Hello everyone, I'm Darrell Heath with the
UA Little Rock College of Arts, Letters and Sciences. Welcome to The Night Sky. Many years ago I received my first telescope as a Christmas gift, an eight inch Dobsonian. I've owned several other telescopes since, yet it's still that first one that I use the most. But when I first got it
I wasn't ready to use it. I didn't know the first thing about telescope mounts, finder scopes, eyepieces, filters, or star charts. Outside of the Moon I didn't even
know where to look in the sky to find things like the Orion Nebula or the
Andromeda Galaxy. Over the years I've meta lot of other folks who had the same experience that I did. And frustrated with learning lots of
unfamiliar jargon and concepts, most of them confessed to me that the telescope got stored away in a closet or ended up in a yard sale. Astronomy can be a challenging hobby to
get into but with patience and the desire to learn more about the universe
in which we all live it can easily become a rewarding lifetime adventure of
discovery. In this episode of The Night Sky, I want to provide you, the first time telescope owner, with a few basic tips that can help you get the most from your use of the scope and from your observing. Okay, so you've got the telescope and
you're eager to take it outside and begin to explore the cosmos from the
backyard. I applaud your enthusiasm but, before you do that, I'm going to suggest
that if you haven't done so already get to know the sky first. In fact if you
haven't yet bought a telescope my advice is to hold off until you familiarize
yourself with the sky using nothing more than your unaided eye or maybe even a
pair of binoculars. Learn how and why the stars rise in the east and set in the west from night to night. Or why the stars and constellations
change from one season to the next. Learn why the stars, for those of us here in
the northern hemisphere, all rotate around Polaris, the North Star. Before even trying to learn the constellations I suggest that you get to know the brightest stars as well as a few of the bright star patterns or asterisms they form. Things like the Big Dipper, the Summer Triangle
and the Winter Hexagon. Once you master these, the constellations
will fall into place all the easier for you. A good place to start learning this kind of information is by making trip to your local library or bookstore. Invest in a good field guide to the night sky or a book about the basics of stargazing, such as Terrence Dickinson's Night Watch. Use an astronomy app or software that will show you what's up in your sky no matter your location. A fantastic, free, open-source planetarium software that's available for your computer or smart device is Stellarium. And I highly recommend that
you check it out. It will render you a realistic depiction of the sky showing
you the stars, planets, constellations, and deep-sky objects all in real time. This video is not intended to be a how-to on setting up and using a telescope. there are just too many different kinds of scopes and too many different styles of
mounts for that to be practical. But the important tip that I want to impart to
you here is, that before taking the scope outside, read your instruction manual
very carefully. And do a setup inside before going out in the dark to use it. You'll find that it's much easier to set up on the first night out if you familiarize yourself with all the components. Align the finder scope during
the day. And if necessary, already be familiar with a few bright stars before
trying to align the mount. A common complaint that I hear from folks who use
a reflector telescope is, "I set the telescope up properly but when I look through it everything's blurry." There's usually a very simple reason for this. You didn't give the scopes optics Enough time to acclimate to the ambient air temperature. The amount of time it takes for this
process to occur will depend to a large extent on the size of the mirror and
tube. But could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or more. Chances are your scope came with at least one eyepiece, but you'll soon want to get more and you'll need to be selective about it. Quality eyepieces can make a huge difference in your viewing experience compared to using cheaper eyepieces.
But quality is also going to mean more money. We would need an entire episode on eyepieces to do the subject justice but here are a
few things you need to know. Magnification is not an inherent
property of your scope. It depends on what size eyepiece that you're using. To
determine the magnification, you'll first need to know the focal length of your
telescope tube. This can be found in the owners manual and it's also likely to be printed somewhere on the tube. The focal length of the scope is simply the
distance, usually in millimeters, from the primary lens or mirror to the point
where it forms an image of the object you're looking at. Likewise the eyepiece
has a focal length as well. Again, it's a number that's going to be printed or
stamped on to the side something like say twenty or twenty-five millimeters.
