An amateur astronomer blogger highly interested in aerospace, astronomy, astro equipments and other astro related fields. Robin shares the astronomy enthusiasm with people from kids to seniors.
I waked up on 5am this morning to finish my homework. Afterthat, I was to sleep but the sky attracted me. The bright Venus attracted me at first. When I was setting up my telescope, the sky was really amazingly beautiful because of the decoration of the stars!
Objects Planned To Observe
Planets
The observation yesterday is rather disappointed. It is started on 9.00pm 22 April 2006. The sky was said to be clear according to the weather forecast but who knew, the clouds were so thick at that moment. 
This totally spoilt my stargazing party and made all my friends were diappointed. What did we observe last night were aeroplanes (they were moving so fast!), street lights, trees over the street, goods in neighbours’ houses (not so social work) 
and the only star, Arcturus.
I am so excited when I know this information from SpaceWeather.com!
Quote From SpaceWeather.com
Every year in late April Earth passes through the dusty tail of Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1), and the encounter causes a meteor shower–the Lyrids. This year the shower peaks on April 22nd.
The best time to look, no matter where you live, is during the hours before dawn on Saturday morning, April 22nd. If you wake before 2 am and watch the sky until sunrise, you can expect to see at least a dozen meteors. Counts typically range from 5 to 20 meteors per hour. Observers in the country will see more, observers in the city less.
I start my observation at 9.34PM (GMT+8) on 19 April 2006. The sky is a little bit hazy (best for planets!) .
Objects Observed:
Planets
Stars
Nebulaes
Aren’t the astronomers hate the hazy sky? Apparently, it is not. It is more depended on the objects that they observe. If you are going to observe DSO(deep sky objects) as well as other faint objects, or astrophotography(except plantes photography), you must have a stable and clear sky to get amazingly good result!
Why is the sky with a little haze is the best to observe planets?
Shall I quote the words from my telescope dealer? 
Continue reading ‘Observing Planets Under A Little Hazy Sky?’
Most of the astronomers do not do the celestial observing as known as stargazing at the full moon night. It’s because the full moon light is so bright that it blocks the light coming out from the faint objects, especially deep sky object. Even the bright objects such as the major planets, Sirius (Dog star, the brightest star, mag.-1.44) will become fainter.
At the new moon night, you can only see the lights from the stars. It’s so fantastic to do observing of any type of celestials objects. This is the greatest day to do astrophotography too! All of the objects are relatively brighter due to the absense of the Moon. 
That’s why I always do the observing at new moon night.
If you own a telescope, you must know what is a Barlow lens. It’s invented by Peter Barlow (1776-1862), an English writer on pure and applied mathematics. Barlow lens is a concave lens which is place between the primary mirror of telescope and eyepiece to increase the magnification of the eyepiece which is currently used.
Continue reading ‘What Is A Barlow Lens?’
Finally, this article has entered the last episode! I myself love the catadioptrics the most because it’s considered lighter than most of the others. One of the reason is they are always mounted on altazimuth mount instead of equatorial mount which is heavy since it has to be equipped with counter-weight.
Catadioptrics use a combination of mirrors and lenses to fold the light and form an image. Catadioptrics are the most popular type of instrument, with the most modern design, marketed throughout the world in apertures of 3.5 inches and larger. There are two popular designs of these mirror/lens “hybrids,†the Schmidt-Cassegrain(right top) and the Maksutov-Cassegrain(left down). I myself own a Schmidt-Cassegrain. 
Let’s start the introduction of both types of telescopes!
Continue reading ‘Select Your First Telescope (Episode IV: Catadioptrics)’
Reflectors usually use a concave, parabolic primary mirror to collect and focus incoming light onto a flat secondary mirror that in turn reflects the image out of an opening at the side of the main tube, into an eyepiece for viewing.
The easiest way to identify a reflector is by looking at the location of its eyepiece holder. It’s always near the top of the telescope itself.
Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages now. 
Continue reading ‘Select Your First Telescope (Episode III: Reflector)’
I have mentioned that there are mainly 3 types of telescopes. They are refractors, reflectors and catadioptrics. I am going to tell what are the advantages and disadvanges of them. I hope you can make up your mind after reading this article. By the way, the long contents made up my mind to divide this post into total of 4 episode. Sorry for the inconvenience caused. 
I am going to list out the advantages and disadvantages of refractor now.
Continue reading ‘Select Your First Telescope (Episode II: Refractor)’
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