Backyard Astronomer--Amateur Astronomer---Some hints and tips!!

by Cygnus [Swan constellation]

Dear friends, We all share a common interest in the celestial objects---the moon, the planets, stars,galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. Here I give some simple hints and tips for hours of your star-gazing hobby. I learned many things the hard way. These hints and tips may make an easy path for you. It is like hand-holding a child. If you are already an experienced or advanced star gazer, simply skip this article. You are a backyard astronomer the moment you turn your eyes towards the sky and observe Naked Eye observations You can see several stars, some double stars and even nebulae with your naked eyes.This in fact the best ,easy instrument there is. Before Galileo's time ,that is 1610 A D or nearly 400 years ago, every astronomer used his eyes only. May be, they had keener eyes than we have,due to less pollution and better nutrition.! Several authors claim that we can see nearly 2000 stars with naked eye. Well--as a practical effort ,you may see about a hundred stars of 1st magnitude to 3rd magnitude in daily gazing.That is a lot for any beginner. A term you have to know is the LIGHT GATHERING POWER. It is the amount of light that enters your instrument or its front lens towards the sky. Recall that the area of a circle is pi x radius x radius. Pi= 3.14 or 22/7 You note that the area of a circle increases with radius, as square of the radius. So, if you double the radius, the area increases by 2 x2 =4 or four times. Our eye has a beautiful organ called pupil or iris of the eye. It opens widely or closes down depending on the brightness of several bright objects there.

light falling on the eyes. It is like the iris or diaphragm in front of your camera lens.! In bright daylight, our pupil is about 1 to 2 mm diameter wide. In darkness, it opens up and the diameter becomes nearly 8 mm or four times . So, if you adapt your eye to near total darkness, the pupil will open up to 8mm diameter and let in light nearly 16 times [that is 4 x 4] compared to bright daylight. So, the light gathering power increases 16 times by your darkness-adaptation.! After you stay for a few minutes outside in total darkness, your pupil will open up to nearly 8 mm diameter. One caveat: With advancing age, the pupil does not open to 8mm. It opens to about 5 mm.If you are fifty years or more,expect only 5mm light gathering power for your eyes! So the exit pupil of most binoculars are restricted to 5 mm only. For naked eye observation, you may need two more things: --- a sky chart or map or planisphere. ---- a flashlight to read the sky chart.You can smear the flash light with red paint or cover with red paper. If you are very familiar with stars and constellations, it is easy to identify them. A friend or guide could help you with that or join an astronomy club. But a sky chart is a must because it contains so much information about the sky. A plani-sphere is a disc, kept over another disc. You can set it for a given month and hour. You get a simplified view of the night sky. You can have two sets ---one for northern hemisphere and another for southern sky. I use a plani-sphere made by David Chandler Company, which is very convenient to carry. You can also download star maps from the internet.! A word of practical advice: Always wear heavy clothes and shoes to protect yourself on chilly/windy nights. Of course, if you are close to the equator, you will be pretty warm. You will be eager to learn about the various constellations, important and bright stars ,and also some delightful mythological stories about stars.

