"This was written for the person with little to no knowledge of astronomy to help them enter this hobby without making a big financial mistake so they can get the most out of it. It uses simple to understand language and has plenty of illustrations to go along with it as well as URLs to several resources. Topics include - types of observing, telescope theory with several mathematical formulas made simple, mounts, view finders, eyepieces, filters, errors and aberrations, the coordinate system and celestial sphere, a quick look at star catalogs and more"--.