Photographs on many interesting and astronomical objects and starfields are photographed to show how they would look through different sizes of amateur telescope, providing the reader with a reference against which to judge the effectiveness of his own equipment and observing techniques. Photographs also show the severe effects of light-polluted skies, and illustrate major constellations as seen from a range of observing sites. This is of great help to the observer, particularly the newcomer who may find it hard to locate specific stars in the night sky.
This essential and highly-illustrated guide is for anyone taking their first steps in observational astronomy. It shows what you can expect to see, helping you get the most from your equipment. This unique book gives amateurs the guidance and assurance they need to become more proficient observers.|
Seeing Stars is written for astronomers, regardless of the depth of their theoretical knowledge, who are taking their first steps in observational astronomy. Chris Kitchin and Bob Forrest - both professional astronomers - take a conducted tour of the night sky and suggest suitable observing programmes for everyone from beginners to experts. How is this book different? We are all familiar with the beautiful images of planets and galaxies obtained by spacecraft and giant telescopes - but what can you really see with a small telescope? What should you expect from a small refractor or reflector? And what is the effect of observing from a site near a city? The answers are all here, with many photographs that will illustrate exactly what can be seen with different instruments (everything from the naked eye to a 300mm telescope) - and from different locations.
1 Finding Your Way Around the Sky.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Constellations.- 1.2.1 Getting Started.- 1.2.2 Moving Onwards.- 1.3 Star Hopping.- 1.4 Positions in the Sky.- 1.5 Star Charts and Other Helpful Items.- 2 Your Telescope and How to get the Best Out of It.- 2.1 Telescope Designs.- 2.1.1 The Refractor.- 2.1.2 The Newtonian Reflector.- 2.1.3 The Cassegrain Reflector.- 2.1.4 The Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope.- 2.2 Eyepieces.- 2.2.1 Magnification.- 2.2.2 Other Properties of Eyepieces.- 2.2.3 Choosing an Eyepiece.- 2.3 Collimation.- 2.4 Mountings.- 2.4.1 The Equatorial Mounting.- 2.4.2 The Alt-Azimuth Mounting.- 2.5 Optics.- 2.5.1 Light Grasp.- 2.5.2 Resolution.- 2.6 Cleaning and Aluminising.- 2.7 Dewing-up.- 2.8 Observing Techniques.- 2.8.1 Dark Adaption.- 2.8.2 Averted Vision.- 2.8.3 Seeing.- 2.8.4 Finding.- 2.8.5 Guiding.- 2.8.6 Apodisation.- 2.9 Twinkling.- 2.10 Finder Charts.- 2.11 Keeping a Log Book.- 2.12 Discoveries.- 3 The Sun.- 3.1 Warning.- 3.2 Observing the Sun.- 3.2.1 Stopping-down.- 3.2.2 Eyepiece Projection.- 3.2.3 Full-aperture Filters.- 3.2.4 Solar Diagonals.- 3.2.5 Finding the Sun.- 3.3 Solar Observing Programmes.- 3.4 More Advanced Work.- 3.4.1 The Prominence Spectroscope.- 3.4.2 The H-? Filter.- 3.4.3 The Spectrohelioscope.- 3.4.4 The Coronagraph.- 3.4.5 Solar Spectroscopy.- 4 The Moon.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Naked-eye Work and Binoculars.- 4.3 The Moon through the Telescope.- 4.4 An Optimum Telescope for Lunar Work.- 4.5 More Advanced Investigations.- 5 The Planets and Minor Solar System Objects.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.- 5.2.1 Mercury.- 5.2.2 Venus.- 5.2.3 Mars.- 5.2.4 Jupiter.- 5.2.5 Saturn.- 5.3 Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the Asteroids.- 6 Comets.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Cometary Orbits.