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A Buyer's and User's Guide to Astronomical Telescopes and BinocularsTelescope Basics

A Buyer's and User's Guide to Astronomical Telescopes and Binoculars: Telescope Basics [The diameter of a telescope’s objective (main) lens or primary mirror is known as its aperture, which is usually given in inches (and sometimes centimeters) for instruments 3-in. or larger and in millimeters for smaller ones. This is the most important of all a telescope’s parameters, for the larger its light-collecting area the brighter, sharper and more contrasty are the images it forms of celestial objects. The primary driving force behind the building of ever-larger professional research telescopes (and also that behind the amazing “Dobsonian revolution” sweeping the amateur astronomy community discussed in Chap. 5) is the need for more light—for collecting ever more photons! (See the discussion below on light gathering power, and also that about the amazing “photon connection” in Chap. 16.) Commercially available telescopes in use by backyard astronomers today range from small 2- and 3-in. refractors up to 36-in. behemoth reflectors, with the most common sizes being in the 4- to 14-in. aperture range.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Buyer's and User's Guide to Astronomical Telescopes and BinocularsTelescope Basics

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Publisher
Springer New York
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
ISBN
978-1-4614-8732-6
Pages
17 –25
DOI
10.1007/978-1-4614-8733-3_3
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The diameter of a telescope’s objective (main) lens or primary mirror is known as its aperture, which is usually given in inches (and sometimes centimeters) for instruments 3-in. or larger and in millimeters for smaller ones. This is the most important of all a telescope’s parameters, for the larger its light-collecting area the brighter, sharper and more contrasty are the images it forms of celestial objects. The primary driving force behind the building of ever-larger professional research telescopes (and also that behind the amazing “Dobsonian revolution” sweeping the amateur astronomy community discussed in Chap. 5) is the need for more light—for collecting ever more photons! (See the discussion below on light gathering power, and also that about the amazing “photon connection” in Chap. 16.) Commercially available telescopes in use by backyard astronomers today range from small 2- and 3-in. refractors up to 36-in. behemoth reflectors, with the most common sizes being in the 4- to 14-in. aperture range.]

Published: Sep 12, 2013

Keywords: Focal Length; Primary Mirror; Double Star; Celestial Object; Amateur Astronomer

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