Seeing Stars The Night Sky Through Small Telescopes [Hardcover]

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 FindilÃ-