Archives for the 'amateur astronomy' Category
Your first telescope — what should you point it at?
Published on 30 Dec 2006 at 10:27 pm.
9 Comments.
Filed under amateur astronomy.
So, you have a new telescope. You get it all set up. Now what? What do you point it at? You look in magazines and see wonderful photos of all sorts of heavenly bodies. That’s what you want to see. Well, the bad news is that they don’t look […]
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Your first telescope - Part 2 (eyepieces)
Published on 29 Dec 2006 at 11:58 pm.
7 Comments.
Filed under amateur astronomy, telescopes.
An important part of a telescope is the eyepiece. Often novices to telescopes don’t realize this. The objective (lens or mirror) focuses the light, but the eyepiece is the lens that you look through to put the light back into a form that your eye can use. Since this is the part […]
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Your first telescope — Part One
Published on 27 Dec 2006 at 8:20 pm.
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Filed under amateur astronomy, telescopes.
Every year, after Christmas or after a birthday, people ask me for help with their new telescope. It is wonderful and exciting to get a telescope as a gift, but if it’s your first telescope, then you often don’t have any idea how to use it. Any instruction manual that comes with it […]
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An Occultation of Saturn
Published on 6 Dec 2006 at 8:22 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under amateur astronomy, observing.
The Moon moves around the sky, taking about a month to complete one circuit. Along the way, it passes by various other objects. When the Moon passes something, we call that a conjunction. But, occasionally, in its motion the Moon passes right in front of another body. This we call an occultation. This weekend, the […]
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Glasses or no glasses?
Published on 27 Nov 2006 at 4:42 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under amateur astronomy, observing.
I am getting new glasses soon. I need a new prescription, and besides I got the anti-reflective coating on my old pair pretty scratched up (no coatings on the new pair!). But, this raises a question that people always ask at public star parties. Should they take off their glasses to look through the telescope?
Well, […]
Dressing for Winter Astronomy
Published on 18 Nov 2006 at 12:16 am.
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Filed under amateur astronomy.
I think that I may have posted something like this last year on my old blog. Well, it bears repeating.
We are having a big star party this weekend. Naturally, this is supposed to be one of the coldest nights of the season. Now, cold weather and astronomy go together. The cold drives a lot of […]
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Amateur Astronomer Observing Programs
Published on 28 May 2006 at 11:18 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under amateur astronomy, skywatching.
In thinking about my next post, I thought that I’d do a follow-up to my last post. So, this is also aimed at amateur astronomers.
Often people will buy a telescope, or get one for Christmas, birthday, or whatever. Then, comes the task of learning how to use it. That is often a […]
