INTANE OPTICS BLOG

Most first-time telescope users know little or nothing about the night sky, and you certainly do not need a course in astronomy to enjoy your telescope to the fullest. Begin with the objects easiest to find: the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars.

All of these are bright objects even in the midst of a big-city environment and can be located by using star maps in popular monthly magazines such as Astronomy or Sky & Telescope. For more advanced celestial listings, use Meade Star Charts or Meade Epoch 2000sk sky software. With only a little study, you will quickly be star-hopping from one object to another.

Some types of objects (e.g., nebulae and galaxies) are best observed in a dark-sky environment, although even many of these are clearly observable through small telescopes in the city. The Moon and planets, by contrast, can be studied about equally well from the city or country. The basic rule is that while observations made outside the city generally reveal more detail, particularly in deep space, there are still a great many objects within the grasp of a small telescope in urban areas.