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Astronomy for Beginners

Articles and tips for beginners about astronomy, the night sky, telescopes, binoculars, and accessories.

How to Look Through a Telescope

December 21, 2017 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Astronomy for Beginners

The art of looking through a telescope. Image credit: Brian Ventrudo

Newcomers to astronomy and casual stargazers are sometimes disappointed by their first glimpses through a telescope, especially when looking at deep-sky sights like star clusters, galaxy, and nebulae. They look through the eyepiece, see a dim smudge without much detail or any color, and conclude that one dim smudge looks like all the others. Some become disillusioned, wonder what all the fuss is about, and take up bird watching instead.

Like most activities, however, looking through a telescope takes a little skill and practice. But once you get the hang of it, you can learn to see an astonishing amount of subtle detail, even in a small telescope. The image of a distant galaxy or star cluster in your telescope will never rival the pro-quality photographs you see in books and magazines. But with a little practice, you’ll learn to observe subtle detail and structure in faint objects that even the best cameras will never capture. Here are a few tips to help you get the best view of ‘faint fuzzies’ through a telescope… [Read more…] about How to Look Through a Telescope

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Filed Under: Astronomy for Beginners beginners, telescopes

How to See – Averted Vision and Dark Adaptation

December 20, 2017 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Astronomy for Beginners

The structure of the retina showing rods, cones, and nerve cells. Credit: OpenStax College/Wikipedia.

You can spend thousands of dollars on a big, advanced telescope, hundreds more on the best eyepieces money can buy, and still not see much of anything at all. Unless,  that is, you know you to extract maximum light and detail with your eye. There are two concepts every stargazer should know to get the best visual views: averted vision and dark adaptation. Here’s how it all works… [Read more…] about How to See – Averted Vision and Dark Adaptation

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Filed Under: Astronomy for Beginners beginners, dark adaptation, night vision

Finder Scopes

July 12, 2016 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Astronomy Equipment, Astronomy for Beginners

A magnifying finder scope mounted to a telescope.
A magnifying finder scope mounted to a telescope.

When you look through a telescope, you look at a very small slice of sky. That makes it almost impossible to point your telescope directly at your target. Sometimes, it’s even hard to find the Moon directly with the main tube of a telescope, even at lowest magnification. That’s why most telescopes come with a finder, a small telescope or range finder to help you easily locate objects in the night sky. There are two main types of finders: magnifying finders and non-magnifying finders [Read more…] about Finder Scopes

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Filed Under: Astronomy Equipment, Astronomy for Beginners astronomy accessories, finder scopes

Why Now is the Best Time to be a Stargazer

April 12, 2015 by Brian Ventrudo Filed Under: Astronomy for Beginners

M104-HST

“Always avoid the neighborhood of any bright light. Electric lights in particular are an abomination to stargazers.” So wrote the American astronomy popularizer Garrett Serviss, in 1890, in his excellent book Astronomy with an Opera Glass. 

Serviss would likely be appalled at the grey fog of light pollution over most cities, where most people now live. Under such conditions, the faint stars and others sights of the deep sky are much harder to see, and many city dwellers have never seen the faint band of the Milky Way.

Which is why many argue the best days for amateur astronomy are behind us. But take heart, fellow stargazer, because in this article, you discover why this is the best time in history to enjoy the night sky… [Read more…] about Why Now is the Best Time to be a Stargazer

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Filed Under: Astronomy for Beginners

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