Here are two excellent books written for children, but useful for us too-- by H A Rey. You know Mr Rey---He is the author of classic "Curious George" story books.The two books are : 'Find the Constellations" and " The Stars"...get them and introduce these books to your children or grand-children! Binocular Observations The next step I suggest is that you observe the sky with binoculars. Don't jump to telescopes. Observing with binoculars, using a sky chart, will enrich your experience . Binoculars come in many sizes. The two numbers specified are magnification and the aperture size in millimeters--the diameter of the front lens or objective. Thus a 8x50 binocular can give you a magnification of 8 times or 8X and has a lens of 50 mm diameter in front. The common sizes are 8X50, 10X50, 15X70. We can get bigger ones, but they become heavy, need a sturdy tripod and are less convenient. I would consider 15X70 as the biggest you can use without a tripod; Beyond for a telescope.! [Incidentally ,binoculars and telescopes have become rather inexpensive these days--mainly due to Chinese manufacture. Well-known brands are available for amateurs for $50 to $100 range--quite adequate for backyard astronomy. You can later move on to expensive ones. Please note that these " Made in China" products have adequate optical quality but the mechanical parts and movements may be of poorer quality. They need delicate handling.] The binoculars have one great advantage: you can use both the eyes at the same time and you need not squint through the eye-piece.! What about the light gathering power of a binocular compared to our eyes? Well--a binocular with 50 mm aperture gathers (50 x 50)/( 8 x 8) or nearly 40 times more light than the naked eye.! That is great. But there is one limitation. As you grow older, your pupil may open only to about 5 mm. So, the exit pupil of binoculars is designed for 5 mm only. The exit pupil is the ratio: diameter/magnification. Thus a bino with 50 mm aperture/10 magnification gives 5 mm. that, you may go

Another number usually marked on a binocular is FOV---'Field of View' in degrees. Larger the angle, wider the view--like using a wide-angle lens on a camera. FOV may be 4 degrees in most binoculars or 6 degrees in smaller ones. This is one great advantage of a binocular not appreciated by many beginners. A binocular gives a wide sweep of a group of stars or constellations. This helps in easy identification of stars and nebulae or nebulas. This is one of the reasons for my suggesting that you spend several nights with binoculars before jumping to telescopes. As a rule , telescopes offer a small FOV, about one degree ,and focuses on a small area of the sky. To get a feel for this aspect, a full-moon disc covers about one degree and may fill the view of a telescope.![This is sometimes called 'angular width'.] So, with a good binocular and a sky chart and of course, H A Rey's book in your pocket, you can make an adventurous star-gazing trip. It is so simple to travel with this on highways. A word about magnification. Don't be fascinated with large

magnifications. What is the use of a large image if the edges are jagged, the image is with color fringes ? Sharpness of image is more important than larger image size. Many times you would be viewing at low magnifications. This comment applies to telescopes too. Telescopic Observations Galileo Galeili made telescopic observations in 1610 or nearly 400 years ago, with a simple telescope. The telescope was just a couple of lenses fitted at the two ends of a tube: 1 Objective, the large lens in the front, of long focal length-usually 500 to 1000 mm. 2 Eye-piece--a small magnifier lens of short focal length say 25 mm. This arrangement is called a refracting telescope or Galilean telescope or simply a 'Refractor'. Then magnification is simply the ratio of these two focal lengths.So an objective of 600 mm and an eye-piece of 20 mm will give you a magnification of 600/20 = 30 times or 30 X.You can get or buy more than one eye-piece and vary the magnification. If you use a 4mm eye-piece,then 600/4 =150 X magnification you get.

Galileo ,in fact, used a telescope of 30X only. The light gathering power depends on the diameter of the objective lens. A modest student telescope starts with an aperture of 50 mm or 2 inches. Its light gathering power is same as that of a binocular with 50 mm dia . A backyard astronomer usually buys a larger telescope with aperture 4 in [100mm] or 6 inches [150 mm] or even 8 inches[200mm]. You must know that with increasing power or larger apertures, not only the cost goes up, but also the weight of the telescopes.You need a heavier tripod or support ,like 'Dobsonian' mount . The larger telescope will be less portable for you to move to backyard and back into your home or garage. Some purists would claim that a refractor gives a clear image! But then refractors suffer from two limitations: 1 color fringes due to chromatic aberration,like seeing a rainbow; 2 lot of reflections on surface of lenses. Both limitations have been reduced by several means. Compound lenses called 'achromats' reduce chromatic aberration.But then the cost and weight go up. The second limitation is greatly eliminated by 'anti-reflection coatings' on lenses--the colorful glaze you seen on camera lenses. These coatings increase the cost but not the weight! So you get telescopes with compound lenses and coated lenses. The cost goes up, compared to toy-shop telescopes. [As a serious backyard astronemer, don't go for toy telescopes sold in supermarkets or toy stores.] You focus the telescope by varying the distance between the two lenses...it is that simple. This is called 'telescoping action'. Note that a refractor is a pretty long tube and needs a good tripod or mount. For a backyard astronomer, a 8in aperture or objective lens diameter is the practical upper limit. Bigger ones need a tent like or dome like observatory in your backyard.! Newtonian telescope or mirror telescope or Reflector Following Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton came along. In fact Newton was born in the same year after Galileo's demise. Newton

