Telescope | Eyepieces

Buying a telescope is a daunting task for a newcomer. It all depends on your astronomy goals and careers. There is no perfect one which suits all observers in all conditions. You have to look for the features you want in your telescope and select the best one's according to your requirement.

Selecting the proper type

• The refractor type telescopes best suit for watching moon and major planets. Refractor telescopes are long & thin, and known for their sharp, detailed and contrasty images. They collect light through multi-element lenses. If you are just a starter then a small, quality achromatic refractor of 60 to 90 mm aperture would be a good one. The best thing about a refractor telescope is that they are inexpensive, portable and almost maintenance free. A refractor telescope is also useful when you will be mostly observing from city or the surrounding areas where the night skies are lightly polluted.

• Reflector telescopes are also known as Newtonian telescopes. They are good for planetary as well as deep-sky viewing. However Newtonian telescopes are more fragile and need more maintenance than others. These telescopes collect light with a curved, concave mirror and with the help of their large apertures, they show fine,
highly-resolved images. The reflector scopes are not suitable for terrestrial viewing because they produce an upside-down image.

• Catadioptrics use both lenses and mirrors to collect and focus the incoming light. They are also called compound telescopes. Catadioptrics scopes are considered the most versatile telescopes and gives great all-around performance. They use a large aperture in very compact tubes. They show magnificent images of the moon, planets and faint deep-sky objects, when viewed in dark skies away from urban areas. These scopes are best suited for astrophotography. Compared to other two, these scopes have a wide range of accessories available. They can be entirely computer controlled.

Factors affecting the performance of a telescope

• Aperture: Telescopes collect light from distant objects and focus it to produce images. The light collecting capacity of a telescope is the most important feature. It is the aperture of scope (diameter of mirror or lens) that is responsible for gathering light. Larger the aperture, the more light gathered, the more you'll see.

• Telescope Mounts: There are three basic mounts for telescopes altazimuth, Dobsonian, or equatorial. Altazimuth is the simplest type of mount, providing up-down, left-right motions. It is mainly recommended for terrestrial viewing and casual stargazing. The Dobsonian mount was basically designed for easy maneuvering of large reflectors of more than six inches. It is a boxy altaz-type mount sitting close to the ground. Equatorial mounts are designed for the purpose of astronomical viewing. These mounts are more expensive and complicated than the altazimuth mounts. With the help of these type of mounts users can track or follow the motion of celestial objects through the sky with a single manual hand control.

• Magnification: Magnification should never top the priority for buying a telescope. The quality if image degrades with magnification. Practically 300X is maximum magnification for good quality images. Telescope's magnification is also known as its power and it is adjusted by changing eyepieces. Ideally there should have been three eyepieces for the magnification of a scope: one low, one medium and one high. Lower powers of 30 - 50X are recommended for observing galaxies, star clusters and nebulae as they are spread over a wide area of sky. For observing the rings of Saturn, Jupiter, studying craters and valleys of the Moon's surface medium power of 80 - 100X are advised. Higher powers of 150 - 200X allow the astronomers to observe mountain peaks and fine lunar detail, the surface features of Mars.

By Mike Kirsten
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Kirsten

The Vivitar 50x 100x Refractor Telescope makes a great companion at sporting events, under the night sky, or on a bird watching trek. This article will talk about the MPN, key features and some miscellaneous data.

The MPN (manufacturer's part number) is explained by first talking about what a part number is exactly. A part number is a unique identifier of a part used in a particular industry. Its purpose is to simplify referencing to that part. A part number unambiguously defines a part within a single manufacturer. This unambiguous definition is called the MPN. The Vivitar 50x 100x refractor telescope's MPN is 1607225.

The Vivitar 50x 100x refractor telescope's key features are the finderscope (optical), max useful magnification (x 100) and optical design (refractor).

The Vivitar telescope's finderscope is a small auxiliary telescope mounted atop the main astronomical telescope and pointed in the same direction. The finderscope usually has a much smaller magnification than the main telescope can provide and therefore can see more of the sky. This helps in locating the desired astronomical object in the night sky. Some finderscopes have cross hairs to mark exactly where the main telescope is looking. The vivitar's finderscope is optical vs digital with a 3x magnification.

The Vivitar telescope's max useful magnification is x100. What this actually means is far too complicated for this article but you can Google "What does "magnification" actually mean?" to find out more.

The Vivitar 50x 100x telescope's optical design is refractor. A refracting or refractor telescope is a dioptric telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image. The refracting telescope design was originally used in spy glasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used in other devices such as binoculars and long or telephoto camera lenses.