- 6.2.1 Long-period Comets.- 6.2.2 Short-period Comets.- 6.2.3 Orbital Inclinations.- 6.3 The Structure of Comets.- 6.3.1 Composition.- 6.3.2 Coma and Tail.- 6.3.3 The View from Earth.- 6.4 Origins.- 6.5 Famous Comets.- 6.5.1 Halley´s Comet.- 6.5.2 Kohoutek´s Comet.- 6.5.3 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.- 6.6 Nomenclature of Comets.- 6.7 Observing Comets.- 6.7.1 Observing Information.- 6.7.2 What You Can Observe.- 6.7.3 Discovering Comets.- 7 Stars.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Brightness.- 7.2.1 Magnitudes.- 7.2.2 Estimating Visual Magnitudes.- 7.3 Variable Stars.- 7.3.1 Observing Variable Stars.- 7.3.2 Types of Variable Star.- 7.4 Visual Double and Binary Stars.- 7.5 Star Clusters.- 7.5.1 Galactic Clusters.- 7.5.2 Globular Clusters.- 8 Nebulae.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Gas and Dust Clouds.- 8.3 Dark Nebulae.- 8.3.1 Introduction.- 8.3.2 Nebulae.- 8.4 Reflection Nebulae.- 8.4.1 Introduction.- 8.4.2 Nebulae.- 8.5 Emission Nebulae.- 8.5.1 Introduction.- 8.5.2 The Spectra of Emission Nebulae and Planetary Nebulae.- 8.5.3 Nebulae.- 8.6 Supernova Remnants.- 8.6.1 Introduction.- 8.6.2 Nebulae.- 8.7 Planetary Nebulae.- 8.7.1 Introduction.- 8.7.2 Nebulae.- 9 Galaxies.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Spiral Galaxies.- 9.2.1 Observing Spiral Galaxies.- 9.3 Elliptical Galaxies.- 9.4 Irregular Galaxies.- 9.5 Quasars, Seyfert Galaxies and Other Active Galaxies.- 10 Unaided Observations.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 The Moon.- 10.3 The Sun.- 10.4 Meteors.- 10.5 The Milky Way, the Zodiacal Light and Aurorae.- 10.6 Comets and Planets.- 10.7 Spacecraft.- 10.8 UFOs.- 11 Advanced Work.- 11.1 Introduction.- 11.2 Nebular and Light-pollution Filters.- 11.2.1 Introduction.- 11.2.2 Nebular Filters.- 11.2.3 Light-pollution Filters.- 11.2.4 Comet Filters.- 11.2.5 Practical Considerations.- 11.3 Colour Filters.- 11.3.1 Introduction.- 11.3.2 Types and Fittings.- 11.3.3 Planetary Observations.- 11.3.4 Imaging.- 11.3.5 Tri-colour Imaging.- 11.4 Photography with Your Telescope.- 11.4.1 Introduction.- 11.4.2 Piggyback Photography.- 11.4.3 Cameras for Telescopes.- 11.4.4 Focal Plane Photography through the Telescope.- 11.4.5 Using Telecompressors.- 11.4.6 Use of a Tele-extender for Eyepiece Projection.- 11.4.7 Guiding.- 11.4.8 Choice of Film and Processing.- 11.4.9 Projects.- 11.5 CCDs.- 11.5.1 Introduction.- 11.5.2 Camcorders.- 11.5.3 Purpose-designed CCD Cameras.- 11.5.4 CCD Chips.- 11.5.5 Sensitivity to Light.- 11.5.6 Astrometric Measurements.- 11.6 Photometry.- 11.6.1 Introduction.- 11.6.2 Photographic Photometry.- 11.6.3 Photometers.- 11.6.4 Filter Sets.- 11.6.5 CCD Photometry.- 11.6.6 Observing Projects.- 11.7 Occultations.- 11.7.1 Introduction.- 11.7.2 Lunar Occultations.- 11.7.3 Asteroid Occultations.- 11.7.4 Satellite Eclipses and Mutual Events.- 11.8 Computers in Astronomy.- 11.8.1 Introduction.- 11.8.2 Choice of Computer.- 11.8.3 "Planetarium” Programs.- 11.8.4 Databases.- 11.8.5 Ephemerides.- 11.8.6 Images and Image Processing.- 11.8.7 Data Processing.- 11.8.8 The Internet.- 11.9 Spectroscopy.- 11.9.1 Introduction.- 11.9.2 Objective Prisms.- 11.9.3 The Direct Vision Spectrograph.- 11.9.4 Slit Spectrographs.- 11.9.5 Observing Projects in Spectroscopy.- Appendix 1: Astronomical Societies.- Appendix 2: Bibliography.- Appendix 3: Messier and Caldwell Catalogues.- Appendix 4: A Selection of Choice Astronomical Objects for Viewing.- Appendix 5: The Greek Alphabet.- Appendix 6: Constellations.- Appendix 7: Useful World-Wide-Web and Internet Addresses.- Appendix 8: Terminology.
