a. | b. | c. | d. |
Figure 10 This illustration shows the telescope pointed in the four cardinal directions (a) North, (b) South, (c) East, (d) West. Note that the tripod and mount have not been moved; only the telescope tube has moved on the R.A. and Dec. axes
Depending on the altitude of the object you want to observe, the counterweight shaft will be oriented somewhere between vertical and horizontal.
Figure 10 illustrates how the telescope will look when pointed at the four cardinal directions: north, south, east and west.
The key things to remember when pointing the telescope are that a) you only move it in R.A. and Dec., not in azimuth or latitude (altitude), and b) the counterweight and shaft will not always appear as it does in Figure 1. In fact it almost never will!
5. Astronomical Observing
Site Selection
Pick a location away from streetlights and bright yard lighting. Avoid viewing over rooftops and chimneys, as they often have warm air currents rising from them, which distort the image seen in the eyepiece. Similarly, you should not observe through an open window from indoors. Better yet, choose a site
Cooling Your Telescope
As a general rule, telescopes should be allowed to “cool down” (or warm up) before they are used. If you bring optics from a warm air to cold air (or vice versa) without giving it time to reach “thermal equilibrium”, your telescope will give you dis- torted views. Allow your telescope 30 minutes to reach the temperature of the outdoors before using.
Seeing and Transparency
Atmospheric conditions play a huge part in quality of viewing. In conditions of good “seeing”, star twinkling is minimal and objects appear steady in the eyepiece. Seeing is best over- head, worst at the horizon. Also, seeing generally gets better after midnight, when much of the heat absorbed by the Earth during the day has radiated off into space. Typically, seeing conditions will be better at sites that have an altitude over about 3000 feet. Altitude helps because it decreases the amount of distortion causing atmosphere you are looking through.
A good way to judge if the seeing is good or not is to look at bright stars about 40° above the horizon. If the stars appear to
“twinkle”, the atmosphere is significantly distorting the incom- ing light, and views at high magnifications will not appear sharp. If the stars appear steady and do not twinkle, seeing conditions are probably good and higher magnifications will be possible. Also, seeing conditions are typically poor during the day. This is because the heat from the Sun warms the air and causes turbulence.
Good “transparency” is especially important for observing faint objects. It simply means the air is free of moisture, smoke, and dust. All tend to scatter light, which reduces an object’s bright- ness.
One good way to tell if conditions are good is by how many stars you can see with your naked eye. If you cannot see stars of magnitude 3.5 or dimmer then conditions are poor. Magnitude is a measure of how bright a star is, the brighter a star is, the lower its magnitude will be. A good star to remem- ber for this is Megrez (mag. 3.4), which is the star in the “Big Dipper” connecting the handle to the “dipper”. If you cannot see Megrez, then you have fog, haze, clouds, smog, light pol- lution or other conditions that are hindering your viewing. (See Figure 11)
Let Your Eyes Dark-Adapt
Do not expect to go from a lighted house into the darkness of the outdoors at night and immediately see faint nebulas, galaxies, and star clusters - or even very many stars, for that matter. Your eyes take about 30 minutes to reach perhaps 80% of their full
To see what you are doing in the darkness, use a red light flashlight rather than a white light. Red light does not spoil your eyes’ dark adaptation like white light does. A flashlight with a red LED light is ideal, or you can cover the front of a regular flashlight with red cellophane or paper. Beware, too, that nearby porch and streetlights and automobile headlights will spoil your night vision.
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