Smaller Telescopes
Smaller telescopes are called refracting telescopes. They have a big lens at the front and an eyepiece in the back. Some say they are useless for astronomy, but it is possible to do some viewing with these special telescopes.
A telescope also needs certain features in order for it to be helpful in viewing objects. One is it must have a well-aligned and intact mirror. It must have at least one eyepiece, two are better. The scope must have a mount that firm and secure. Unstable mountings is a problem for beginner astronomers. You should also have a finder that rides beside the main telescope. It makes your field of view wider and makes it easier to find objects.
The first thing you should look for is the moon. You probably won't need to use the finder as the moon is so big and bright. However, you may need to move the telescope every few minutes to keep the moon in view due t the earth's rotation. You should find many craters and brights spots where the sunlight covers one side of the moon.
Small telescopes are great for viewing the planets. The rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus, and the moons of Jupiter are a few of the spectacular images you might happen across. You must use a lower power setting because higher power makes your images dim. Usually 80-120x is good to start out.
Deep sky objects such as nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters will be faint when compared to the planets. The brighter the deep sky object, the better you will see it. You can certainly observe these when you find them.
Small telescope are inexpensive. You can still learn a lot about them and the universe in the process. Take yours and see what you can find in the night sky.
Telescopes
Factors To Consider When Purchasing A Telescope
Viewing The Night Sky With A Telescope
Achromatic Versus Apochromatic Lenses In Telescopes
Telescopes
... can increase the size of distant objects as well as their brightness. These scopes employ mirrors or certain types of lenses to gather light and focus it. A good example would be a pair of binoculars. X-ray or Gamma-Ray telescopes have rays that go through many glasses and metals. The mirrors involved ...
Factors To Consider When Purchasing A Telescope
... Space, and Price. The goal is to get the most viewing ability for what you can afford. If you live in the city and long for some clear skies at night to view, you may have to move the telescope to a better seeing area. Usually in the country or rural area, you can get a beautiful expanse of sky in which ...
... after he refined it to a 10-power telescope and made some amazing discoveries with it. In 1610, he looked around Jupiter to find three satellites all in a straight line. When he looked back, they were in all directions. He surmised they were orbiting Jupiter and that, if this were true, then the Earth ...
... one end and a concave in the other end. Thus, moving the two pieces of glass further away from each other. This led to better image viewing with less rainbow effects around the distant object. Galileo spent much of his time to perfecting the telescope after that. His first telescope magnified at a power ...
... solar lenses. They have two element designs. They are supplied with the least expensive telescopes and have very narrow fields of view. They cost between $25-$40. Barlow lenses are a great piece to have. They can double or triple the magnification of your eyepiece. They run between $60-$100. Erfles are ...