Amateur Astronomy, Who? Where? & How?
Astronomy, the word itself amazes everyone! Being an Amateur astronomer is a pride!
The starry night sky is so beautiful that it attracts everyone towards it. It's filled with so many amazing things that in comparison our life is very small to explore, understand and see the beauty of it. But still we can do a lot more with what we have got and to do this you need not be a Astronomer!
But for sure you can be an Amateur Astronomer!!
The term Amateur itself suggests what you are doing is for your pleasure, which you love to do from your heart. Astronomy is not only for professional astronomers. Any one can do it, indeed from your own backyard! By the comforts of your home. But make sure there is no light pollution and your home is bit far from city limits, otherwise it is like searching your mobile signal standing in the middle of a forest!
Amateur astronomy is like a hobby, but now a days professional astronomers are taking help of Amateurs to explore the vast universe so you can understand now why i mentioned being an Amateur astronomer is a pride. Amateur astronomers are like free birds, who can explore the sky with there own will and wish.
For being an amateur astronomer you need lot's of patience!! A good pair of optics, a telescope or a binocular and the important one a sky map or else you are lost, you will be not knowing what you are looking at or how to search what you want to observe. First do a planning what you are interested in. Just planets in our solar system or nebulae which are far away from our solar system or star clusters, galaxies. Even a binocular can show you lots of amazing things but if you want to do a proper observation you need a good telescope.
If you want to explore at full extent you need a clear night sky, which probably not available now a days, you can get a clear sky only far from urban areas, so try to move as far away as you can from city limits and reach a dark place where you can see even highest magnitude stars, now you might be amazed what is magnitude of a star! i will explain it further in detail in the upcoming posts.
Now to do observation you need a telescope! A telescope will have a eye piece from where you see or observe, a primary mirror and if it is a reflecting telescope it consists a secondary mirror. Mirror's will be coated to reflect the incoming light in to the eye piece.
First let me tell you about the types of telescopes and how to select one for you.
a) Refracting telescope :- It is a 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 for long focus camera lenses. Although large refracting telescopes were very popular
in the second half of the 19th century, for most research purposes the
refracting telescope has been superseded by the reflecting telescope.
b) Reflecting telescope :- A reflector, or reflecting telescope uses an arrangement of one or more curved mirrors to gather light and return it along an optical path to a point of focus. The most critical element of this type of telescope is the major light gathering source – the primary mirror. Light strikes the parabolic, reflective surface of the primary and returns to a point of focus called the focal plane. Because each spherical or parabolic shaped primary mirror is slightly different, the distance the light needs to travel to achieve focus is called the focal length. At its focus point, the image (in a simple reflector telescope) is collected on another mirror surface called the secondary. The secondary mirror is then aimed towards the viewer who uses a series of lenses called an eyepiece to magnify the image and send it to the eye.
c) Catadioptric :- A catadioptric optical system is one where refraction and reflection are combined in an optical system, usually via lenses and curved mirrors. Catadioptric combinations are used in focusing systems such as searchlights, headlamps early lighthouse focusing systems, telescope and microscopes. This type of telescopes combine specifically shaped mirrors and lenses to form an image. This is usually done so that the telescope can have an overall greater degree of error correction than their all lens or mirror counterparts with a consequently wider aberration free field of view. Their designs can have simple all spherical surfaces and can take advantage of a folded optical path that reduces the mass of the telescope, making them easier to manufacture. Many types employ “correctors”, a lens or curved mirror in a combined image-forming optical system so that the reflective or refractive element can correct the aberrations produced by its counterpart.
The term Amateur itself suggests what you are doing is for your pleasure, which you love to do from your heart. Astronomy is not only for professional astronomers. Any one can do it, indeed from your own backyard! By the comforts of your home. But make sure there is no light pollution and your home is bit far from city limits, otherwise it is like searching your mobile signal standing in the middle of a forest!
Amateur astronomy is like a hobby, but now a days professional astronomers are taking help of Amateurs to explore the vast universe so you can understand now why i mentioned being an Amateur astronomer is a pride. Amateur astronomers are like free birds, who can explore the sky with there own will and wish.
How to get started?