Just divide the focal length of the tube with that of the eyepiece. For example, if
the telescope's focal length is 1,200 millimeters and your eyepiece has a
focal length of 25 millimeters, then just divide 1200 by 25 and you get a
magnification of 48 times. It seems logical to think that if you increase
the magnification that you're going to get better views. But that's not the case
because as you increase magnification you are going to decrease the brightness
of that object as you're now spreading out its light over a larger area. So just be aware that there are going to be limitations on just how much
magnification a particular telescope or even a particular celestial object can
handle. Now when it comes to which eyepiece to choose in order to get
either higher magnifications or lower magnifications just remember there's a
general rule of thumb. The higher the number that stamped on your eyepiece the lower the power will be. While lower numbers on the eyepiece will yield
higher magnification powers. Let's say that you have a 25 millimeter eyepiece
and a five millimeter eyepiece. Which one will yield the lowest power? If you said the 25 millimeter eyepiece then you're correct. And always remember this
important tip... start out using your lowest power eyepiece
when you begin observing. Why? Because the lower power eyepiece will yield a wider
field of view then does a high power eyepiece making it much easier to find
your chosen target. Having three or four eyepieces of varying focal lengths is a good rule of thumb, but if you can't afford to invest a lot of money in them
I might suggest purchasing a zoom eyepiece. Zoom eyepieces are single
eyepieces that in essence act as several different eyepieces all rolled into one. You aren't going to get high quality images, but for casual observing I find zoom eyepieces to be both convenient and affordable. Invest in a few filters. One
of the most rewarding celestial objects you can explore with your telescope is
the moon. But the moon can be blindingly bright in a telescope so you'll want to
reduce its glare. I strongly urge you to purchase a neutral density moon filter
that will allow you to observe the varied lunar terrain in comfort. There are basically two types of moon filter... neutral density filters permit only
fixed amounts of light to pass through them while polarizing filters have two
polarized surfaces that allow you to vary the angle between them thus
controlling the amount of transmissible light. The planets of course will also
provide you with hours of fun too. But to see details on them, especially Mars, will
require patience and perhaps a good filter. You can buy colored filters from
most telescope manufacturers and supply shops. As to which filter to use will
depend to a large extent on which planet you are observing and which features you
want to see. For example when looking at Mars you may find that a red filter
works great for bringing out the polar caps, while a blue filter is best for
observing the clouds in the Martian atmosphere. My advice is to play around
with them all and see which works best for you. Be aware that there are many
other types of telescope filters out there but for the beginner I think the
most important ones to start out with are going to be the moon
and the colored planetary filters. Okay, so you've got all your gear and you know
how to use it. What next? Well, finding things like the
moon and the planets is pretty easy. And once you know a few bright stars and the
constellations to which they belong you can also easily find some of the
brighter deep sky objects things like the Orion Nebula and the Andromeda
Galaxy and the Pleiades Star Cluster. But finding others might be more challenging,
especially if you don't have a computerized go to telescope that will
simply guide you to an object with the push of a button. This is where having a good Star Atlas and knowing how to use it will come in handy. I recommend Sky and
Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas. Alternatively and with
much more enthusiasm I would strongly urge you to learn how to find objects by
star hopping. This is pretty much what it sounds like. Find a difficult target by using brighter more familiar celestial objects as your stepping stones to finding the harder objects. To my mind the best guide
book you can get for star hopping is Turn Left at Orion by Guy Consolmagno
and Dan M. Davis. This is an indispensable reference for the beginning
observational astronomer. Armed with a good navigational aid and the right
equipment there's no stopping you and your explorations of the cosmos. But wait, there's still more that you can do. First off, don't allow your observing sessions
to be purely arbitrary. Compile a list of targets that you want to see on any
given evening and have a plan on how to find them. Choose a good, safe, dark sky
site to observe from. You'll want to escape the light pollution of cities in order to see the most objects. And if deep sky objects are your targets, then
you're going to need to plan your observing sessions around the phases of
the Moon. In order to preserve your dark-adapted vision, avoid the use of cell phones and steer clear of any bright lights. Use a red filtered
flashlight to see with in the dark as the longer wavelengths of red light will
preserve your night vision and still allow you to see under low-light
conditions. Weather is obviously going to be a big factor in planning your observing sessions. Before setting up your scope be sure and
visit a website such as cleardarksky.com. Even though the sky might be clear
from your observing location that doesn't mean that it's going to be great
for making telescope observations. Consider keeping a journal of your
observing sessions. Make note of things like the time, weather, scene conditions,
etc. but also pay attention to what's going on around you. Observing on a
spring night, record things like that chorus of frogs you hear from a nearby
pond or that owl that's calling from a tree on the edge of your observing field
or the heady aroma of soil after an afternoon rain. These kinds of details
would not only enhance the pleasure of your observing runs but will also be
great fun to look back on years later. And even though you might not be an
artist, try sketching what you see at the telescope. They don't have to be master
works to be displayed at your local art gallery. They're being made to help make
you a better observer. Plus the more often you do it the better you're going
to become at it. Get involved in your local astronomy club. You'll likely not find a better source of information and wisdom than the folks who have been
doing this kind of thing for many years. And, in my experience, you'll be
hard-pressed to find a group of folks more generous with their time and
knowledge than that of seasoned stargazers. There are many more tips that
I can impart to you but I'm afraid my time is up. Please feel free to comment
on the videos or ask questions if you have any. Also visit the night sky
website (ualr.edu/tv/night-sky) to see my monthly observing features Remember just take a little bit of time to go outside and look up in both awe and wonder.