1 Finding Your Way Around the Sky.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Constellations.- 1.3 Star Hopping.- 1.4 Positions in the Sky.- 1.5 Star Charts and Other Helpful Items.- 2 Your Telescope and How to get the Best Out of It.- 2.1 Telescope Designs.- 2.2 Eyepieces.- 2.3 Collimation.- 2.4 Mountings.- 2.5 Optics.- 2.6 Cleaning and Aluminising.- 2.7 Dewing-up.- 2.8 Observing Techniques.- 2.9 Twinkling.- 2.10 Finder Charts.- 2.11 Keeping a Log Book.- 2.12 Discoveries.- 3 The Sun.- 3.1 Warning.- 3.2 Observing the Sun.- 3.3 Solar Observing Programmes.- 3.4 More Advanced Work.- 4 The Moon.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Naked-eye Work and Binoculars.- 4.3 The Moon through the Telescope.- 4.4 An Optimum Telescope for Lunar Work.- 4.5 More Advanced Investigations.- 5 The Planets and Minor Solar System Objects.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.- 5.3 Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the Asteroids.- 6 Comets.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Cometary Orbits.- 6.3 The Structure of Comets.- 6.4 Origins.- 6.5 Famous Comets.- 6.6 Nomenclature of Comets.- 6.7 Observing Comets.- 7 Stars.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Brightness.- 7.3 Variable Stars.- 7.4 Visual Double and Binary Stars.- 7.5 Star Clusters.- 8 Nebulae.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Gas and Dust Clouds.- 8.3 Dark Nebulae.- 8.4 Reflection Nebulae.- 8.5 Emission Nebulae.- 8.6 Supernova Remnants.- 8.7 Planetary Nebulae.- 9 Galaxies.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Spiral Galaxies.- 9.3 Elliptical Galaxies.- 9.4 Irregular Galaxies.- 9.5 Quasars, Seyfert Galaxies and Other Active Galaxies.- 10 Unaided Observations.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 The Moon.- 10.3 The Sun.- 10.4 Meteors.- 10.5 The Milky Way, the Zodiacal Light and Aurorae.- 10.6 Comets and Planets.- 10.7 Spacecraft.- 10.8 UFOs.- 11 Advanced Work.- 11.1 Introduction.- 11.2 Nebular and Light-pollution Filters.- 11.3 Colour Filters.- 11.4 Photography with Your Telescope.- 11.5 CCDs.- 11.6 Photometry.- 11.7 Occultations.- 11.8 Computers in Astronomy.- 11.9 Spectroscopy.- Appendix 1: Astronomical Societies.- Appendix 2: Bibliography.- Appendix 3: Messier and Caldwell Catalogues.- Appendix 4: A Selection of Choice Astronomical Objects for Viewing.- Appendix 5: The Greek Alphabet.- Appendix 6: Constellations.- Appendix 7: Useful World-Wide-Web and Internet Addresses.- Appendix 8: Terminology.
