Looking Up What Do You See ?
February 15th 2012 01:59
Category: Telescopes
Well you just bought a brand new telescope take it home and unpack it.
After putting it together you take it outside to see the wonders of the night sky and you may be confronted by what you are see. Seeing is one thing finding is the tricky part.
Over the years I have had some very interesting conversations on what some people actually “see”.
One person had bought a medium size telescope commented that “when I go out and look at the stars all I see are points of light”.
While it is true that if you look at a star through a telescope you will see a point of light.
That being said if the telescope is properly collimated you will see a star as a point of light.
When you slightly defocus the telescope on the star what you see is a set of concentric rings around the star. If the telescope is not collimated the defocused star the rings may appear misshapen.
I will discuss how you collimate a telescope later in a later blog.
Now going back to what we see in the night sky is all about knowing something about the object we are looking for.
There are plenty of “free” programs on the ‘net that will show where various constellations and planets are located in night sky some even show nebulas.
Perhaps the most prominent nebula we can see with the naked eye is the Orion Nebula situated in the constellation of Orion.
Credit: ESA/Hubble, Rob Gendler and Akira Fujii
Night sky observing can be a lifetime of fun all we need is a little bit of knowledge and the universe will reveal itself.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by CMoreStars
Astroearth
Camera Sense
Hi S.L.
I know has frustrating it is when clouds cover the nightly view of the stars.
It will about 6 weeks until the wet season is finished here in Queensland.
By late March we should be seeing clearer nightly skies.
Wishing you clear skies.