Description
Book SynopsisThis guide provides useful insight for first-time telescope buyers as well as experienced amateurs. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of different types of telescopes, mountings, and accessories-ranging from refractors and reflectors to computer controlled drives and CCD cameras. The author also covers observation techniques, photographic equipment, astronomical software, as well as equipment care and maintenance.
Table of Contents1 Fundamentals for Beginners.- Using Low Magnification.- Using High Magnification.- Formulae.- Jargon.- Eyepiece Sizes.- 2 Refractors and Reflectors.- Achromatic Refractors.- Apochromatic Refractors.- Semi-Apochromatic Refractors.- Refractors or Reflectors?.- Newtonian Reflectors.- Long-Focus Newtonians.- Collimation.- Dobsonians.- Buying a Telescope.- Beginners’ Telescopes.- Buyer Beware!.- High-Quality Refractors.- Apochromats for the Connoisseur.- Other Telescope Considerations.- 3 Catadioptrics, Cassegrains and Schmidt-Cassegrains.- Cassegrains.- Schmidt-Cassegrains.- Electronic Drive Control.- Periodic Error Correction.- Autoguiders.- Summary.- Maksutovs.- Schiefspieglers.- 4 Binoculars.- Stands for Binoculars.- Image-Stabilised Binoculars.- 5 Eyepieces.- Magnification.- Lowest Practical Magnification.- Highest Practical Magnification.- Practical Considerations.- Comet Seeking.- Focusing-Tube Diameter.- Real Field Limitations.- Popular Commercial Eyepieces.- High-Definition Eyepieces.- Barlow Lenses.- Eyepiece Projection.- Illuminated-Reticle Eyepieces.- Commercial Guiding Eyepieces.- 6 Telescope Mountings.- The Equatorial Mounting.- Commercial Telescope Mounting Systems.- Fork Mountings.- German Equatorial Mountings.- The Split-Ring Equatorial.- Commercial Drive Systems.- Home-Made Drives and Unusual Mountings.- Electronic Drive Design.- Unusual Mountings.- Poncet Platforms.- Alt-azimuth Field De-Rotators.- 7 Accessories.- Finders.- Unity-Power Finders.- Low-Power Finders.- Guide Telescopes.- Off-Axis Guiders.- Horses for Courses.- Photographic Equipment - Film versus CCD.- Undriven Astrophotography.- Simple Tracking.- Dew.- Film, Meteor-Photography Equipment and Wide-Field Camera Equipment.- Satellite Trails.- Medium-Format Cameras.- Fish-Eye Lenses.- Developing and Printing.- Developing Tanks.- Developing Colour Film.- Black-and-White Printing.- Cold Cameras and Film Hypersensitising.- Camera Interfaces.- Focusers.- Commercial Schmidt-Cassegrain Focusing.- Manual Guiding and Off-Axis Guiders.- Guiding for Comet Photography.- A Comet Marathon.- Coma Correctors.- A Final Word on Focusers.- Filters.- Planetary Filters.- Venus.- Mars.- Jupiter and Saturn.- The Moon.- Deep Sky Filters.- Comet Filters.- Photographic Filters.- Photometric Filters for CCDs.- Schmidt Cameras and Astrographs.- 8 Electronic Imaging and the Electronics Revolution.- CCDs.- The Basics.- Camera Design.- CCDs Compared with Film.- Disadvantages of CCDs.- Image Scale and Pixel Size.- Buying a CCD Camera.- Starlight Xpress.- Colour Imaging.- SBIG and Meade.- Auto-Slewing with a Schmidt-Cassegrain and a CCD Camera.- SBIG Autoguiding.- Other Manufacturers.- Using a CCD Camera.- Understanding and Processing the Digital Image.- A Dark Frame.- Background Brightness.- Flat-Field.- Diffraction Focusers.- Useful Processing Routines.- Unsharp Masking.- Deconvolution.- Median Filters.- Non-Linear Contrast-Stretch.- Image Formats.- Astrometry.- Photometry.- 9 Image Processing, Planetarium and Telescope Control Software.- QMips 1.81 by Christian Buil.- MIRA AL by Axiom.- Hidden Image by Sehgal.- CCD Astrometry.- Paintshop Pro.- Adobe Photoshop.- Printers and Scanners.- Scanning Photographs.- Planetarium Software.- Redshift 2.- The Sky.- Real Sky.- Guide.- Megastar.- Starry Night Deluxe.- NGCView 5.02.- Universe Explorer.- Voyager II.- Comet Explorer.- The Astronomer Software.- Planetarium Telescope Control.- 10 Video Astronomy.- Image Intensifiers.- 11 Observatories.- The Simplest Solution.- Simple Observatories.- If It Can Go Wrong.- Observatory Domes.- 12 Equipment for Observing the Sun.- Eyepiece Projection.- Direct Solar Observation.- Observing in White Light.- Solar Filters: Inconel.- Solar Filters: Mylar.- Seeing.- Hydrogen-Alpha Equipment.- Viewing Eclipses.- 13 Star Atlases and Deep Sky Atlases.- Appendix 1 Dealers, Bibliography and URLs.- Equipment Suppliers.- Quality Binocular Mounting Suppliers.- Societies Worth Joining.- Internet URLs.- Books.- Appendix 2 Photographic and Visual Magnitude Limits.
