Beginners Guide - Suggestions Please

[ElijahB]

Hi All,

Just started my first unit for a Degree in Astronomy and one of the projects is to write a Popular Article. I was thinking of doing something around a Beginners Guide to Astronomy. What I was thinking was that this would be a great place to get suggestions on some of the topics to cover. I'm talking the basics so I'm not going to be going too deep in to any particular subject, the aim mainly would be for a total beginner to have an idea of what all the various terminology is and equipment and give them some confidence to be able to take part in discussions that sometimes seem like double Dutch.

I was thinking along the lines of:

Types of Scopes

Working out Focal length

Terminology

Why a wedge is needed

Etc

All suggestions welcome, no matter how simple they may sound. Being a beginner myself, anything I don't understand from the suggestions will give me the perfect opportunity to find out. For the more experienced among you, try and remember back to when you first started and what you would have loved to know. Some people find it embarrassing to ask what someone is talking about or what something means because they think it's a really basic question and don't want to look to much of a "newbie" or waste peoples time (although this is not something I've found on this board, everyone is more than happy to help and no question is "too simple").

Anyway, if anyone has some suggestions I would love to hear them.

Much appreciated,

ElijahB

[dogfish]

Hi Elijah

A good idea for this kind of thing, I would have thought.

I could make a number of suggestions, but I wonder if they're going to be covered under your (broad) headings already. Under telescopes, apart from different designs, I would include something on aperture and observing conditions, as one of the key questions that beginners want answered is "what can I expect to see?". Another key topic would be "finding your way around the night sky". I also think that a brief introduction to the kinds of objects that it is possible to see would help to make it interesting. A list, such as, the Moon, planets, open clusters, globular clusters, galaxies, and different types of nebulae, would cover it, along with what they would be expected to look like in an eyepiece. I see you're thinking of discussing wedges, so I'm presuming that different mount types and astrophotography would be covered.

Hope that helps, Martin

[barkis]

Well EB, The terminology under telescopes alone would fill a book. If you are looking for a list of words pertaining to telescopes, with an accompanying brief description. For example. (Aperture) The size of the telescopes mirror or lens. Usually it's diameter measured in metric units.

Millimetres for the smallest, and up to metres for the large observatory instrument.

Is that the type of thing you mean?.

Ron.

[ElijahB]

Thank you both for the feedback. Regarding the question about the terminology, it's the kind of things that you see people typing about in the Forums, terms like:

Flat Frames

Collimation

Barlow

Hartman mask

I'm not thinking just about scopes when it comes to key words or phrases but more like a quick reference that would allow a beginner to be able to take part in discussions with the more experienced, both in Forums and in person. As a beginner myself it can be quite frustrating sometimes being in a conversation when various keywords are banded around and all I can think of is.... I must look that up when I get home. The thing is, you can ask the question at the time but it would kind of disrupt the conversation.

As was mentioned.... If I was to write a comprehensive reference to keywords it could be pages and pages by itself :shock:

Martin, the idea about what can be seen through the scope with the Eye.... I like that suggestion a lot, the only thing with that is I could only give the views from my scope. I thought about using the camera to show some pictures that would match what I could see through the Eye piece rather than long exposures which will always show more detail. I would like to cover some basics of Astro Photography as this is an area that many people are interested in. The only thing I need to watch out is that I don't unleash a monster with the amount of work to cover

Keep the suggestions coming, they're all appreciated

[GazOC]

The cause of false colour in refractors

The How and why of collimating a scope

The maths behind the relationship of aperture/ focal length/ focal ratio/ exit pupil and magnification

A brief outine of the popular telescope types with pros and cons...that last bit might be asking for trouble though....

[dogfish]

Hi Elijah

In terms of what you can see, there are rules/tables published that give you the limiting visual magnitude for different apertures. Of course, these are misleading, because they assume perfect observing conditions. However, you could poll the forum asking people to tell you what they have been able to see with 'scopes of different aperture, even in imperfect conditions. For example, even in my light polluted back garden, with just a 6" SCT, I've seen objects with a mag of over +10. I also think including some drawings, rather than photographic images, would give people more accurate expectations. From my own experience, people seem to be either amazed that you can see anything at all of objects that are millions of light years away, or dismissive because they don't look like the sexy Hubble images.

I can see that this is getting away from your original idea, which seemed to be more to do with coping with the terminology. Whilst this is useful, it can be completely daunting for a beginner, being more helpful perhaps for someone who has already decided to commit some effort to learning about the hobby. It depends on how much emphasis you want to put on enthusing beginners or educating them. I think getting a balance between the two is really difficult.

Cheers, Martin

[Whippy]

Elijah, sounds like a good idea what you're planning. Personally, I would stay well clear of imaging and stick to the real basics and what you would expect to see with an avarage scope, say a 6" reflector/4" refractor. If it's going to be a 'popular' article ie: something for the average joe public, then why not try and break it down into sections like 'choosing a scope or binos', then 'basic accessories/setting up' and finishing off with 'what you expect to see'. I would not get too involved in the jargon as joe public wouldn't be interested and kind of defeats the object of the purpose. As a beginner yourself, you're in an ideal position to describe things in everyday words that experienced people may not want to understand so I would use that to your advantage.

Hope this may seem useful .

Tony..

[christo]

Hi,

Maybe a short guide on what you can see during the different season with a beginners set up and the naked eye. As a beginner (which was not that long ago, still really a beginner now) I loved being able to tell friends what they were looking at, makes you feel like a real expert!

Regards,

Chris

[ElijahB]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your views and advice. One strong idea that's coming through is regarding what you can expect to see... I'm going to have to think of the best way to show that.

There are some great comments, the finished article will be a little way away as the course itself is 4 months and this article is something that I will be working on while completing the numerous other assignments. If it's okay with everyone I would love to post the first draft on the site to get some feedback, hopefully everyone that put forward suggestions will still be around to give it some critique

Again, huge thanks

[dogfish]

I think posting the article on here for others to comment on is a good idea. I'd be happy to read it and give my beginner's perspective.

Cheers, Martin

[christo]

Enjoy writing the article, I look forward to reading it.

Chris