If you are going to buy your own telescope then one thing that’s important to understand is that you are probably going to be better off going for the most expensive model that you can. Many people will start with a cheaper scope but the fact is that the smaller less expensive models just simply don’t deliver. If you are gonna go cheap on a telescope then you might be better off buying some binoculars. Cheap telescopes will often provide a poor viewing experience and distorted images.

We would recommend that you start looking at a price range of around four to eight hundred dollars and consider a 60mm refractor telescope if you are just getting started, you will be impressed with what you’ll be able to see. For the more adventurous person, who has a larger budget, you will be able to delve into the higher ticket end of the market and have access to some very cool telescopes that are motorized and offer excellent, precise viewing and some can even track stars.

A lot of people get hung up on how much magnification the telescope has, whilst its important, it’s not necessarily a good idea to go for big magnifications in cheap telescopes. Even with the smaller magnification telescopes there is a lot that can be seen and enjoyed. 32x will be great for moon viewing and also the rings on Saturn, you will get a nice sharp image. If you can afford a 50x magnification then you will get a larger image and slightly more detail.

Even better than that is the one hundred times magnification range, although the fact still remains that a more basic telescope is unable to properly handle the higher magnification and will result in a dim image and is likely to be affected by the atmosphere. After a hot day for example over cities the heat rises and can cause your telescope image to ‘swim’ in and out of focus. A high magnification will accentuate this problem. If you are buying a cheaper telescope then the highest magnification is not going to always be the best option.

What’s the difference between refractors and reflectors?

A reflector scope uses a primary mirror and a secondary mirror to bounce the light that comes through the lens. It’s a very simple concept and therefore cheaper to buy. A 4.5″ reflector would be considered a good ‘starting’ scope.

A refractor scope is the most commonly thought of, but unlike the reflector scope, it does not have an open end, it’s a sealed tube! There is a lens at one end that concentrates the light straight into the eyepiece on the scope body. You will normally find the refractor will be a better performer and 60mm is a good size to get started with.

When it comes to actually purchasing your telescope you are better off looking at a specialised online or high street store. There are some great discounts available online but make sure you know exactly what you’re getting.

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Whilst there are many telescopes to choose from you really should have a budget of at least four hundred dollars if you are going to get anything half decent. Smaller, cheaper scopes will certainly get you started but don’t expect too much! If you are gonna go cheap on a telescope then you might be better off buying some binoculars. Cheap telescopes will often provide a poor viewing experience and distorted images.

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If you have a budget of $400-$800 then you might want to look at 60mm refractors and reflectors scopes, they will be a good place to start and offer you a good viewing experience. Over and above that price point you can start to look at higher quality and high tech telescopes that are motorized or even computer controlled so they can track stars and constellations.

A lot of people get hung up on how much magnification the telescope has, whilst its important, it’s not necessarily a good idea to go for big magnifications in cheap Telescopes. At a lower magnification of say 32x, you can still see a lot. 32x will be great for moon viewing and also the rings on Saturn, you will get a nice sharp image. You should if you can go for at least a magnification specification of 50x as this will offer a bigger viewing image and enhanced detail.

Even better than that is the one hundred times magnification range, although the fact still remains that a more basic telescope is unable to properly handle the higher magnification and will result in a dim image and is likely to be affected by the atmosphere. Higher magnifications will pick up the warm air as it rises into the atmosphere later at night, this causes blurring of the images that come through the telescopes lens. Whilst magnification is important, it’s not everything when it comes to the lower end of the scale.

Refractor or Reflector?

A good point to start at with a reflector would be a four and a half inch lens. Reflectors operate on a simple principle and that is the image from the lens is bounced from a primary mirror to a secondary mirror at the eyepiece.

A refractor scope however works on a different principle and the light is sent straight to the eye piece where the image is then seen by the human eye, these telescopes are actually sealed tubes. If you are going to go with a refractor (recommended) then you might want to consider the 60 mm lens as a good starting point.