simplified the telescope. He used a mirror , concave mirror, to focus the object; at the

focal point, he kept a small flat mirror at 45 degrees. [This is called a 'flat' or 'diagonal' mirror these days.] The flat mirror reflects the image into the eye-piece which is a small tube perpendicular to the main tube. What are the advantages of a "Reflector" or Newtonian telescope over a refractor? There are many; A reflector is simpler in construction; only one large mirror;no chromatic aberration with a concave mirror; no large lens surfaces to coat with anti-reflection coatings. Large mirrors can be ground from glass blanks and then coated with aluminum [or silver in older times];many amateur telescope makers grind their own mirrors. So, large mirror telescopes are cheaper than refractors of same aperture; you get more aperture for the price. Mounting can be simple and easy to align. Therefore many amateurs go directly for a mirror or reflector telescope . Many backyard astronomers start with 4inches [100mm] diameter mirror telescopes.A simple mount is altitude-azimuth [alt-az mount] or complicated Equatorial German mount or fork mounts. Alt-azimuth is the simplest---you have a horizontal turn-table and a vertical tilting mechanism. Equatorial mount requires a polar axis alignment and can be complicated, though many get good at that after a few days. Some never master this mount and switch to alt-azimuth. I would suggest that you start with 'alt-azimuth mount' only. After some experience, try equatorial mount which has the advantage of tracking a star easily. [You can have a small motor driven tracker with equatorial mount.] A simple mount called Dobsonian mount has become popular with amateurs. Dobson, a member of a "Side-walk astronomers" group in San Francisco made a simple mount using a wooden box to hold the telescope tube which can be tilted on hinges and a wooden turn-table base. Commercial Dobsonian mounts are popular and can be inexpensive. Try this for 6 inches or higher power Newtonian reflectors. There are modern designs with additional mirrors to reduce the tube length; they are called Cassegrain or Catadioptic and other telescopes.They are compact, shorter tubes, but may

sacrifice optical quality for convenience and porta

bility. They are also more difficult to maintain. I have not used these designs so far . What you want to Observe? What do you want to observe? The following list is large; choose some to start with. --- Moon with seas or maria,craters, mountains. ---planets of solar system; ---stars and constellations; ---double stars,variable stars; ---star clusters, nebulae; ---- galaxies. The last two items are called "deep sky objects" [DSO]. Color of the stars You can easily identify the color of a star as yellow or red or blue or white. The color tells about the surface temperature and the age or type of star.Read some astro text book about these. Magnitude or brightness A very bright star like 'Vega' is close to first magnitude. A star of 2nd magnitude is 1/10th brightness of a star of 1st magnitude. Higher the number fainter is the star. This is in logarithmic scale! A star of 3rd magnitude is 1/100th brightness of a 1st magnitude star!! You can observe stars of 5th or 6th magnitude with naked eye.! Small telescopes can reveal a star of 11th or 15th magnitude. Sirius,Vega, Aldebaran and Rigel ,1st magnitude stars. Tips for Backyard Astronomers 1 Start with looking for bright stars and a few are some of the brightest

constellations. 2 Locate Big Dipper,Polaris, Vega, stars in Orion,Arcturus , Deneb,Altair and other prominent stars. 3 Study one constellation at a time.

