Introduction
Getting Started
I want a Telescope
Time for a new Telescope
Eyepieces and Filters
Book Reviews
Free Astronomy Software
Our First Night Out
Orion SpaceProbe 130ST First Light
Astro Links
My Home Page-
God, Genesis and the big bang
Introduction
The purpose of this site is to share from the perspective of an absolute beginner what I am learning as I begin my journey as an amateur backyard astronomer. I am quickly learning there is a world of difference between head knowledge and experience. Experience comes from getting your hands dirty and making lots of mistakes. My hope is these articles will encourage you to get started and help you avoid some of the bigger mistakes along the way.
All of my life I have been fascinated with the night sky. There is an awe and wonder to it that is hard to explain but you already know the feeling. As a kid I read every book on astronomy in the school library. I checked out all the space related books in the public children's library. I remember the day I got my adult library card. I was so happy because it meant I could finally go up the stairs and check out the real books on science. I wanted to someday become an astronomer. The passion never faded but reality changed my plans. My youngest son's recent interest has caused me to finally take up sky watching as a hobby.
What To Expect
So if you invest all this time into the hobby and spend all the money necessary on the equipment what can you expect to actually see? Good Question!
What stars you can see will depend on their apparent magnitude. Apparent magnitude is the degree of brightness of a celestial body designated on a numerical scale such that a change of one unit represents a change in apparent brightness by a factor of 2.512. Whatever. I am sure it will make more sense later to both of us. Apparent magnitude is labeled 'm'.
The star magnitude scale was created by a Greek astronomer named Hipparchus. The brightest stars were labeled magnitude 1 stars, the dimmest visible with the unaided eye were labeled magnitude 6 stars. A magnitude 1 star is 100 times brighter than a magnitude 6 star. Today due to light pollution you may not be able to see mag 6 stars with out binoculars.
More modern measurements showed the original scale to be inaccurate as the brightest stars are brighter than magnitude 1. The brightest star is Sirius. It is a -1.4m star. Notice that's minus 1.4m; We live in a weird world. The larger the magnitude the dimmer the star. A magnitude 11 star is 100 times dimmer than a magnitude 6 one. The dimmest star visible with an 8" scope is 13-14m. The Hubble space telescope can see down to a 30m object.
You will only see stars as pinpoints. They are too far away even for the Hubble telescope to see larger than as a point of light. While most stars appear white, many others display billiant color. You are able to see many examples of this with just your unaided eyes.
You will see subtle color when viewing Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. When viewing nebula, you should expect to see little or no color no matter how big your scope. The photographs we have all seen showing beautiful color are long exposure pictures using multiple filters.
Other interesting things we have seen that you also can experience (in no particular order):
When its' orbit comes closest to Earth, every couple years, you can see the polar caps on Mars - Cool. You need a big scope for this.
We have seen the Andromeda galaxy and Whirlpool galaxy among others. Andromeda can be seen with your unaided eyes if you know where to look. With a telescope a low power eyepiece works best for Andromeda.
You can see many globular clusters and open clusters, some with binoculars.
You can see nebula but they won't look like your favorite Hubble pictures.
The rings of Saturn are easy with almost any scope at 30X magnification.
The bands on Jupiter are easy with a nice scope. The Red Spot is tougher but doable.
You can see moons of Jupiter and Saturn with only binoculars.
You can see the phases of Venus (like the moon phases).
We live in an area of moderate light pollution and we can still see the Milky Way.
You can see double stars.
You might also see a comet, a meteor, or manmade satellites.
There are probably many other things I have forgotten to mention. The important thing is to get out there and look up!
I hope you found something of interest here. If you did drop me a note. If I have written something that is not correct please point it out to me and if you convince me I will get it changed.
Clear Skies!
Copyright © 2004 by Kevin Sluder
All rights reserved
Latest revision August 2007