When it comes to actually purchasing your telescope you are better off looking at a specialised online or high street store. There are some great discounts available online but make sure you know exactly what you’re getting.

If you want to understand more about telescopes then make sure you click here to see our blog site

If you are going to buy your own telescope then one thing that’s important to understand is that you are probably going to be better off going for the most expensive model that you can. Many people will start with a cheaper scope but the fact is that the smaller less expensive models just simply don’t deliver. Truth is that you might be better off buying a pair of binoculars rather than a cheap telescope, this will save you having to put up with poor quality images and distortion.

We would recommend that you start looking at a price range of around four to eight hundred dollars and consider a 60mm refractor telescope if you are just getting started, you will be impressed with what you’ll be able to see. Over and above that price point you can start to look at higher quality and high tech telescopes that are motorized or even computer controlled so they can track stars and constellations.

Magnification – This is something that’s easy to get hung up on, many people want to go for the biggest magnification they can but this isn’t always the best option. Even with the smaller magnification telescopes there is a lot that can be seen and enjoyed. You will be able to see some great detail on the moon on a good viewing night, plus see Jupiter, Saturn and the rings. The image will be quite small, but crisp and sharp. If you can afford a 50x magnification then you will get a larger image and slightly more detail.

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Once you get into 100x + you will be seeing a lot more detail, but it’s important to remember that with a basic telescope the more magnification, the dimmer the image gets and possibly you will even experience fuzziness due to atmospheric turbulence. Especially over city’s after a hot day the warm air rises and this can cause the image to go out of focus, the more magnification the worse this will be. So whilst magnification is important, it’s not everything at the lower end of the price range!

Refractor or Reflector?

A good point to start at with a reflector would be a four and a half inch lens. Reflectors operate on a simple principle and that is the image from the lens is bounced from a primary mirror to a secondary mirror at the eyepiece.

A refractor scope is the most commonly thought of, but unlike the reflector scope, it does not have an open end, it’s a sealed tube! There is a lens at one end that concentrates the light straight into the eyepiece on the scope body. 60mm would be a good lens size to go for with the refractor telescope, you will be able to pick one of these up for a reasonable price.

We would recommend going to a specialist store to find your perfect telescope plus it’s well worth looking online as you will find some great deals and at great prices, the main thing is to research the model that you intend on purchasing.

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However, you can cut out lots of futile looking and comparing if you can answer two important questions before you start, namely: what do you require the telescope for and how much can you afford to spend?

In many ways, it is best to start with a fairly simple telescope, realize what its failings are for what you would like a telescope for and then trade up into the right sort of telescope. Another decent manner to start is with a pair of binoculars and then buy a telescope that suits your interests. Binoculars will disclose a great deal more that the naked eye – it is really surprising how much.

If you want to use your optical aid for a number of purposes such as bird-watching and astronomy, then binoculars are almost certainly the answer until you choose to specialize in astronomy, at which time you can buy a telescope dedicated to that hobby and its incredible distances.

The eyepiece is the most vital part of a telescope and you will prefer one with adjustable magnification. The quality of this lens is crucial: the view through it ought to be crisp and bright with very little to no chromatic aberration. Chromatic aberration is a kind of colour distortion that manifests itself as halos around exceptionally bright lights.

Knowing where you will be utilizing your telescope is also important, because of adverse factors in cities. The skies over cities are frequently polluted with contaminants like smoke or smog, but they are always polluted with street light. This street light pollution can be a real nuisance, so ask if your telescope can be fitted with filters to mask out these pollutants.

A telescope has to collect light in order for you to see through it. This is accomplished by the primary lens and the amount of light that the telescope collects is in direct proportion to the size of this primary lens or objective. If you would like more light, you need an objective with a larger surface area.

Light is needed more than magnification sometimes, particularly while looking at the stars because of the distances concerned. It actually scarcely matters whether you are magnifying a star 10 or 12 times when it is 1,000 light years away. However, what you can see, you need to be able to see clearly.

