Things to know in the sky, for anybody with OK vision. Each of these items has the potential for hours of discussion, and repeated visits are a good idea The Moon, phases and motion Constellations Celestial Motion Named navigational stars RA and Dec, alt-az coordinates Sidereal time Milky Way, zodiacal light Meteors, fireballs Predicting appearances of Ir flares and other human-launched objects Mercury and Venus Mars surface features and retrograde motion Jupiter and Saturn Uranus and Neptune Oppositions and conjunctions Minor and dwarf planets Comets Dark and reflection nebulae Emission nebulae Supernova remnants and planetary nebulae Open or galactic star clusters Globular clusters Galaxies Algol and variable stars Albireo and pretty double stars The Sun | Useful tools for optical observing, and things to know about telescope systems. Your eyes Binoculars Paper and electronic charts Light paths: refractor, reflector, Cassegrainian, Maksutov Mounting systems: equatorial with a wedge, alt-az, computer controlled Tripods, rocker boxes Aperture Magnification Resolution Field of view Collimation Eyepieces Finder scopes and devices Star hopping Digital setting circles do push-to Goto still requires knowledge I-products as controllers Optimizing your scope—visit the ASEM ATM SIG meetings Connecting cameras to scopes—visit an ASEM Imaging SIG meeting Viewing with others—visit an ASEM Observer’s meeting | Stuff to investigate on a cloudy night, roaming the Internet. Was Kepler’s Mom a witch? Is faster than light possible? How do we know how far away something is? What is spectroscopy? How do we know a star’s temperature? Is http://www.zooniverse.org a fun place? What’s a pulsar? What’s a black hole? Can you build your own radio telescope? Who is Halton Arp and why is he such a trouble maker? Antimatter is not the same as dark matter Which is a bigger concern for us on Earth: when the Sun expands as a red giant, or when the Milky Way gets gravitationally messed-up by the Andromeda Galaxy? And much, much more… |
Beginner Checklist
The sky will be there forever. You will find it can be lots of fun getting to know all the objects in the sky, and how to use instruments.