What if They Let YOU Run the Hubble?

It is probably the dream of any amateur astronomer to be able to be the boss of one of the great multi million dollar telescopes even if it was just for one hour or for a few shots.  Sure, we can have a lot of fun with our binoculars.  And as we improve our personal equipment set, we get better and better at pinpointing what we want to see in the sky.

But there is only so far we can go within the constraints of a family budget in building the perfect telescopic operation.  Probably the next level then is to work together with others in your astronomy club.  By pooling our resources, we can make more progress both in acquiring much more sophisticated equipment and in synchronizing our telescopic operations.

All of this is good and its fun to tweak it and play with it always finding improvements.  But when we are sitting back and dreaming, its those big institutional size telescopes that really grab our interest.  Maybe you have had a chance to visit one at Kitt Peak, Arizona, Mauna Kea, Hawaii, Palomar Mountain, California or Mt. Locke, Texas to name just a few and as you walked around jaw dropped to your shoes, you thought, maybe if I could just run it for an hour, how awesome would that be?

The good news is that while these huge observatories are not going to let you come in and turn the gears of the mightiest telescopes yourself, many of them will perform specific observations for you and allow you to see through their eyes via the internet for that short observation.  This is a powerful option for an amateur astronomer and one you want to prepare for carefully.  Here is what you do

1.Begin compiling a list of the great telescopes of the world, their locations and how to contact them.  Google will help you with finding lists of these observatories to contact by pointing you to specific directory sites like http://astro.nineplanets.org/bigeyes.html 

2.You can start by submitting your request to a specific observatory.  Now here is where you have to do your homework.  If you have a specific celestial event you wish to observe, there will be particular telescopes around the globe that will be in the best position to get those shots for you.  So study up and find just the right telescope and when the perfect moment for that observation would occur.  Get out ahead of this homework as you need to submit your request in plenty of time for it to go through approval and for them to get back to you and to interact with you to nail down what you are going to have them look at.

3.There are two ways you can direct the operators of the telescopes.  You can give them specific coordinates to focus on and a specific time frame to perform the observation.  The other way is to give them a star, a planet or a particular star system to observe and let them figure out the coordinates.  That might be easier because you know what you want to see.

4.Now you sit back and wait for the email that the observation is done.  You will not be able to watch them do the observation dynamically.  That would be nice but it just isnt possible yet.  These are telescopes, not web cams.  But they will post the pictures from your observation on a particular web location and email the results to you for study.

Its pretty cool, free and customized to what you requested.  And you can brag to your friends as you make color copies of your shots that you had Kitt Peak do these up for you personally.  And you would not be lying.

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The Universe through a Childs Eyes

There is something about parenthood that gives us a sense of history and a deeply rooted desire to send on into the next generation the great things we have discovered about life.  And part of that is the desire to instill in our children the love of science, of learning and particularly the love of nature.  

Your fascination with the universe and how to explore it as we so often do in the field of astronomy can be highly academic and dry as maybe it was if you took a course in astronomy.  But when you get out there in the field at night, your equipment is just right and the night sky comes alive with activity, there is no other experience like it for majesty and pure excitement.  And that is the kind of experience we want our children to come to love as much as we do.

Its actually not a big jump from play to learning for children when it comes to learning about the natural world, science and astronomy.  Exploration is a natural part of being a child and growing up in a fascinating world and universe.  So if we can find ways to take that natural desire to explore and instill a life long passion for astronomy, we will have given our children a truly great gift.

So with a few simple family activities, we can instill that love of astronomy in our offspring.  Here are some ideas.

*Make star gazing part of family life.  You already love to go outdoors as often as possible to enjoy the stars.  So dont let that be your private passion.  Get everybody into the act.  The kids will love it and look forward to those nights as much as going to the circus.

*Make each new experience in growing into astronomy a fresh threshold.  So the first experiences might be what you experienced as a kid, just laying on your back out in the country with the panorama of the stars overhead trying to take it all in.  Go ahead and challenge them to count the stars.  Its a fun exercise and one they will save to use as a joke on their kids when they do this same thing in a few decades.

*Take them along the road of learning, introducing binoculars so they can focus on particular areas of the night sky.

*Now they are hooked and want to know about why some of the stars are brighter than others.  They have no idea they are going to astronomy school and dont even know it.  You can tell them about the constellations as you point out how to find them by keying off the North Star.  By being able to find things in that mass of stars and knowing there is such a vast amount more they can pick out, they are ripe for learning from star maps and about how the galaxies work.  

*Think of their excitement as they notice the changes in the night sky.  The phases of the moon and the effect of the rotation of the earth on the position of the planets.  Help them find their favorite celestial bodies each night.  Before long they will learn to chart the movement of the stars just like the early astronomers did.

