A crash course in buying a Telescope.

Let's get one thing straight-this post is informative.So, if you are not the least bit interested in astronomy or anything related to it, you'd do better to skip this post.
This post is for all those people who want to, or are in the process of, buying a telescope.I've given as much information about telescopes as i can fit in here.Before starting, here's a description about my telescope.

CELESTRON 31034
76mm Dia-600mm FL
Accesories: Two eye-pieces(4 mm and 20mm FL)
One Barlow lens



Any telescope consists of two main lenses:
Objective-It is the lens that recieves the light from the source.
Eyepiece-It is the lens that is near to the eye.

A telescope is as good as the apperture(diameter) of its objective lens and not the length of the telescope, as is the popular opinion.This is because a bigger apperture collects more light and hence gives a better view.In the description above, 76mm is the diameter of the objective lens and 600mm is it's focal length.Similarly, 4mm & 20mm are the focal lengths of eyepieces.Any one is used as per the viewing requirements.

Calculating Power(Magnification): Power is calculated by dividing the focal length of objective by that of the eyepiece used for viewing.Ex:When i use a 4mm eyepiece i get a magnification of 600/4=150. similarly, with 20mm i get 600/20=30.
Barlow lenses are also called doublers.They are used for doubling the magnifications.When i use a Barlow lens in combination with a 4mm eyepiece, i get a magnification of 3oo,ie 150x2.

Useful Magnification:Some telescope manufacturers claim that their small but powerful telescope gives a magnification of 600.Though this is possible using appropriate lens combinations, it may not be useful.Every telescope has a magnification limit(which depends on it's apperture size) beyond which even if you increase the power there is no visible use.A rough formula for calculating useful power is to multiply the apperture diameter(in inches) with 50.Hence,my telescope's useful power is approx. 3x50=150.So, there is no point in using my 4 mm eyepiece with a barlow lens as it would give a power of 300, way past my telescope's limit.

If you are low on budget then a telescope with appertures of 3 to 5 inches should do just fine for an amateur observer.It is quite useful to get to know how to use a telescope. As and when you think that you have utilised your "small" telescope fully and are getting serious about observing, you can always shift to bigger apperture telescopes(which are costly, i must add).

Mine is a small telescope, but it more than serves my purpose of a leisure activity.It has given me some of the best viewing experiences of my life.Someday, i'll get a bigger better telescope, but this one is my first love.

If you need more information about telescopes, binoculars or astronomy in general, visit the following links
http://www.televue.com/engine/page.asp?ID=140

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/equipment/basics

Binoculars

I can't sleep at night....

Shocking, though it might seem to my friends, who are all too familiar with the amount of time i'm off dozing, it is true that i just can't get myself to sleep these days.

It has been three long, boring months of summer vacation and the end doesn't look anywhere near.It seems as if all i did this summer (xcept for the 1 month of project work) is stay awake at night.My 'day' starts at 3:00 in the afternoon and goes on till the early hours of dawn.That's when I realise something's wrong and when my parents' admonitions reach fever pitch I go to bed(reluctantly, I must say).And end up waking up at 2:00 in the afternoon and then the unending cycle of food,tv,net and sleep begins.

So here I am, on the world wide web (GOD bless the internet!) at 4:15 in the night to write a post about the one thing that keeps me awake all night.... sleeplessness !

I've spent the last hour doing some research( if you can call running a google search research !) on this very topic and it turns out it's pretty common.Apparently, I am a Night Owl.
These are people who are active at nights and hence feel sleepy in the day.Their opposites are called Early Birds.( are we humans or what??)

Night Owls (my clansmen !) tend to be active at night and hence find it easy to do their work during this period.But, it turns out that a majority of people are early birds.These are the kind that wake up early in the morning, religiously do their work and go back to sleep early.So, schools, offices and colleges run according to their schedule and we poor souls have to suffer.

But not anymore.The night owl has woken up!(Is it 2 already??).People have started taking us seriously and the timings for offices have been made flexible.The same can't be said abt schools and colleges.Students still go to school at 8 and collegians are punished for attendance shortage.I mean what's the point in going to college if u r asleep half the time.Wouldn't it make sense to let the students decide what's best for them? Beats me ....

ne wayz, that's all i got for now.It's 5:30 a.m now and i can already hear the birds chirping, the rooster crowing and....there's my mom getting ready to kick my ass.

If you are a night owl, then here are a few links u might find interesting:

• Rise and shine: coping tips for night owls
• Delayed sleep phase syndrome(Dsps)
• Famous night owls

If you are an early bird, then i suggest you go ahead and try getting a kick out of staying up late.

Kevin.