Chris Kitchin is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the University of Hertfordshire and has a lifelong interest in astronomical instrumentation, using telescopes of all sizes, studying the rapidly growing number of planets known to orbit other stars, and trying to communicate his own excitement at the recent explosion of discoveries about the universe. When not a hundred light years from Earth (at least in his imagination), Chris enjoys being taken for long country walks by his two border collies. He is author of a vast number of scientific papers and books by various publishers.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
1 Finding Your Way Around the Sky.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Constellations.- 1.2.1 Getting Started.- 1.2.2 Moving Onwards.- 1.3 Star Hopping.- 1.4 Positions in the Sky.- 1.5 Star Charts and Other Helpful Items.- 2 Your Telescope and How to get the Best Out of It.- 2.1 Telescope Designs.- 2.1.1 The Refractor.- 2.1.2 The Newtonian Reflector.- 2.1.3 The Cassegrain Reflector.- 2.1.4 The Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope.- 2.2 Eyepieces.- 2.2.1 Magnification.- 2.2.2 Other Properties of Eyepieces.- 2.2.3 Choosing an Eyepiece.- 2.3 Collimation.- 2.4 Mountings.- 2.4.1 The Equatorial Mounting.- 2.4.2 The Alt-Azimuth Mounting.- 2.5 Optics.- 2.5.1 Light Grasp.- 2.5.2 Resolution.- 2.6 Cleaning and Aluminising.- 2.7 Dewing-up.- 2.8 Observing Techniques.- 2.8.1 Dark Adaption.- 2.8.2 Averted Vision.- 2.8.3 Seeing.- 2.8.4 Finding.- 2.8.5 Guiding.- 2.8.6 Apodisation.- 2.9 Twinkling.- 2.10 Finder Charts.- 2.11 Keeping a Log Book.- 2.12 Discoveries.- 3 The Sun.- 3.1 Warning.- 3.2 Observing the Sun.- 3.2.1 Stopping-down.- 3.2.2 Eyepiece Projection.- 3.2.3 Full-aperture Filters.- 3.2.4 Solar Diagonals.- 3.2.5 Finding the Sun.- 3.3 Solar Observing Programmes.- 3.4 More Advanced Work.- 3.4.1 The Prominence Spectroscope.- 3.4.2 The H-? Filter.- 3.4.3 The Spectrohelioscope.- 3.4.4 The Coronagraph.- 3.4.5 Solar Spectroscopy.- 4 The Moon.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Naked-eye Work and Binoculars.- 4.3 The Moon through the Telescope.- 4.4 An Optimum Telescope for Lunar Work.- 4.5 More Advanced Investigations.- 5 The Planets and Minor Solar System Objects.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.- 5.2.1 Mercury.- 5.2.2 Venus.- 5.2.3 Mars.- 5.2.4 Jupiter.- 5.2.5 Saturn.- 5.3 Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the Asteroids.- 6 Comets.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Cometary Orbits.- 6.2.1 Long-period Comets.- 6.2.2 Short-period Comets.- 6.2.3 Orbital Inclinations.- 6.3 The Structure of Comets.- 6.3.1 Composition.- 6.3.2 Coma and Tail.- 6.3.3 The View from Earth.- 6.4 Origins.- 6.5 Famous Comets.- 6.5.1 Halley's Comet.- 6.5.2 Kohoutek's Comet.- 6.5.3 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.- 6.6 Nomenclature of Comets.- 6.7 Observing Comets.- 6.7.1 Observing Information.- 6.7.2 What You Can Observe.- 6.7.3 Discovering Comets.- 7 Stars.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Brightness.- 7.2.1 Magnitudes.- 7.2.2 Estimating Visual Magnitudes.- 7.3 Variable Stars.- 7.3.1 Observing Variable Stars.- 7.3.2 Types of Variable Star.- 7.4 Visual Double and Binary Stars.- 7.5 Star Clusters.- 7.5.1 Galactic Clusters.- 7.5.2 Globular Clusters.- 8 Nebulae.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Gas and Dust Clouds.- 8.3 Dark Nebulae.- 8.3.1 Introduction.- 8.3.2 Nebulae.- 8.4 Reflection Nebulae.- 8.4.1 Introduction.