How To Use a Telescope

There are many types of telescope that you can choose to view the celestial objects in the sky. Beginners in astronomy will either use reflecting or refracting optical telescope when it comes to viewing celestial objects in the sky. A Reflecting telescope is quite inexpensive in comparison to refracting telescope. You can view stars, galaxies and star clouds and you can get quite a sharp images with reflecting telescope. Refracting telescopes are expensive and can be used if you need more features. You can use telescope accessories to enhance your telescope experience but it’ll cost you some money.

If you’ve purchased telescope for your kids then you need to take care of few things before you let them use it. Don’t let your kids watch sun directly using a telescope. There are many other guidelines that you can give to kids before handing telescope to them. You can buy small telescopefor your kids if you don’t want them to handle big instruments.

Setting up Sky-watching session

• Plan your day and place in advance and check if there are not much of clouds.
• Make sure you carry all the hardware-items related to sky watching.
• Keep sky-map and observers guide with you.
• Some objects in the sky are viewable after sunset so try setting session 8:00pm onwards.
• If possible choose the darkest location (outside city is always better choice).

Using Telescope

• Choose the object you want to view in the sky and arrange mount as per that.
• Make sure you don’t have shaky mounts as it’ll affect your viewing experience.
• Adjust the focus till you see bright and clear image of the object.
• If you’re done with observing one object you can repeat the setting procedure to view another object.
• If you’re unsure on how to use setting with telescope then read the manual that comes up with telescope.

What should i observe in the sky ?

For this you can purchase sky-map or observe guide. Other than that you can take a look at the sites like : space.com, astronomy.com and skyandtelescope.com. You’ll find a lot of things to explore in the sky.

What about location ?

Choose the darker location near your city and make sure you take permission if the area is sealed or prohibits outsiders entry. Also make sure that you don’t get into much wild-life area as it’ll disturb them and you while you’re in sky-watching session.

Try out multiple eye-piece designs and lenses to see the sharp images of celestial objects. You can rent different telescopes if you wish to get more out of your sky-watching experience. Start with cheap telescope then upgrade to feature-rich telescope as you learn more about astronomy.