I plan on doing this as a regular series throughout the month. Granted, if I have time. Also, I'm a little sleepy so some info might be incorrect or missing. Please, ask a question and I'll try to answer it and see to put the answer in the OP.
Tonight's topic. Telescopes!
So telescopes, what do you know about them? They're used in Astronomy, we use them to see stars, nebulae, planets, and more! But, what are they, what do they do, and why are they so important? Well, I'll try to answer your questions with amateur questions.
What do Telescopes Do?
To be blunt, all they do is gather light. Nothing more, nothing less. That is the only purpose of it, well, besides showing you what you're trying to see. They aid your eye to see things humans normally can't see, even on a dark sky with no light pollution. Our eyes can't see as far as a telescope would, we just don't have the focal length to even see that far into the Universe, which is why we use a telescope.
What are Telescopes?
They are either mirrors reflecting off each other or glass being able to magnify through each other. Both have their advantages and disadvantages when it comes to how a person wants to use them. Someone who would want to see some really deep sky object would use a reflecting telescope, which provides a big FOV and has an advantage in light gathering power. Refracting telescopes (like Galileo's telescope) can help focus on other things instead of a bigger picture, you may want to see Jupiter's rings and bands in detail, a refracting telescope can help in that instead of a reflecting telescope. Below is a diagram on how these telescopes work with light. These are pretty basic drawings, but normally, that's how telescopes are in general.
What Can We Do With Telescopes?
Quite a lot, actually. You can take pictures of galaxies, nebulae, planets, etc with telescopes, provided you have the appropriate materials to do so accurately. Besides that, you can see much more deep sky objects than with the naked eye. Special equipment and software can be used to do your own experiments on stars and asteroids, provided you have the maths skills and resources to be able to understand what to do. On a more professional level, you can use a telescope at an observatory to do research on celestial objects with teams.
What Do I need to Operate a Telescope?
Many telescopes are equipped with a GPS and star chart while others... Aren't. If you don't have a computer controlled telescope, no worries, software on your phone and computer are there to help you and having a good sense of direction will, too! I recommend using Right Ascension and Declination because, for the most part, it's universal and easy to understand and locate things. Alt AZ mounts mainly focus on up, down, left, right movements and are mainly used for less serious stuff, like looking at the moon and very common things.
Why are There Different Sizes?
The different sizes of telescopes are called apertures. Size matters when it comes to telescopes, the bigger, the better quality you can get compared to a smaller aperture telescope. You will also need to calculate the magnification on telescopes, which can then have an impact on your image viewing. With some division, you will know how powerful your lens can be with certain eyepieces, it all depends on your telescope.
Ok, I'm getting tired. Please ask a question or 2 and I could try to get to it tomorrow. ily
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