If you are interested in getting more info on the Vivitar telescopes, such as pictures, just click on vivitar telescope now.

By Olan Butler
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Olan_Butler

Tips for Finding the Right Astronomy Telescope for You

Children and adults everywhere find the night sky fascinating and love to make wishes on the stars they see. As children get older, they begin to learn about what is in the night sky and many develop an interest in astronomy.

Astronomy is a word from the Greek language. Astro, the first part of the word, comes from the Greek word for the star shape and also refers to outer space. The last part of the word, onomy, is Greek for "the study of". So from the original Greek, astronomy means study of the star or outer space.

Novices and experienced astronomers need one main tool to learn about and enjoy the night sky: an astronomy telescope. There are many different kinds of astronomy telescopes. You need to choose carefully and consider some important aspects of the telescope, such as the size of the lens and the sturdiness of the telescope stand, when you are looking to buy your first telescope.

The Importance of the Lens Diameter

Certain aspects of your new astronomy telescope will either make it enjoyable or leave you frustrated. Lens diameter is one of these aspects. Forget about magnification; the size of the lens of the telescope is more important. The larger the lens diameter, the more light it lets into the telescope and that affects how well you can see the things you are trying to look at in the night sky. The brighter the light, the clearer the images will be.

Choosing a Good Astronomy Telescope Stand

You will want to give a lot of thought to the type of stand you mount your new telescope to so that you get the most efficient use out of your telescope. A good tripod stand is the way to go. You want to choose a stand that will keep the telescope still so you get the best views of the night sky. Any movement at all will make the images you see blurry and cause you frustration.

Where and How to Shop for an Astronomy Telescope

You need to find out what your options are and know what the different telescopes offer before choosing one. One of the easiest ways to gather information about telescopes is by looking online. You should try and find out what the features are that are offered on each kind of telescope, how much they cost and what reviewers think about the different brands of telescopes.

One way to choose a good astronomy telescope is to try some of your potential telescopes out. If there is an astronomy club in your local area, you might be able to join and meet people who share your hobby. Then, you can try a variety of different telescopes to see which ones work for you.

You can also get a lot of useful information to help you choose an astronomy telescope by talking to people who are in astronomy. Your friends and family members who have astronomy telescopes can tell you what they like and dislike about theirs.

If you have friends or family involved in astronomy, you might ask them to let you know when they are replacing their telescopes so you can possibly buy their old one from them.

If you are looking to take your astronomy to the next level and learn more about how to buy a telescope drop by the TelescopesCafe.

By Bo Collins
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bo_Collins

When the Phoenicians were cooking on sand, they discovered glass around 3500 BC, but it took about 5,000 years more for glass to be moulded and shaped into lens to make the first telescope. A spectacle maker was probably associated to assemble the first telescope. Hans Lippershey (1570-1619) of Holland is credited with the invention, but there is an element of uncertainty lurking on the discoverer of Telescope. Lippershey though was the first to invent the new device now widely known as Telescope.

Historically, the telescope was introduced to astronomy in 1609 by the legendary Italian scientist Galileo Galilee, who became the first scientist to observe the craters of the moon.

Galileo went further to discover sunspots, the rings of Saturn and the four large moons of Jupiter through the telescope. Galileo's telescope was akin to a pair of opera glasses. In Galileo's telescope, an arrangement of glass lenses was used to magnify objects. This arrangement provided limited degree of magnification up to 30 times for Galileo and a highly narrow scope of view. Galileo was not able to see no more than a quarter of the moon's face without repositioning a part of telescope. In the year 1704, Sir Issac Newton propagated a new concept in telescope design whereby instead of glass lenses, a curved mirror was made use of to collect light and reflect it back to a point of focus.

This reflecting mirror functions like a light-collecting bucket, the larger the bucket, the more amount of light it can collect. The reflector telescope that Newton designed magnified objects millions of times far beyond what could ever be achieved with the help of a lens.
The notion of a segmented mirror dates back to the 19th century, but experiments with it had been fewer and insignificant. Many astronomers doubted its feasibility or in other words practicability of application. It was left for the Keck Telescope to take the technology forward and bring into existence this innovative form of design.

The Short Telescope, however, was designed by the Scottish Instrument maker James Short in the year 1740. An optician and astronomer, James Short invented the first ideal parabolic and elliptic, distortion less mirror perfect for reflecting telescopes.

Visit Telescope reviews exclusive telescope site for expert reviews on Tasco, Seben, Meade and Astronomical Telescopes. You can read unbaised reviews and find best selling telescopes in UK.

By Victor Thomas
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victor_Thomas