ASTRONOMY

Refractor	Reflector	Dobsonian	Catadioptric

Astronomy is basically the study of the universe.  It is the scientific study of celestial objects, including stars, planets, comets, asteroids and galaxies.  Astronomy (sometimes referred to as astrophysics) encompass all the basis sciences, such as physics, mathematics and chemistry.  Historically, the science of astronomy dates back to the days of Galileo, who invented the telescope ( a refractor).  Now in the computer age and the advanced technologies that have been developed, the tools available to scientist have many aspects, such as radio astronomy, computerization and satellites (such as the Hubble Space Telescope).  Observational astronomy (telescopes) is focused  on the acquisition of data and the analytical interpretation of that data (optics).  Theoretical astronomy is analytical interpretation of the observational data. Amateur astronomers have contributed greatly to the science, especially in comet discovery and variable star research. The primary tool in sky-watching is the telescope. Starscapescientific generally offers four basic types of telescopes as captioned above, the refractor, reflector, compound telescope and Dobsonian.  All used a system of mirrors and lenses, or a combination of both.  The refractor telescope relies solely on lenses and is the more historical telescope.  Light travels through the main lense were it is focused into an eyepiece.  The reflector (usually a Newtonian) named after the inventor) uses a system of mirrors, the primary and secondary, which focuses light to the eyepiece.  The compound telescope (Cassegrain) is a combination of a corrector plate, a type of lense, which sends the light to a primary mirror and on to the eyepiece.  The Dobsonian is typically a larger reflector telescope, and generally is referred to as a "light bucket", due to it's short focal length.  This typically is referred to as a "rich field" telescope.  The refractor, reflector and compound telescopes can be short focal length or long focal length.  Short focal length telescopes of any type of telescope are generally better for deep space objects.  Longer focal length telescopes are better suited for solar system objects.  Both can be used in any manner.

Just as important as the actual scope, the type of mount is important.  There are two basic types, the altizamuth and the German equatorial.  With the altizamuth the mount moves in an up/down, side to side manner.  The German equatorial mount has a polar axis which moves the telescope in right ascension relative to the equator, and a declination shaft which moves the telescope according to the celestial coordinates.  Both types can used a clock drive which is used to keep the viewed object centered in the eyepiece.  For just "star hopping", the clock drive is not really necessary, unless your interest is in astrophotography, by which it is a must.  You will discover that many of the telescopes offered by Starscapescientific include some computerized mounts.  Once aligned, the celestial coordinates are simply keyed into the computer, and the telescope navigates to that coordinate.

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