4 Write a journal every day you gaze at the stars. Note even minor observations. Make your own drawings or star maps in circles or semicircles. 5 Identify the color of stars---yellow,red,blue or bright white. 6 Find the magnitude of stars in comparison to Vega or other bright stars. You can check with apparent magnitude or brightness given in astronomical websites and correlate yourself. With naked eye, you can observe stars upto 6th magnitude . Telescopes can reveal faint stars of even 15th magnitude. 7 If you are a moon watcher, sketch the craters,seas or maria or mountains---every detail. Even rough sketches help a lot. 8 Learn about the age of stars-----whether they are main stream stars, or white giants or supergiants or red giants or white dwarfs. 9 Read about the mythological stories and historical anecdotes about stars since Egyptians, Sumerians, Hindus, Greeks and Romans; in later period, Arab astronmers gave many names to stars. 10 You can also read a bit about "astrophysics" ---there are excellent popular science books: Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" for instance and those of Isaac Asimov and George Gamow. A time may come when you may specialize in some branch of astronomy---like studying double stars or variable stars or comets or asteroids. Astronomical Distances We need special units to measure astronomical distances. One unit is the Astronomical Unit or AU which is the average distance between the sun and the earth. 1 AU = 150 million kilometers. AU is useful for reckoning the distances in our solar system. But this is pretty small unit to talk about distances to stars. Light-year. This is the distance light travels in one year: 186000 miles per second x 3600 seconds in an hour x 24 hours in a day x 365 days in a year = 1,86,000 x 3600 x 24 x 365 kilometers---a truly astronomical distance!

Note that it takes only 8 minutes for light to reach us from the sun. But the nearest star, alpha Centauri, is at 4.3 light years away. That means when you look at that star, you are seeing as the star appeared 4.3 years ago!

The nearest galaxy of Andromeda is 2 million light years away. There is another unit ,called "parsec" used by astronomers.This is based on parallax method of measuring distances to stars. We need not study this in any great detail but only note the conversion: 1 parsec = 3.2 light years = 3.2 ly

Some Astrophysics here! Main Sequence stars The birth ,growth and death of stars is a fascinating scientific subject. This explains the color and brightness of stars at a given time of its life. One excellent book is that of George Gamow: Birth and death of stars; Another book of Gamow : Matter,Earth and Sky is also worth reading. Stars generate energy by nuclear reactions---of conversion from hydrogen atoms to helium and other heavier elements like

carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. The stars in the main sequence like our sun are in some stage of their midlife. For such stars ,there is a simple relationship between the magnitude or brightness and surface temperature. Most stars fall in this main sequence. For these stars, the more massive a star, greater its brightness or luminosity. This is simply called "MassLuminosity relation." There are burnt out stars called 'white dwarfs'. They have low brightness, but high surface temperatures. Then there are 'red giants' and 'supergiants' with low surface temperatures, but high brightness. They are also deviants from main sequence stars. You can read about Hertzsprung-Russel diagram [H-R diagram] which explains this relationships in a graphical form. For amateur astronomer, it is instructive to know about the color of the stars as a function of not only the mass but also

the surface temperatures. Note that some stars are of varying brightness,called 'variable stars". The brightness may vary periodically over a few days or several decades. Nebulae are formed due to dust and gases which are found in between stars or star clusters. A nebula is a place for finding new stars. or else, they are found where a giant star had recently exploded--that is a 'supernova' had occurred. The ring nebula near Vega , the nebula near the Orion's belt and sword, and the crab nebula are worth seeing with a powerful telescope---telescope with 4 in mirror or higher, though you may find a faint patch with a binocular too. Our own galaxy is milky way galaxy. You may see the spiral arm of this galaxy near Swan or cygnus constellation winding its way to the north east in a cloudless, dark moonless night. This spectacle with a good binocular is an unforgettable sight. Comets are objects that make a curved path and come close to the earth and then wind away from us. There are some comet hunters who can predict when a particular comet will come into our view. You might have heard about 'Halley's comet',which visits in about 70 years. Comets have a long tail and are easily seen with large binoculars.In recent times, David Levy has found many comets with modest equipment.

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