Amateur Astronomy (A Guide)

An online book by Rick Boozer

 

CONTENTS

 

Section 1: How To Choose A Telescope

 

Why I Wrote This Book!.......................................   i

A Telescope’s Most Important Features .......................   1

Types Of Telescopes .........................................   6

Eyepieces And Accessories ...................................  16

Telescope Mounts ............................................  21

The Common Alt-Azimuth Mount ...........................  21

The Fork Equatorial Mount ..............................  22

The Fork Alt-Azimuth Mount .............................  23

The German Equatorial Mount ............................  24

The Dobsonian Mount ....................................  25

Choosing An Instrument To Fit Your Needs ....................  28

Binocular Astronomy ....................................  28

Selecting A Telescope ..................................  29

Understanding Optical Defects ...............................  31

Glossary ....................................................  34

 

 

                                              ILLUSTRATIONS

 

Figure 1: A light beam is composed of waves .................   4

Figure 2: Light from a star is focused to a point ...........   6

Figure 3: Examples of the two major telescope classes .......   8

Figure 4: Three more of the basic reflector types ...........  12

Figure 5: Commercially available hybrid reflectors ..........  14

Figure 6: Altitude and azimuth movements ....................  21

Figure 7: The Fork equatorial mount .........................  23

Figure 8: Pivot axes of the German equatorial mount .........  24

Figure 9: Newtonian reflector on Dobsonian mount ............  25

Figure 10: A spherical mirror focusing starlight ............  31

Figure 11: Widening of a light beam by coma .................  32

 

 

Section 2: Learning Your Way Around The Night Sky