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9783540760306

Seeing Stars

by ;
  • ISBN13:

    9783540760306

  • ISBN10:

    354076030X

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 1998-01-01
  • Publisher: Springer Verlag
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List Price: $89.99

Summary

Seeing Starsis 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.

Table of Contents

1 Finding Your Way Around the Sky
1(18)
1.1 Introduction
1(1)
1.2 Constellations
1(7)
1.2.1 Getting Started
2(5)
1.2.2 Moving Onwards
7(1)
1.3 Star Hopping
8(5)
1.4 Positions in the Sky
13(5)
1.5 Star Charts and Other Helpful Items
18(1)
2 Your Telescope and How to get the Best Out of It
19(30)
2.1 Telescope Designs
19(6)
2.1.1 The Refractor
19(3)
2.1.2 The Newtonian Reflector
22(2)
2.1.3 The Cassegrain Reflector
24(1)
2.1.4 The Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope
25(1)
2.2 Eyepieces
25(4)
2.2.1 Magnification
26(1)
2.2.2 Other Properties of Eyepieces
26(1)
2.2.3 Choosing an Eyepiece
27(2)
2.3 Collimation
29(1)
2.4 Mountings
29(4)
2.4.1 The Equatorial Mounting
30(2)
2.4.2 The Alt-Azimuth Mounting
32(1)
2.5 Optics
33(1)
2.5.1 Light Grasp
33(1)
2.5.2 Resolution
33(1)
2.6 Cleaning and Aluminising
34(1)
2.7 Dewing-up
35(1)
2.8 Observing Techniques
36(7)
2.8.1 Dark Adaption
36(1)
2.8.2 Averted Vision
37(1)
2.8.3 Seeing
38(1)
2.8.4 Finding
38(1)
2.8.5 Guiding
39(3)
2.8.6 Apodisation
42(1)
2.9 Twinkling
43(1)
2.10 Finder Charts
44(1)
2.11 Keeping a Log Book
45(1)
2.12 Discoveries
46(3)
3 The Sun
49(6)
3.1 Warning
49(1)
3.2 Observing the Sun
49(3)
3.2.1 Stopping-down
49(1)
3.2.2 Eyepiece Projection
50(1)
3.2.3 Full-aperture Filters
51(1)
3.2.4 Solar Diagonals
51(1)
3.2.5 Finding the Sun
52(1)
3.3 Solar Observing Programmes
52(1)
3.4 More Advanced Work
53(2)
3.4.1 The Prominence Spectroscope
53(1)
3.4.2 The H-XXX Filter
53(1)
3.4.3 The Spectrohelioscope
53(1)
3.4.4 The Coronagraph
54(1)
3.4.5 Solar Spectroscopy
54(1)
4 The Moon
55(10)
4.1 Introduction
55(1)
4.2 Naked-eye Work and Binoculars
55(3)
4.3 The Moon through the Telescope
58(2)
4.4 An Optimum Telescope for Lunar Work
60(1)
4.5 More Advanced Investigations
61(4)
5 The Planets and Minor Solar System Objects
65(10)
5.1 Introduction
65(1)
5.2 Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn
66(6)
5.2.1 Mercury
67(1)
5.2.2 Venus
68(1)
5.2.3 Mars
69(1)
5.2.4 Jupiter
70(1)
5.2.5 Saturn
71(1)
5.3 Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the Asteroids
72(3)
6 Comets
75(8)
6.1 Introduction
75(1)
6.2 Cometary Orbits
76(1)
6.2.1 Long-period Comets
76(1)
6.2.2 Short-period Comets
76(1)
6.2.3 Orbital Inclinations
77(1)
6.3 The Structure of Comets
77(1)
6.3.1 Composition
77(1)
6.3.2 Coma and Tail
77(1)
6.3.3 The View from Earth
78(1)
6.4 Origins
78(1)
6.5 Famous Comets
78(1)
6.5.1 Halley's Comet
78(1)
6.5.2 Kohoutek's Comet
79(1)
6.5.3 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
79(1)
6.6 Nomenclature of Comets
79(1)
6.7 Observing Comets
79(4)
6.7.1 Observing Information
79(1)
6.7.2 What You Can Observe
80(1)
6.7.3 Discovering Comets
81(2)
7 Stars
83(10)
7.1 Introduction
83(1)
7.2 Brightness
83(3)
7.2.1 Magnitudes
83(2)
7.2.2 Estimating Visual Magnitudes
85(1)
7.3 Variable Stars
86(2)
7.3.1 Observing Variable Stars
86(1)
7.3.2 Types of Variable Star
86(2)
7.4 Visual Double and Binary Stars
88(1)
7.5 Star Clusters
89(4)
