the normal
"Which telescope should I buy?" question, then he or she can reply with
the questionnaire.

Hopefully the original poster will go through the effort of answering it
and send it back to the newsgroup. Then we can unleash our informed
advice onto the poor soul! ;-)


QUESTIONNAIRE

Please answer the following questions to the best of your ability.
Your answers will greatly assist us in directing you to the right
telescope for your needs.

1) What price range are you considering? Would you be willing to
spend more in order to get the performance you desire?

2) What would you like to be able to see? What specific details
would you want to be able to see in those objects?

3) Would you eventually want to use this telescope for photography,
CCD imaging, or any other specialized purpose?

4) What is the nearest city/town to the area in which you plan on
using the telescope? How far from this city/town do you intend to set
up and use your new telescope?

5) If size and weight are important factors, what are your
approximate limitations?

6) Do you want the telescope now; or are you willing to wait for the
right telescope?

7) Are there any specific features or capabilities you think you
would want or not want in your new telescope?

8) Is there anything else that would be important for us to consider
in order to direct you to the right telescope?

9) In which country do you stay? Some equipment manufacturers may not
have distributors there.


--
25° 45' S
28° 12' E

Victor wrote:
QUESTIONNAIRE

Not a bad idea. However, I think most beginners will need help in
interpreting and answering these questions. One way that we might be
able to do this without requiring interaction (after all, we're trying
to avoid some of that) is to put these questions on a web page, and
hyperlink the questions to clarifications.

1) What price range are you considering? Would you be willing to
spend more in order to get the performance you desire?

I wouldn't be sure how to answer that second part. The problem is
that I might not be sure what kind of performance I could get. We
on SAA are familiar with the measurements of performance (light
gathering, resolution, contrast, field flatness, etc), but a novice
won't be.

2) What would you like to be able to see? What specific details
would you want to be able to see in those objects?

Again, what details are reasonable to expect? We should point out
that lunar landers are unreasonable, but the rings of Saturn, and
even some details in those rings, aren't.

3) Would you eventually want to use this telescope for photography,
CCD imaging, or any other specialized purpose?

4) What is the nearest city/town to the area in which you plan on
using the telescope? How far from this city/town do you intend to set
up and use your new telescope?

5) If size and weight are important factors, what are your
approximate limitations?

I would point out that there are limits based on the person carrying
the scope and parts, as well as being able to fit it into a car.

6) Do you want the telescope now; or are you willing to wait for the
right telescope?

7) Are there any specific features or capabilities you think you
would want or not want in your new telescope?

What is there besides motorized tracking and GOTO?

Actually, I'm not sure I could come up with very many that a beginner
will be able to decide about.

8) Is there anything else that would be important for us to consider
in order to direct you to the right telescope?

9) In which country do you stay? Some equipment manufacturers may not
have distributors there.

I'd ask a few more questions, such as:

10. Have you ever used a pair of binoculars before? Do you own a pair?

11. Have you ever used a telescope before?

12. Do you plan to observe primarily on your own, or with friends?
[Tracking and GOTO take added importance if you're observing with
friends.]

13. How many of the following objects can you find on your own? With
a star map?

a. Orion
b. Big Dipper (or Southern Cross)
c. Pleiades [M 45]
d. Sirius
e. The celestial pole
f. Great Orion Nebula [M 42]
g. Great Andromeda Galaxy [M 31] (or omega Centauri [NGC 5139])
h. Ring Nebula [M 57] (or Saturn Nebula [NGC 7009])
i. Whirlpool Galaxy [M 51] (or Southern Pinwheel [M 83])
j. Uranus
k. Neptune
l. Pluto

14. Which do you think you would enjoy more?

a. The hunt for a celestial target
b. The view once you find it

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

Hi Brian,

Good points about beginners not being able to answer some of these
questions. I remember quite vividly how I didn't know what I didn't know
when I started. Fortunately, I read around in the newsgroups and found
some good advice.


Brian Tung wrote:


14. Which do you think you would enjoy more?

a. The hunt for a celestial target
b. The view once you find it


This last is, to me, by far the most important question, one that I
still have difficulty answering after 3 years in the hobby.

--Ben

Yes, good point:, I agree, and if you still have difficulty answering it,
probably it should not be in a questionnaire to beginners.
Bill Meyers

Ben Kolstad wrote:

Hi Brian,

Good points about beginners not being able to answer some of these
questions. I remember quite vividly how I didn't know what I didn't know
when I started. Fortunately, I read around in the newsgroups and found
some good advice.

Brian Tung wrote:


14. Which do you think you would enjoy more?

a. The hunt for a celestial target
b. The view once you find it

This last is, to me, by far the most important question, one that I
still have difficulty answering after 3 years in the hobby.

--Ben

Brian Tung wrote:

Victor wrote:
QUESTIONNAIRE

Not a bad idea. However, I think most beginners will need help in
interpreting and answering these questions. One way that we might be
able to do this without requiring interaction (after all, we're trying
to avoid some of that) is to put these questions on a web page, and
hyperlink the questions to clarifications.

