Stargazing For Dummies E-Book

Steve Owens

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 336

Beschreibung

Reach for the stars Stargazing is the practice of observing the night sky and its contents - from constellations through to planets and galaxies. Stars and other night sky objects can be seen with the naked eye, or seen in greater numbers and in more detail with binoculars or a telescope. Stargazing For Dummies offers you the chance to explore the night sky, providing a detailed guide to the main constellations and also offering advice on viewing other night sky objects such as planets and nebulae. It's a great introduction to a fun new hobby, and even provides a fun way to get the kids outside while doing something educational! * Gives you an introduction to looking at the sky with binoculars or a telescope * Offers advice on photographing the night sky * Without needing to get your head around mind-bending theories, you can take part in some practical physics If you're looking for easy-to-follow guidance on getting to know the night sky, Stargazing For Dummies has you covered.

Leseprobe

Stargazing For Dummies®

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester www.wiley.com

This edition first published 2013

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-118-41156-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-41158-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-41160-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-41157-5 (ebk)

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

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Stargazing For Dummies®

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/stargazing to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organised

Part I: What’s Up? Getting Familiar with the Night Sky

Part II: Joining the Dots: Learning Your Way Around the Night Sky

Part III: Star Hopping

Part IV: The Part of Tens

Appendixes

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: What’s Up? Getting Familiar with the Night Sky

Chapter 1: The Changing Sky

Night and Day

Your spinning planet

Here comes the Sun (there goes the Sun)

The twilight zone

Moonshine

The phases of the Moon

Your mantra: ‘Half the Moon is always lit’

The ‘moonth’

The Changing Seasons

The Earth on tilt

Sunset and sunrise, time and place

The Sun at a standstill

Equinox

Chapter 2: Look Up! Your First Stargazing Trip

Getting Prepared to Catch a Glimpse of the Stars

Wrap up!

Seeing stars: Night vision

The red light district

Knowing what to take

Identifying Your Local Stargazing Site

The trouble with lights

What you can expect to see

The Bortle Scale of sky brightness

How good is your observing site?

Knowing When to Head Out

Figuring out what you want to see

Moon or no Moon?

After dark

Looking Up for the First Time

Don’t get lost!

Find your signposts

Chapter 3: Binocular Astronomy

How Binoculars Work

Lenses and prisms

Getting focused

Figuring Out Which Binoculars to Buy

Power matters

Field of view

Exit pupils

Eye relief

Lens coatings

Using a Steady Hand or a Tripod

Tripods: Three legs to stand on

Monopods: One leg to stand on

Getting comfy using a tripod or monopod

A Binocular Bonanza

The solar system up close

The faint fuzzies up close

Chapter 4: Your First Telescope

Deciding on a Telescope

Reflectors versus refractors

Mounts

(Aperture) size matters

Portability versus power

Manual or automatic?

The shake test

Eyepieces

Features to avoid

Storing Your Telescope

Setting Up Your Telescope

Before you step outside

Aligning your finderscope

Focusing your telescope

Setting up and cooling down

Aligning your equatorial scope

Moving about the sky

Getting Your First Look

The faint fuzzies up closer

The planets through a telescope

Chapter 5: Taking It Further: Astrophotography

Choosing the Right Camera

SLRs

Point-and-click cameras

Webcams and CCDs

Figuring Out What Other Hardware You Need

Choosing Your Moment

Taking Your First Astro-Image

Starscape astrophotography

Telescope astrophotography

Afocal astrophotography

Part II: Joining the Dots: Learning Your Way Around the Night Sky

Chapter 6: The Fixed Stars

Looking at a Night Sky Full of Stars

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

Connecting the dots

The celestial sphere

Featuring glorious technicolour

The Milky Way, the Sun’s Local Galaxy

Getting Familiar with the Faint Fuzzies

Galaxies

Globular clusters

Open clusters

Newborn stars

Dead stars

Messier and Messier: Cataloguing the Faint Fuzzies

Chapter 7: The Wanderers

Identifying the Wanderers

The wandering Moon

The wandering Sun

Don’t twinkle, don’t twinkle, little planet

Following the Zodiac

Shining Brightly: The Sun

Observing the Sun safely

Looking at sunspots

Watching aurorae displays

Catching a glimpse of a solar eclipse

Observing the Moon

Phases of the Moon

The terminator

Craters, craters, everywhere

A lunar eclipse

Viewing Planets with Your Naked Eye

Quicksilver Mercury

Venus, the beauty

Blood-red Mars

Jupiter, king planet

Ringed Saturn

Rolling, rolling, rolling: Uranus

Out on the edge: Neptune

Keeping Track of Small Wanderers

Plutoids

Dodging asteroids

Comets: Dirty snowballs

The Sky Is Falling In: Meteor Showers

Ones to watch

Great balls of fire

Viewing Manmade Lights

The International Space Station

Iridium flares

Chapter 8: The Constellations

Joining the Dots

The ancient Greek skies

Constellations around the world

When is a constellation not a constellation?