Too much magnification can make directing the telescope very problematic for novices unless there is a ‘sight’. This is a weaker lens outside the main telescope that makes it easier to direct at the item that you would like to look at.

It is not possible to cover all the aspects of buying your first star-gazing telescope in a short article, so be willing to do some more research.

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Telescope was first invented by Galileo in the 15th century, which brought about a new dimension to space exploration. The telescope invention contradicted the popular geocentric belief and provided beyond doubt on the heliocentric theory which is currently followed. But the range of the ancient telescopes was very limited with the maximum distance ranging to the neighbouring planets like Venus and Mars. But this has increased to significant heights with modern telescopes being able to cover the outer ring of the solar system comprising planets like Jupiter and Uranus with ease. Long is not the time when the dwarf planet Pluto will be scaled, and with the current technological growth this is a definite reality.

Availability of new telescopes these days has widened the scope of astronomy significantly. In the olden days not every astronomer could afford a telescope and had to rely on observatories for carrying out their studies, but today the scenario has changed with the availability of telescopes at very nominal prices. Today’s telescopes are more portable and easy to use as compared to the older telescopes which were bulky and cumbersome. The astronomical community today comprises of a greater portion of amateur astronomers who are keen to watch nature’s beauty as opposed to observing scientific phenomenon. There are telescopes like the Meade Telescopes that help amateur astronomers by providing affordable telescopes, which are portable and easy to use.

A telescope’s capability depends on several factors like the diameter of the aperture and the power of the lens that go a long way in the resolution, most telescope makers themselves provide detailed instructions on the assembling of telescopes or help in assembling them for the customers. On a clear night a good amateur telescope can traverse up to the Saturn rings which will be a great spectacle to watch for the user.

To learn and have fun with astronomy, you must be equipped with telescopes. That is why you must purchase telescopes without compromising its excellent quality.

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We do not understand precisely why they did it, but we can deduce that early man noticed a correlation between the weather and the stars, which were themselves not fully understood, of course.

Early man, probably even as far back as Neanderthal man, noticed the relationship between the weather and herd movements and crop growth, or at least fruit and nuts on local trees, if they did not have planted crops.

This means that people could see a connection between the stars and food availability. This relationship was probably ritualized into some sort of religion like early Wicca. Therefore, the stars became a very important part of the lives of every single person and it is likely that astrology and astronomy were widely intermixed by the average person.

However, there were also people who did not only use the stars as some enormous celestial clock and who tried to make sense of the whole shebang. I am going to narrate below, eight of the most important dates or years in the history of astronomy before Christ walked on the Earth. Never forget that they had nothing but an abacus to do their calculations and no telescopes, which came about two thousand years later.

585 BC: Thales of Miletus (c. 625- c. 547), a Greek, predicted a solar eclipse in Asia Minor purely on the basis of his observations and calculations. It was not a lucky guess!

c. 400 BC: the astronomer Oenopedes (5th. century). also a Greek, announces that the Earth is tilted on its axis with respect to the Sun.

352 BC: the Chinese report what they called a ‘guest star’, a supernova, which was the earliest reported sighting.

340 BC: The astronomer, Kidinnu (b. Babylon c. 379 BC) discovers the precession of the Equinoxes, i.e. the apparent change in the position of the stars caused by the Earth’s wobbling on its axis.

c. 300 BC: a ‘committee’ of Chinese astronomers compile star maps of the visible universe.

c. 240 BC: Chinese astronomers observe and make notes about Halley’s Comet. Also Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 – c.194 BC), a Greek, correctly calculate the Earth’s dimensions.

165 BC: Chinese astronomers notice sunspots for the first time.

c. 130 BC: the astronomer Hipparchus of Nicea (b. 147 BC), a Greek, correctly calculates the distance to the Earth’s Moon and also rediscovers the precession of the Equinoxes.

You will see from the dates above that obviously not everyone let nature and the stars rule their lives, as the common farmer or hunter did. Some men actually took pen to paper, but before pen and paper even existed, and tried to work out ‘why these manifestations took place?’