For being an amateur astronomer you need lot's of patience!! A good pair of optics, a telescope or a binocular and the important one a sky map or else you are lost, you will be not knowing what you are looking at or how to search what you want to observe. First do a planning what you are interested in. Just planets in our solar system or nebulae which are far away from our solar system or star clusters, galaxies. Even a binocular can show you lots of amazing things but if you want to do a proper observation you need a good telescope.
If you want to explore at full extent you need a clear night sky, which probably not available now a days, you can get a clear sky only far from urban areas, so try to move as far away as you can from city limits and reach a dark place where you can see even highest magnitude stars, now you might be amazed what is magnitude of a star! i will explain it further in detail in the upcoming posts.
Now to do observation you need a telescope! A telescope will have a eye piece from where you see or observe, a primary mirror and if it is a reflecting telescope it consists a secondary mirror. Mirror's will be coated to reflect the incoming light in to the eye piece.
First let me tell you about the types of telescopes and how to select one for you.
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| Types of telescopes |
b) Reflecting telescope :- A reflector, or reflecting telescope uses an arrangement of one or more curved mirrors to gather light and return it along an optical path to a point of focus. The most critical element of this type of telescope is the major light gathering source – the primary mirror. Light strikes the parabolic, reflective surface of the primary and returns to a point of focus called the focal plane. Because each spherical or parabolic shaped primary mirror is slightly different, the distance the light needs to travel to achieve focus is called the focal length. At its focus point, the image (in a simple reflector telescope) is collected on another mirror surface called the secondary. The secondary mirror is then aimed towards the viewer who uses a series of lenses called an eyepiece to magnify the image and send it to the eye.
c) Catadioptric :- A catadioptric optical system is one where refraction and reflection are combined in an optical system, usually via lenses and curved mirrors. Catadioptric combinations are used in focusing systems such as searchlights, headlamps early lighthouse focusing systems, telescope and microscopes. This type of telescopes combine specifically shaped mirrors and lenses to form an image. This is usually done so that the telescope can have an overall greater degree of error correction than their all lens or mirror counterparts with a consequently wider aberration free field of view. Their designs can have simple all spherical surfaces and can take advantage of a folded optical path that reduces the mass of the telescope, making them easier to manufacture. Many types employ “correctors”, a lens or curved mirror in a combined image-forming optical system so that the reflective or refractive element can correct the aberrations produced by its counterpart.
Cassegrain telescope :- The Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary Concave mirror and a secondary Convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas.In a symmetrical Cassegrain both mirrors are aligned about the optical axis and the primary mirror usually contains a hole in the center thus permitting the light to reach an eyepiece, a camera, or a light detector. It was designed by Laurent Cassegrain. The Cassegrain design is also used in Catadioptric!
You can select one of the above type to do your observation! They come in different sizes, you can buy them or build one by yourself!! But in the beginning be careful select the right one, plan first what you want to look at, objects just inside our solar system or deep sky objects. I will be telling about telescopes in detail in the coming posts. Then you can decide yourself which one to buy or to build one yourself for a memorable experience. You can use even Binoculars to do Amateur astronomy, it's best if you use binocular in the beginning and recognize patterns of stars in different constellations and in clusters, It's always better to go step by step, Don't be in a hurry!
You can even join any of the Amateur Astronomy group in your locality and seek the advice of the experienced amateurs, visit star parties with them it will definitely help you out, even there are lot's of forums to discus about amateur astronomy get into any one of them and start your date with the starry night!
You can select one of the above type to do your observation! They come in different sizes, you can buy them or build one by yourself!! But in the beginning be careful select the right one, plan first what you want to look at, objects just inside our solar system or deep sky objects. I will be telling about telescopes in detail in the coming posts. Then you can decide yourself which one to buy or to build one yourself for a memorable experience. You can use even Binoculars to do Amateur astronomy, it's best if you use binocular in the beginning and recognize patterns of stars in different constellations and in clusters, It's always better to go step by step, Don't be in a hurry!
You can even join any of the Amateur Astronomy group in your locality and seek the advice of the experienced amateurs, visit star parties with them it will definitely help you out, even there are lot's of forums to discus about amateur astronomy get into any one of them and start your date with the starry night!
Because if you are interested in Astronomy sky is not the limit!!Thanks for your visit, keep visiting..
Congratulations on starting the blog, nice info, looking forward for more in coming days :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!! :-)
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