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta

Defining constellations’ boundaries

The not-so-bright stars

Star Hopping

The Big Dipper as a signpost

Orion as a signpost

The Southern Cross as a signpost

Cassiopeia as a signpost

Chapter 9: Mapping the Skies

Reading a Star Map

In black and white

Big dots, small dots

Naming stars

Constellation lines

Doubles and variables

Faint fuzzies on the map

The Milky Way

Coordinate lines

Other items

Buying Your First Star Chart

Planispheres

Monthly star maps

Guide books

Star atlases

Computer software and smartphone apps

Part III: Star Hopping

Chapter 10: Northern Polar Constellations

Northern Polar Constellation Map

Ursa Major

Cassiopeia

Ursa Minor

Draco

Cepheus

Camelopardalis

Chapter 11: Stars of December, January and February

Constellations of December, January and February

Orion

Orion throughout the year

Orion in myth and legend

Canis Major

Canis Minor

Auriga

Gemini

Taurus

Lepus

Monoceros

Puppis

Caelum

Columba

Eridanus

Fornax

Horologium

Pictor

Reticulum

Chapter 12: Stars of March, April and May

Constellations of March, April and May

Boötes

Centaurus

Carina

Vela

Cancer

Corvus

Crater

Leo

Virgo

Antlia

Canes Venatici

Coma Berenices

Hydra

Leo Minor

Lupus

Lynx

Pyxis

Sextans

Chapter 13: Stars of June, July and August

Constellations of June, July and August

Cygnus

Scorpius

Sagittarius

Aquila

Hercules

Ara

Corona Australis

Corona Borealis

Delphinus

Equuleus

Indus

Libra

Lyra

Ophiuchus

Scutum

Serpens

Serpens Caput

Serpens Cauda

Sagitta

Telescopium

Vulpecula

Chapter 14: Stars of September, October and November

Constellations of September, October and November

Andromeda

Pegasus

Perseus

Aquarius

Aries

Capricornus

Cetus

Grus

Lacerta

Microscopium

Phoenix

Pisces

Piscis Austrinus

Sculptor

Triangulum

Chapter 15: Southern Polar Constellations

Southern Polar Constellations

Crux

Apus

Chamaeleon

Circinus

Dorado

Hydrus

Mensa

Musca

Norma

Octans

Pavo

Triangulum Australe

Tucana

Volans

Part IV: The Part of Tens

Chapter 16: Ten Targets for New Stargazers

The Moon

The International Space Station

Saturn’s Rings

Jupiter’s Moons

‘Canals’ on Mars

Phases on Venus

Elusive Mercury

Sunspots

The Big Dipper, the Southern Cross

The Orion Nebula

Chapter 17: Ten Things to Look for under a Dark Sky

The Number of Stars

The Milky Way from Horizon to Horizon

The Andromeda Galaxy, M31

The Triangulum Galaxy, M33

The Seven Sisters

Aurorae

Meteor Showers

Zodiacal Light

Gegenschein

Airglow

Cheat Sheet

Introduction

Stargazing is a fascinating activity. For all of recorded history – and before that, no doubt! – people have looked up at the night sky and wondered what they were seeing.

For thousands of years stargazers had to make do with guess- work and make-believe, simply joining the dots and describing how the sky changed. But over the past four hundred years – ever since Galileo first turned a telescope to the night sky in 1609 – astronomers have begun to discover the countless wonders that fill the night sky, and to understand what they were looking at.

The sky changed from a canvas on which people drew pictures and told stories to a vast cosmos full of stars, planets, moons, galaxies, comets, asteroids, and beautiful clouds of dust and gas lit up by the stars around them. The universe contains so many incredible wonders that it has inspired generations of astronomers and stargazers to look upwards and wonder.

Stargazers – sometimes known as amateur astronomers – share an exciting hobby. Whether they stargaze on their own in their back gardens, or in clubs or societies, they explore what’s overhead, becoming experts in the night sky.