Archive for October, 2007

A telescope is a viewing instrument that utilizes the refraction or reflecting of light rays & allows for images to be brought closer. This capturing of light is accomplished through a component that is called the objective. The objective is that part of the telescope which, through the captured light, provides an image...
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What child hasn’t looked up into the night sky & marveled at the sight? These tiny specs of light painted against the infinite background of space have inspired poets to rhyme, composers to pen classics, scientists & philosophers to ponder our very origins. Astronomy continues to be one of the more popular hobbies. One...
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Several decades ago, books by insurance salesman Erich von Daniken caused an international sensation as he depicted photographs of large-stone edifices hard to believe built by primitive humans. His dreams of ancient astronauts, how ever, soon faded into oblivion as archeologists came up with proof that primitive humans could have constructed the pyramids &...
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The beginning of the Meade Telescope Company spawned lots of excitement. For the first time a mass produced planet telescope was made that was of value to beginners & advanced astronomers. So… Since the beginning, the Meade planet telescope has been popular, & has received a lot of orders. With a need for high...
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When looking up at the sky, there comes a time when our thirst to see the stars in there full splendour rather then little dots becomes more than a desire. And so… So far so good. With hundreds of millions of objects in the sky to see, a planet telescope can really bring the...
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For thousands of years, human beings have used the night sky to navigate, keep track of the seasons, and inspire myths & legends. The tradition of naming stars is as old as history itself… Before modern times, how ever, humans could only name the stars that were visible in the night skya tiny fraction...
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Basic Telescope Designs The job of a telescope is to collect light, not to magnify an image (the eyepiece does that job). The larger the objective (the part that collects the light) whether it be a lens, in refractors, or a mirror, in reflectors, the more light the telescope will collect. The more...
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I caught the astronomy bug at an early age. It was right after my dinosaur-obsession & right before my car-obsession. Unfortunately, my interest in astronomy ended as abruptly as it began & on a very sour note. It took almost thirty years for me to decide to take it up again, & when I...
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Heralding a new age in the cosmos, Norwegian Kristian Birkeland predicted that the universe likely consisted of an exotic component that would later be called dark matter. His comments about this subject matter appeared in a description of the Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition (1902-1903). Birkeland’s ideas about the Expedition were published in the fateful...
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Aiming a telescope at the night sky has been one of my hobbies for quite a few years. Ever since I was a kid I spent many evenings gazing up into the Milky Way & wondered how many? How far away & how big must some of those stars be? As I got older...
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It all happened at the beach, few months ago. My uncles, my dad & myself were in a conversation, which quite amazingly resulted in talking about Mars. Being the familys astronomy expert, I pointed to the red dot in the sky. My uncles looked up & laughed afterwards. Just because were nuts in astronomy,...
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One of the most important telescopes in the history of astronomy, the Hubble telescope has allowed observers to peer farther into space than any previous telescope. By moving outside & above the atmosphere of the earth, the Hubble telescope has been able to observe visual data much more clearly than a terrestrial telescope, and...
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