These people must have been remarkable men to have worked these measurements out by calculation, observation by the naked eye and rationalization alone.

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The Sun is a great source of astronomy fun facts. Our own star, which supplies us with all our heat and light is between 91 and 94.5 million miles from Earth. It’s not that nobody knows the exact distance. It’s because the Earth revolves around the Sun in an elliptical, uneven, orbit, so the distance varies depending on where the Earth lies in that orbit.

The Sun is only of average size for a star, yet its size is another terrific source of astronomy fun facts. As average as it is, it accounts for about 98% of all the matter in our solar system. Even with the huge planet of Jupiter on our side, we’re still a measly 2% of non Sun stuff.

It would take the diameter of about 100 Earths to measure across this average Sun. The solar winds produced by the Sun extend to about 50 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. In other words, those solar winds reach out about 50 AU’s, with an AU being the distance from the Earth to the sun. That’s quite fantastic, isn’t it?

How about astronomy fun facts that don’t have much to do with the Sun? How about the Moon? It’s the only non-Earth object upon which man has walked so far. And one man actually travelled to the Moon but never left it. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker loved the Moon but was rejected as an astronaut. After his death he was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the moon by the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in 1999.

There are many more astronomy fun facts about the Moon. It’s the site of what may become the oldest footprint known to man. Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind left a print in the Moon dust that will probably still be there in 10 million years time.

Many people, in fact about 13% of those polled in 1988, still thought the Moon is made of cheese. And finally, the suits worn by the Moon-walking astronauts weighed 180 pounds on Earth but only 30 pounds on the Moon, because of the Moon’s reduced gravity. Talk about losing weight quickly, eh?

Astronomy fun facts aren’t limited to our close astronomical neighbours. Looking at stars is like looking into the past. Some of the stars we see today in the night sky are so far away that their light takes a million years to reach Earth. Some of the stars you see may literally be images of stars a million years old that aren’t even there in the present. There are over 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe. That’s a 1 followed by 22 zeros. The number is really quite staggering.

There are millions of astronomy fun facts and we could relate them forever. But unfortunately, this article cannot. So, please, walk out there and learn more about astronomy for yourself.

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Whilst initially seeking to make your mind up whether the interest is adequate for taking it further, among the first choices to be made is that of finding out the product which should be purchased so as to be able to start to gain some knowledge into the subject. During this period, spending will really have to be kept in order as no-one is certain how long this initial passion in the hobby may last.

For virtually any beginner who positively only chooses to look at the sky and has no interest in exploring the landscape your decision about the most suitable first telescope to choose will undoubtedly be made a great deal simpler.

Everyone solely contemplating shopping for a Skywalker telescope for astronomical uses isn’t going to need to have a scope which provides a correct side up image and neither will there probably be any need for any great focus on nearby objects.

When anybody looks through a telescope the predominant things that they will notice will be the moon, planets and near star groupings. Pretty much everything else that could be viewed by way of a scope at night time will only be very faintly discernable. Folks who are a newcomer to astronomy will, certainly at the beginning, check out the planets and moon for the majority of the time. To have this happen only necessitates the use of a telescope which includes a lens or primary reflector.

Once a newbie wishes to advance then a Skywatcher telescope having considerably larger lens will be a really good solution. This will enable views of open groups, globular clusters, galaxies and nebulae. However if you wish to see these it demands extra cost, will weigh a good deal more and may compromise portability.

Fans who want to follow astronomy even further might want to contemplate the acquisition of the Newtonian reflector telescope which, for each inch of aperture offers the lowest price. Go for reflectors with mirror diameters of 150-200mm which is 6-8 inches long. This will allow observation of galaxies and nebulae.

A Refractor telescope will permit high power and contrast that’ll offer good, clear-quality shots of the planets and the moon. They only need a little repair and are also a breeze to work. Irrespective of this a beginner who is looking to kick-start their interest in astronomy will normally elect to buy a Newtonian reflector telescope. This is because of the high price tag of big aperture telescopes.