1) What price range are you considering?

Need to suggest price ranges here

Would you be willing to
spend more in order to get the performance you desire?

Uninterpretable question. Leading question. Unclear referent: what
performance you desire.



(snip)

2) What would you like to be able to see?

Respondent may not know. Need a list of possibilities.

What specific details
would you want to be able to see in those objects?

See above. Presupposed knowledge respondent may not have,



Again, what details are reasonable to expect? We should point out
that lunar landers are unreasonable, but the rings of Saturn, and
even some details in those rings, aren't.

3) Would you eventually want to use this telescope for photography,
CCD imaging, or any other specialized purpose?

4) What is the nearest city/town to the area in which you plan on
using the telescope?

We don't need to know the name of the town. Need to zero in on the light
pollution conditions

How far from this city/town do you intend to set
up and use your new telescope?

Responses will be uninterpretable in terms of light pollution. And suppose
respondent wants to set up in town? He or she may answer in feet or meters.



5) If size and weight are important factors,

leading questions.

what are your
approximate limitations?

Ambiguous. You may get some answers in terms of size and weight of
respondent.
Respondent



I would point out that there are limits based on the person carrying
the scope and parts, as well as being able to fit it into a car.

6) Do you want the telescope now; or are you willing to wait for the
right telescope?

Leading question.
And double barreled.
And The alternatives do not exclude each other. Non exhaustive and
non-mutually exclusive alternatives are a big problem in poorly designed
surveys.




7) Are there any specific features or capabilities you think you
would want or not want in your new telescope?


Vague question. Respondent may not know the alternatives.



8) Is there anything else that would be important for us to consider
in order to direct you to the right telescope?

9) In which country do you stay? Some equipment manufacturers may not
have distributors there.

I'd ask a few more questions, such as:

10. Have you ever used a pair of binoculars before?

Do you own a pair?

Sexist question. :-)



11. Have you ever used a telescope before?

For bird watching? Ambiguous.
Awkward phrasing: before what?




(Snip of a lot of good (mostly substantive) comments by Brian Tung throughout
this post. I've confined myself to mostly methodological comments.
Ciao,
Bill Meyers

"Victor" wrote in message
...
QUESTIONNAIRE

10) Do you enjoy assembling and maintaining your equipment, or would you
rather not?

As for me, I'm sticking with the three questions which have served well over
the years...

1. What's your budget?

2. Where will you use your telescope and how will you get it there?

3. What kind of observing would you like to do: lunar/planetary (Moon, Jupiter,
etc.); deep-sky (star clusters and nebulae; or a little bit of both?

Regards,

Bill Ferris
"Cosmic Voyage: The Online Resource for Amateur Astronomers"
URL: http://www.cosmic-voyage.net
=============
Email: Remove "ic" from .comic above to respond

#4 Have you read the Telescope Buyers FAQ?


--
"In this universe the night was falling,the shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.
But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning
lingered: and along the path he once had followed, man would one day go
again."

Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars

SIAR
www.starlords.org
Freelance Writers Shop
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"Bill Ferris" wrote in message
...
As for me, I'm sticking with the three questions which have served well over
the years...

1. What's your budget?

2. Where will you use your telescope and how will you get it there?

3. What kind of observing would you like to do: lunar/planetary (Moon,
Jupiter,
etc.); deep-sky (star clusters and nebulae; or a little bit of both?

Regards,

Bill Ferris
"Cosmic Voyage: The Online Resource for Amateur Astronomers"
URL: http://www.cosmic-voyage.net
=============
Email: Remove "ic" from .comic above to respond



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If nothing else, you are persistent.

:-)

"Starlord" wrote in message
...
#4 Have you read the Telescope Buyers FAQ?

It's wonderful to see engineers and computer programmers design a
questionnaire. The results so far are a lot better than one might have
predicted, probably because our posters know so much about the subject
of the questionnaire This is a big help.
Questionnaire design, though, is not only a common sense matter
but also a fairly technical field in which one takes advantage of what
has been learned from the mistakes and bitter experience of others in
the past. Resort to a book on survey design would probably pay off here.

I have seen many sad cases of questionnaires sent out to
respondents at considerable cost of time, effort and money, that
produced uninterpretable responses. This can be because of vagueness, or
ambiguity, or double-barreled questions, or leading questions, or
questions that presupposed some knowledge that the respondents didn't
have, or questions that used language the respondents didn't
understand, or where important questions that were not thought of in
advance were unfortunately omitted. .
Sometimes for example you want to tell the respondent what sort of
answers you are looking for.
Instead of asking,
"Where will you use the telescope?" { some will answer, "near my
house" or "outdoors" or "in Lafayette Indiana")
You might ask instead:
Will you be using the telescope (check as many as apply)
in a large city where few stars can be seen with the
naked eye
in a suburb where you can see quite a few stars with the
naked eye
in a dark country sky
(etc.)
(These are just approximate suggestions.)
And so forth.
Bill Meyers