7.5.1 Galactic Clusters
89(1)
7.5.2 Globular Clusters
90(3)
8 Nebulae
93(20)
8.1 Introduction
93(1)
8.2 Gas and Dust Clouds
93(1)
8.3 Dark Nebulae
93(2)
8.3.1 Introduction
93(1)
8.3.2 Nebulae
94(1)
8.4 Reflection Nebulae
95(3)
8.4.1 Introduction
95(1)
8.4.2 Nebulae
96(2)
8.5 Emission Nebulae
98(6)
8.5.1 Introduction
98(1)
8.5.2 The Spectra of Emission Nebulae and Planetary Nebulae
99(1)
8.5.3 Nebulae
100(4)
8.6 Supernova Remnants
104(4)
8.6.1 Introduction
104(1)
8.6.2 Nebulae
105(3)
8.7 Planetary Nebulae
108(5)
8.7.1 Introduction
108(1)
8.7.2 Nebulae
109(4)
9 Galaxies
113(16)
9.1 Introduction
113(1)
9.2 Spiral Galaxies
114(6)
9.2.1 Observing Spiral Galaxies
116(4)
9.3 Elliptical Galaxies
120(2)
9.4 Irregular Galaxies
122(4)
9.5 Quasars, Seyfert Galaxies and Other Active Galaxies
126(3)
10 Unaided Observations
129(6)
10.1 Introduction
129(1)
10.2 The Moon
129(1)
10.3 The Sun
129(1)
10.4 Meteors
130(1)
10.5 The Milky Way, the Zodiacal Light and Aurorae
131(1)
10.6 Comets and Planets
132(1)
10.7 Spacecraft
132(1)
10.8 UFOs
133(2)
11 Advanced Work
135(22)
11.1 Introduction
135(1)
11.2 Nebular and Light-pollution Filters
135(2)
11.2.1 Introduction
135(1)
11.2.2 Nebular Filters
135(1)
11.2.3 Light-pollution Filters
136(1)
11.2.4 Comet Filters
136(1)
11.2.5 Practical Considerations
136(1)
11.3 Colour Filters
137(1)
11.3.1 Introduction
137(1)
11.3.2 Types and Fittings
137(1)
11.3.3 Planetary Observations
137(1)
11.3.4 Imaging
138(1)
11.3.5 Tri-colour Imaging
138(1)
11.4 Photography with Your Telescope
138(4)
11.4.1 Introduction
138(1)
11.4.2 Piggyback Photography
138(1)
11.4.3 Cameras for Telescopes
139(1)
11.4.4 Focal Plane Photography through the Telescope
139(1)
11.4.5 Using Telecompressors
139(1)
11.4.6 Use of a Tele-extender for Eyepiece Projection
139(2)
11.4.7 Guiding
141(1)
11.4.8 Choice of Film and Processing
141(1)
11.4.9 Projects
142(1)
11.5 CCDs
142(2)
11.5.1 Introduction
142(1)
11.5.2 Camcorders
143(1)
11.5.3 Purpose-designed CCD Cameras
143(1)
11.5.4 CCD Chips
143(1)
11.5.5 Sensitivity to Light
143(1)
11.5.6 Astrometric Measurements
143(1)
11.6 Photometry
144(4)
11.6.1 Introduction
144(1)
11.6.2 Photographic Photometry
144(1)
11.6.3 Photometers
145(1)
11.6.4 Filter Sets
145(1)
11.6.5 CCD Photometry
146(1)
11.6.6 Observing Projects
146(2)
11.7 Occultations
148(2)
11.7.1 Introduction
148(1)
11.7.2 Lunar Occultations
148(2)
11.7.3 Asteroid Occultations
150(1)
11.7.4 Satellite Eclipses and Mutual Events
150(1)
11.8 Computers in Astronomy
150(3)
11.8.1 Introduction
150(1)
11.8.2 Choice of Computer
150(1)
11.8.3 "Planetarium" Programs
150(1)
11.8.4 Databases
151(1)
11.8.5 Ephemerides
151(1)
11.8.6 Images and Image Processing
151(1)
11.8.7 Data Processing
152(1)
11.8.8 The Internet
153(1)
11.9 Spectroscopy
153(4)
11.9.1 Introduction
153(1)
11.9.2 Objective Prisms
153(1)
11.9.3 The Direct Vision Spectrograph
154(1)
11.9.4 Slit Spectrographs
154(1)
11.9.5 Observing Projects in Spectroscopy
154(3)
Appendix 1: Astronomical Societies 157(4)
Appendix 2: Bibliography 161(2)
Appendix 3: Messier and Caldwell Catalogues 163(8)
Appendix 4: A Selection of Choice Astronomical Objects for Viewing 171(6)
Appendix 5: The Greek Alphabet 177(2)
Appendix 6: Constellations 179(2)
Appendix 7: Useful World-Wide-Web and Internet Addresses 181(2)
Appendix 8: Terminology 183(1)
Index 184

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