A Skywatcher telescope which is certainly suitable for a beginner, and which is also a less expensive option, is a Short-tube refractor scope. For a newcomer who would like to find their way through the night sky they deliver excellent viewing. As this scope is more compact it is transportable and is strongly suggested as being the perfect choice.

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They understood even then, thousands of years ago, that the majority of stars appear to rise in the Eastern skies at night and travel on circular paths. They also noticed that some ‘stars’ were ‘wanderers’ (we call them planets) and that sometimes they went ‘against the flow’.

They also named groups of stars that we now call constellations or even galaxies and knew that those visible in the winter were different from those visible in the summer and that others were visible all year round. The average common man of 5,000 – 10,000 years ago almost certainly knew more about the movement of the celestial bodies than the average common man of today does. (I mean men and women here, of course).

They learned how to calculate or at least locate the extremities of the sunrise and went to extraordinary lengths to mark those positions with huge stone structures, such as Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, probably to facilitate the location of certain positions of the sun or other planets or stars, which may have been important to their religious beliefs or crop cycles.

In 1609, Galileo invented the first artificial device for studying the stars and planets. It was the first astronomical telescope and through it he was able to observe things millions of miles away that no person had ever seen before. Because of the conclusions he came to from his observations, he had trouble with the Roman Catholic Church and was often in serious danger for his life, so outrageous were his discoveries.

But mankind was not to be put off, and since then we have gone on to build ever bigger and ever better astronomical telescopes with which we can even detect radio waves, microwaves, X-rays, infrared waves and gamma waves from outer space. Forty years ago, we even travelled to our Moon. And we have sent rockets to eight of the nine planets in our Solar System, as well as to several comets and asteroids.

Where will we go next? That decision was always up to the government of the USA and the old USSR, but now there are other contestants in the field. What will China or India want to explore with their possibly slightly different outlook on life? Or will it be only a question of financial benefit?

The world may be in a state of flux and power may be shifting from its traditional seats, but it has not diminished interest in questions that scientists think can only be answered in space. These are exciting times in the science of astronomy, but then man has always found astronomy exciting.

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However, this does not only happen in China, it also occurs in most other Eastern countries, like Thailand, and most Arabic countries.

A lunar month is determined by measuring the period of time needed for the moon to complete its full cycle of 29 and a half days, a standard that makes the lunar year a whole eleven days shorter than its solar counterpart. This difference is made up every 19 years by the addition of seven lunar months.

The 12 lunar months are further divided into 24 solar divisions distinguished by the four seasons and times of heat and cold, all of which bear a close relationship to the yearly cycle of agricultural work.

The Chinese calendar – very much like the Hebrew calendar- is a combination of the solar and lunar calendars in that it attempts to have its years concur with the tropical year and its months agree with the syndic months. It is not surprising that a few similarities exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar.

For instance, an average year has 12 months, a leap year has 13 months. An ordinary year has 353, 354, or 355 days, a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days. When working out what a Chinese year will be like, one needs to make a number of astronomical calculations.

First of all, you have to work out the dates for the new moons. In these instances, a new Moon is the completely black Moon (that is to say, when the Moon is in conjunction with the Sun), not the first visible crescent, as is used in the Islamic and Hebrew calendars. The date of a new moon is then the first day of a new month.

The reason why the majority of countries which had their own calendars had to drop them in favour of the Western, Julian calendar that we use today, is business. First the British and then the Americans ran international business and they used the Gregorian calendar. Anyone who sought to work with them had to follow suit. This is why national policy often differs from local custom in Third World countries.

The government desires to trade on the International markets, but the ordinary family in the country cannot. So, the government adopted the Gregorian calendar but the people only pay lip service to it. I live in Thailand and people here do not even use the 24 hour day divided into two halves. Their day has four sections of six hours each and the first part starts at 6AM, not midnight. Therefore, they have four 4 o’clocks a day, for example but no 7 o’clocks. They are also 543 years ahead of us, although this is more common, for instance in Muslim countries.

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