About Owain Thackray

Owain Thackray is 53 and lives in Hexham, Northumberland, about an hour's drive from the Kielder dark sky reserve. For twenty years he ran the physics lab at a Hexham secondary school; these days he writes, mostly about the equipment people buy to look up.

Why spec sheets

Years of setting out lenses, light boxes and spectrometers for lessons leave a habit: read the label before you trust the demonstration. Smart telescopes arrive with a lot of promise and fewer numbers than you would like, so Backyard Scopes starts from the numbers each maker publishes and sets them side by side.

What this site does not do

Owain does not claim to have had these instruments out in his own garden for the purpose of this site. Each page orders specifications and gives a reading of what they mean under British skies, where cloud, damp and street lighting matter as much as aperture. Where a maker leaves a figure out, the page says so rather than guessing.

How the pages are kept

Prices are read on a stated date and shown with that date. When a maker changes a specification or a bundle, the page changes with it. If you spot a figure that no longer matches, send a note.