Telescope Beginners Handbook

A guide to everything one needs to know about a

telescope- from the beginners viewpoint. The facts
and points noted here are concise, to the point and
not too technical. If youre a beginner and want to
jump in the world of telescopes and
astrophotography, this is your chance! Flip through
the pages and explore all of them.

- Primus Tribe

Preface
When a child grows up, it is his dream to learn more. It is his dream to know more
of the world which surrounds him. Of course, this is natural and even I was
inquisitive. We were taught that being inquisitive is the first step towards
knowledge. I ended up asking my mother one fine day, Mom, how did everything
start? Pretty easy question. The reply came back quickly, too. The Big Bang
started everything; it was the birth of the universe! I was fascinated. I kept asking
and asking to fulfill my curiosity. Since then on I developed a strong passion for
astronomy. I loved to understand the concepts of the universe put forward by
greats. And this passion was taken to a new level when I was gifted a telescope, a
PowerSeeker 60az made by Celestron. It was a big one, a refractor scope that I still
use today. I did not understand the terms at the beginning, but later understood
them, i.e., the functions of the parts of a telescope. As youre reading this it must be
that youre contemplating on buying a scope for yourself or maybe you just got
one and have no idea on how-tos and stuff. This little handbook, I expect, should
help you out of any troubles that you may run into while operating your telescope.
Whether youre a professional or an amateur it really doesnt matter- this
handbook covers everything ranging from parts of a scope to the Messiers list of
objects and much more. It also includes how to find them, and an accompanying
computer-generated picture (via Stellarium). I sincerely hope you will benefit by
reading this small handbook that I shall present to you here. Keep reading, keep
learning.

-Primus Tribe
23rd of March, 2014.

Aberration

Aberration: The apparent displacement in the position of a star as a result of the

Earths motion around the sun. Light appears to come from a point that is slightly
displaced in the direction of the Earths motion. The angular displacement = v/c,
where v is the Earths orbital velocity and c is the speed of light.
Absolute space: Space that exists as a background to events and processes and is
not affected by objects or other entities in the universe.
Achromatic lens: A lens that corrects chromatic aberration by using a
combination of two lenses, such that their dispersions neutralize each other
although their refractions do not. Aberration can be reduced further by using
apochromatic lens, which consists of three or more different types of glass.
Active Galaxy: A Galaxy that contains an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), i.e. a
region which gives out a great deal of electromagnetic radiation. This emission is
thought to be due to the accretion of matter in a supermassive black hole.
Age of the Earth: The age of the Earth is the time since the Earth emerged as a
planet from the sun. It is approximately estimated that the age of the Earth is 4.6 x
109 years by radiocarbon dating process.
Age of the Universe: The time determined by the reciprocal value of the Hubble
Constant to be about 13.7 billion years.
Anastigmatic lens: A type of lens where all kinds of aberrations are greatly
reduced.
Angle of refraction: The angular measurement between the refracted ray and the
normal at a plane to the point of incidence is known as the angle of refraction.
Aperture: The diameter of the objective lens or the main mirror of a telescope is
known as its aperture. A larger aperture allows more light to be collected, which
eventually results in spotting of much fainter objects that cannot be spotted with a
small aperture telescope. Generally, refractor telescopes do not exceed 150mm
aperture, while Dobsonians and Newtonian Telescopes have a large aperture. The
larger the aperture, the more detail one can spot on a celestial object. The
reciprocal of the relative aperture is known as its focal ratio.
Aplanatic lens: A lens that reduces both spherical aberration and coma.
Apocynthion: The point in the orbit of the moon of a satellite launched from the
earth that is furthest from the moon.
Apogee: The point in the orbit of the moon, or an artificial earth satellite, during
which it is furthest from the Earth. At apogee, the moon bears a distance of some
406,700 km from the Earth, which is 42,000km more than the distance at perigee.

Asteroids
Asteroids (minor planets, planetoids): A number of small bodies that revolve
around the sun in orbits that lay between Mars and Jupiter in a zone known as the
asteroid zone. Ceres, with a diameter of 933 km is the largest asteroid.
Astigmatism: A lens defect in which rays in one plane are in focus those in
another plane are not. With lenses and mirrors it occurs with objects not on the
axis and is best controlled by reducing the aperture to restrict the use of its lens or
central mirror.
Astrometry: The branch of astronomy concerned with the measurement of the
position of celestial objects.
Astronomy: The study of the universe beyond the Earths atmosphere is known as
Astronomy. It has three main parts, i.e., astrometry, celestial mechanics, and
astrophysics.
Astrophysics: The study of the physical and chemical processes involving
astronomical phenomena.
Aurora: The luminous phenomena observed in higher latitudes of the Earth during
night-time, occurring most frequently near the Earths geomagnetic poles. The
display of aurora occurs as colored arcs, rays, steamers, bands, and curtains,
usually green or red. The aurora is caused by the interaction of the atoms and
molecules in the higher atmosphere, with charged particles streaming from the
sun, attracted to the Earths auroral regions by the magnetic field.
Altitude Azimuth Mount: The simplest type of telescope mount; the AltitudeAzimuth mount (referred to as the alt-az) operates by vertical and horizontal
movement. They are not GOTO mounts and are mostly coupled with refractor
telescopes.

Barlow

Barlow lens: A barlow lens is a piece of equipment that multiples the present
magnification by its multiplying value. For example, if a 20mm eyepiece is used in a
700mm telescope, it yields a magnification of 35x (700/20). However, a 2x barlow
magnifies this to 70x. High power barlows are not desirable as they may create blurred
images. It is most commonly used to watch the moons craters in detail.
Big Bang Theory: The cosmological theory that all the matter and energy in the universe
originated from a state of enormous density and temperature at a finite moment in the
past when space and time came to exist.
Binary stars: A pair of stars revolving around a common centre of mass. In a visual
binary the stars are far enough to be seen separately by an optical telescope. In an
astrometric binary one component is too faint to be seen and its presence is inferred
from the perturbations in the motion of the other. In a spectroscopic binary, the stars
cannot usually be seen under a telescope, but can be detected by different Doppler shifts
in the spectrum at each side of the binary.
Binoculars: Any optical instrument designed to serve both the observers eyes at once.
Binocular field glasses consist of two refracting astronomical telescopes inside each of
which is a prism to increase the effective length and produce an upright image. Simpler
telescopes, like opera glasses, consist of two Galilean telescopes that produce an upright
image without prisms. Binoculars are specified by a pair of numbers like 25 x 70. The
first number, i.e. 25 is the magnification of the binocular and the later number, 70, is the
diameter of aperture of the lens.