Introduction to Astronomy

Part 1 Eyes on the Sky

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Northumberland Astronomical Society

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Introduction to Astronomy

Objectives

The three main tasks of any telescope. Telescope types Telescope mounts Eyepieces, focal ratio and magnication. Filters and other accessories. Considerations when buying... Binoculars for astronomy

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Introduction to Astronomy

Light collection
One of the primary functions of a telescope is to collect light from faint sources. Larger apertures collect more light. This means fainter stars can be seen with bigger telescopes!

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Introduction to Astronomy

Magnication
Telescopes are designed to magnify the apparent size of distant objects.

The magnication of a telescope can be varied by changing the eyepiece used.

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Introduction to Astronomy

Resolution
For small objects such as planets, or small craters on the moon then the resolving power of a telescope is just as important as the magnication.

Larger aperture telescopes are able to resolve ner detail on astronomical objects.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Refracting telescope

Refractors use an objective lens to collect and focus light. Single lenses suer severe optical distortions and so astronomical refractors employ two or more lenses to improve the quality of the image. Glass lenses are expensive especially for larger apertures. Large lenses are also heavy and dicult to support so most refractors available to amateur astronomers have lens diameters of between 2 inches (50mm) and 5 inches (130mm).

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Introduction to Astronomy

Chromatic aberration

White light is a mixture of colours. Lenses bend the colours by dierent amounts, bringing them to focus at dierent places. This chromatic (colour) aberration can create colourful fringes around bright objects. It is usually minimised by constructing the objective lens from two or more components.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Achromatic and Apochromatic

An achromatic doublet focuses blue and red light to the same place. This is accomplished by using component glass with dierent refractive properties.

An apochromatic triplet focuses red, green and blue colours to the same place. Three dierent glass lenses with varying refractive properties achieve this.A telescope with this lens system is referred to as an apo.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Reecting telescope

Reectors use a primary mirror to gather and focus light. The secondary mirror directs the light out of the side of the tube near the top. Mirrors are cheaper than lenses of the same size and large mirrors are easily constructed and supported, but there is some loss in contrast because the secondary casts a shadow on the primary. This telescope was designed by Sir Isaac Newton and they are commonly called Newtonians.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Aligning the optics: collimation

The primary and secondary mirrors must be precisely aligned within a reecting telescope. The process of making adjustments is called collimation. Collimating a reecting telescope is necessary to obtain the best possible view through it.

Laser collimators are useful tools for quickly aligning the primary and secondary mirrors.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Catadioptric (compound) telescope

This design uses lenses and mirrors to collect and focus the light. The corrector plate is a lens which compensates for distortions introduced by the primary mirror. The tube is short because the light path is folded by a secondary mirror on the correcting plate. The diagram shows a design called Schmidt-Cassegrain. Another common variation on this theme is the Maksutov-Cassegrain. Collimation may sometimes be necessary for this type of telescope.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Comparison of telescope designs

Refractor Bright, high contrast images (so great views of moon and planets). Few collimation issues (xed components). Small and portable. Large apertures are expensive. Reector Large apertures are relatively cheap Good views of faint objects (nebulas, galaxies, deepsky objects) May require frequent collimation if transported. Catadioptric Short tubes because of folded light path Some collimation issues if portable. Closed tube reduces air currents (improves seeing).
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Telescope mounts: alt-az

Alt-az mounts are the simplest telescope mounts. Advantages: Cheap and simple to operate. Telescope moves up/down (altitude) and left/right (azimuth). Reecting telescopes using this mount are known as Dobsonians Disadvantages: Unable to follow the the natural motion of the stars as the Earth turns. Imaging is restricted to short exposures; the telescope does not rotate to compensate for the motion of objects in the sky.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Telescope mounts: GoTo

GoTo mounts are a type of motorised Alt-az mount controlled by an onboard computer. Advantages: Intitial alignment procedure is simple (1,2 or 3 stars). Some models use GPS for location. Huge database of celestial objects to choose from. More time looking - less time searching. Object tracking. Imaging may be possible (but eld rotation is a problem like with Alt-az). Disadvantages: Less motivation to learn how to nd objects unassisted.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Telescope mounts: Equatorial

Equatorial mounts come in two basic types: German and Fork designs. They both work on the same principles. Advantages of an equatorial mount: Follows the natural movement of stars. Easy to motorise for imaging. Setting circles allow the positions of objects to be found via their Right Ascension and Declination coordinates. Disadvantages: Good quality equatorial mounts can be expensive. Takes longer to set up must be polar-aligned before use.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Finderscopes and red-dot nders

Small telescope. Image is upside down and left-right inverted. Magnication: 6 30, or 8 50 typically. Faint objects are located and centred in the nderscope.