- 8.4.2 Nebulae.- 8.5 Emission Nebulae.- 8.5.1 Introduction.- 8.5.2 The Spectra of Emission Nebulae and Planetary Nebulae.- 8.5.3 Nebulae.- 8.6 Supernova Remnants.- 8.6.1 Introduction.- 8.6.2 Nebulae.- 8.7 Planetary Nebulae.- 8.7.1 Introduction.- 8.7.2 Nebulae.- 9 Galaxies.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Spiral Galaxies.- 9.2.1 Observing Spiral Galaxies.- 9.3 Elliptical Galaxies.- 9.4 Irregular Galaxies.- 9.5 Quasars, Seyfert Galaxies and Other Active Galaxies.- 10 Unaided Observations.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 The Moon.- 10.3 The Sun.- 10.4 Meteors.- 10.5 The Milky Way, the Zodiacal Light and Aurorae.- 10.6 Comets and Planets.- 10.7 Spacecraft.- 10.8 UFOs.- 11 Advanced Work.- 11.1 Introduction.- 11.2 Nebular and Light-pollution Filters.- 11.2.1 Introduction.- 11.2.2 Nebular Filters.- 11.2.3 Light-pollution Filters.- 11.2.4 Comet Filters.- 11.2.5 Practical Considerations.- 11.3 Colour Filters.- 11.3.1 Introduction.- 11.3.2 Types and Fittings.- 11.3.3 Planetary Observations.- 11.3.4 Imaging.- 11.3.5 Tri-colour Imaging.- 11.4 Photography with Your Telescope.- 11.4.1 Introduction.- 11.4.2 Piggyback Photography.- 11.4.3 Cameras for Telescopes.- 11.4.4 Focal Plane Photography through the Telescope.- 11.4.5 Using Telecompressors.- 11.4.6 Use of a Tele-extender for Eyepiece Projection.- 11.4.7 Guiding.- 11.4.8 Choice of Film and Processing.- 11.4.9 Projects.- 11.5 CCDs.- 11.5.1 Introduction.- 11.5.2 Camcorders.- 11.5.3 Purpose-designed CCD Cameras.- 11.5.4 CCD Chips.- 11.5.5 Sensitivity to Light.- 11.5.6 Astrometric Measurements.- 11.6 Photometry.- 11.6.1 Introduction.- 11.6.2 Photographic Photometry.- 11.6.3 Photometers.- 11.6.4 Filter Sets.- 11.6.5 CCD Photometry.- 11.6.6 Observing Projects.- 11.7 Occultations.- 11.7.1 Introduction.- 11.7.2 Lunar Occultations.- 11.7.3 Asteroid Occultations.- 11.7.4 Satellite Eclipses and Mutual Events.- 11.8 Computers in Astronomy.- 11.8.1 Introduction.- 11.8.2 Choice of Computer.- 11.8.3 "Planetarium" Programs.- 11.8.4 Databases.- 11.8.5 Ephemerides.- 11.8.6 Images and Image Processing.- 11.8.7 Data Processing.- 11.8.8 The Internet.- 11.9 Spectroscopy.- 11.9.1 Introduction.- 11.9.2 Objective Prisms.- 11.9.3 The Direct Vision Spectrograph.- 11.9.4 Slit Spectrographs.- 11.9.5 Observing Projects in Spectroscopy.- Appendix 1: Astronomical Societies.- Appendix 2: Bibliography.- Appendix 3: Messier and Caldwell Catalogues.- Appendix 4: A Selection of Choice Astronomical Objects for Viewing.- Appendix 5: The Greek Alphabet.- Appendix 6: Constellations.- Appendix 7: Useful World-Wide-Web and Internet Addresses.- Appendix 8: Terminology.
Klappentext
This essential and highly-illustrated guide is for anyone taking their first steps in observational astronomy. It shows what you can expect to see, helping you get the most from your equipment. This unique book gives amateurs the guidance and assurance they need to become more proficient observers.
Photographs on many interesting and astronomical objects and starfields are photographed to show how they would look through different sizes of amateur telescope, providing the reader with a reference against which to judge the effectiveness of his own equipment and observing techniques. Photographs also show the severe effects of light-polluted skies, and illustrate major constellations as seen from a range of observing sites. This is of great help to the observer, particularly the newcomer who may find it hard to locate specific stars in the night sky.