Places a faint red marker in your eld of vision. View of the sky is not magnied Not upside down, not inverted! Point the red dot at the location of the object; it should then be visible through the telescope.
Introduction to Astronomy

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Telescope focal ratio

The focal ratio is a useful number for thinking about the type of objects the telescope will excel at viewing.

Larger f-numbers are more capable of producing higher magnications; better views of small objects like planets. Small f-numbers give bigger telescopic elds of view; ideal for large objects such as nebulas, star clusters and galaxies. The focal ratio of a telescope is dened by: Focal ratio = Focal length Aperture

The same units must be used for the two measurements on the RHS!
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Eyepieces

Change the eyepiece to adjust the magnication of a telescope. Standard t (1.25 inch or 2 inch barrel). Special coatings to reduce internal reections. Zoom eyepieces are popular. Choice may depend f-ratio of scope. Useful magnication: about 50x per inch of aperture... Barlow lenses work with existing eyepieces to double or treble the magnication. There are a huge variety of dierent eyepiece designs! See www.astrosurf.com/re/eyepieces_data.jpg for a summary.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Magnication
Some formulas for calculating telescope magnication: Magnication = Telescope focal length Eyepiece focal length = (f-number) Aperture Eyepiece focal length

For example, consider a 9mm eyepiece used with the following telescopes:
1 Celestron NexStar 102 SLT. Focal length 660mm.

Magnication =

660 73 9

2 Meade Lightbridge. Aperture 16 inches (406 mm), f/4.5.

Magnication =

4.5 406 = 203 9

3 Meade LX200. Aperture 14 inches (356 mm), f/10

Magnication =

10 356 284 9
Introduction to Astronomy

The magnication of a given eyepiece will vary with the telescope.

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Planetary (colour) lters

Colour lters are mostly used to enhance the colour contrast dierences between surface features on the moon or planets. The lters screw into a standard eyepiece barrel.

The contrast dierences are subtle and some observers report little or no observable dierences. It may take patience and experience to recognise the dierences.

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Introduction to Astronomy

Broadband and Narrowband lters

UHC Ultra High Contrast lter. Increases the contrast of planetary and emission nebulas. OIII Oxygen-III lter. Similar to UHC, but higher contrast on certain nebulas. H Hydrogen Beta lter passes a particular colour of hydrogen light found in certain nebulas. Polariser Darkening the moon and enhancing contrast on the planets. IR pass Infrared pass lter is useful for getting steady views of the planets because IR is less disturbed by the atmosphere. Light pollution A lter to increase contrast of objects when observing from urban areas. Darkens the sky by blocking street-lights whilst passing light from other colours.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Solar lters
Home made white-light solar lters can be constructed at fairly low cost.

The lter reduces the amount of sunlight entering the telescope by a factor of about 100,000.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

This type of lter allows sunspots, eclipses and transits of Mercury and Venus to be viewed safely.
Introduction to Astronomy

Spectroscopy

Spectroscopy is the analysis of light. Light can be separated into a spectrum of colours. The presence of bright or dark bands can provide information about an object - such as the composition - that cannot be seen through a telescope. The following image shows the spectrum of the star Betelgeuse in Orion.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

It was produced using a diraction grating (Star Analyser 100) and webcam on a small telescope.
Introduction to Astronomy

Binocular Astronomy
A binocular is a pair of refractor telescopes for each eye.

The light path is folded using prisms. The light is reected and refracted many times so glass surfaces should be fully coated to prevent internal reections and loss of contrast.

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Introduction to Astronomy

Binocular considerations
Binoculars are usually described by a pair of numbers:

15 50
Here, the magnication is 15 and the objectives are 50mm in diameter. Great views of the moon, Milky Way, star clusters, nebulas, galaxies and bright comets. Planets and bright asteroids can be seen. Useful aid for aligning a telescope. Choose binoculars that are comfortable to hold for prolonged periods. Large binoculars may need to be tripod mounted for comfort.
Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS Introduction to Astronomy

Further reading
P S Harrington. Star Ware: The Amateur Astronomers Guide to Choosing, Buying, and Using Telescopes and Accessories. Wiley, 4th edition, 2007. C R Kitchen. Telescopes and Techniques: an Introduction to Practical Astronomy. Patrick Moores Practical Astronomy Series. Springer, 2nd edition, 2003. P C Moore. Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars. Cambridge University Press, 4th edition, 2000. R Scagell. Stargazing with a Telescope. Philips, 2004. R B Thompson and B R Thompson. Astronomy Hacks: Tips and Tools for Observing the Night Sky. OReilly, 2005.

Dr Adrian Jannetta FRAS

Introduction to Astronomy