*Now you will get caught up in the excitement of finding new things to reveal to your excited crew of fledgling astronomers.  When you reveal that you are going on a safari to see an eclipse, a meteor shower or the once in a lifetime appearance of a comet, that gift will as big as anything you might spring on them for Christmas.

The wonders of the night sky will captivate your children the way it has you for years.  And you will have done them the greatest favor you ever could do by making them lifelong lovers of the universe.

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The Glossary of Telescopes

When you enter into any new area of science, you almost always find yourself with a baffling new language of technical terms to learn before you can converse with the experts.  This is certainly true in astronomy both in terms of terms that refer to the cosmos and terms that describe the tools of the trade, the most prevalent being the telescope.  So to get us off of first base, lets define some of the key terms that pertain to telescopes to help you be able to talk to them more intelligently.  

The first area of specialization in telescopes has to do with the types of telescopes people use.  The three designs of telescopes that most people use are the Refractor, the Reflector and the Schmidt Cassegrain telescope.  

*The refractor telescope uses a convex lens to focus the light on the eyepiece.  

*The reflector telescope has a concave lens which means it bends in.  It uses mirrors to focus the image that you eventually see.  

*The Schmidt Cassegrain telescope uses an involved system of mirrors to capture the image you want to see.

*A binocular telescope uses a set of telescopes mounted and synchronized so your view of the sky is 3-D.

Beyond the basic types, other terms refer to parts of the telescope or to the science behind how telescopes work.

*Collimation is a term for how well tuned the telescope is to give you a good clear image of what you are looking at.  You want your telescope to have good collimation so you are not getting a false image of the celestial body.

*Aperture is a fancy word for how big the lens of your telescope is.  But its an important word because the aperture of the lens is the key to how powerful your telescope is.  Magnification has nothing to do with it, its all in the aperture.

*Focuser is the housing that keeps the eyepiece of the telescope, or what you will look through, in place.  The focuser has to be stable and in good repair for you to have an image you can rely on.

*Mount and Wedge.  Both of these terms refer to the tripod your telescope sits on.  The mount is the actual tripod and the wedge is the device that lets you attach the telescope to the mount.  The mount and the wedge are there to assist you with a superior viewing session and to keep your expensive telescope safe from a fall.

*An Altazimuth Mount refers to the tripod of the telescope that holds the device in place and makes it useful during a star gazing session.  The altazimuth mouth allows the telescope to move both horizontally (which is the azimuth) and vertically.  In this way you have full range to look at things close to the horizon or directly overhead.

*Coma has a different meaning than the one we are used to, and thats a good thing.  The coma is the blurry area on the outer rims of your view through the telescope.  How big the coma is and to what extent it interferes with your viewing will have is important to the effectiveness of your telesscope.

*Planisphere.  A fancy word for a star chart.  It is nothing less or more than a detailed map of where everything is in the cosmos and how to find the star you wish to study by keying off of known stars.

*Barlow.  This refers to a specialized type of lens that you can buy to enhance the magnification of your telescope.  

These are just a few of the basic concepts of telescope operation.  We deliberately picked the ones you have to know to discuss telescopes intelligently.  But your education into the more complex aspects of astronomy and telescope design and operation will go on for as long as you are a lover of astronomy, which we hope is for the rest of your life.

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The Night Sky

No matter how far along you are in your sophistication as an amateur astronomer, there is always one fundamental moment that we all go back to.  That is that very first moment that we went out where you could really see the cosmos well and you took in the night sky.  For city dwellers, this is a revelation as profound as if we discovered aliens living among us.  Most of us have no idea the vast panorama of lights that dot a clear night sky when there are no city lights to interfere with the view.

Sure we all love the enhanced experience of studying the sky using binoculars and various sizes and powers of telescopes.  But I bet you can remember as a child that very first time you saw the fully displayed clear night sky with all the amazing constellations, meters and comets moving about and an exposure of dots of light far to numerous to ever count.

The best way to recapture the wonder of that moment is to go out in the country with a child of your own or one who has never had this experience and be there at that moment when they gaze up and say that very powerful word that is the only one that can summarize the feelings they are having viewing that magnificent sky.  That word is  Wow.

Probably the most phenomenal fact about what that child is looking at that is also the thing that is most difficult for them to grasp is the sheer enormity of what is above them and what it represents.  The very fact that almost certainly, virtually every dot up there in the sky is another star or celestial body that is vastly larger that Earth itself, not by twice or ten times but by factors of hundreds and thousands, can be a mind blowing idea to kids.  Children have enough trouble imagining the size of earth itself, much less something on such a grand scope as outer space.

But when it comes to astronomy, we do better when we fall into deeper and deeper levels of awe at what we see up there in the night sky.  Some amazing facts about what the children are looking at can add to the goose bumps they are already having as they gaze eyes skyward.  Facts like

*Our sun is part of a huge galaxy called the Milky Way that consists of one hundred billion stars just like it or larger.  Show them that one hundred billion is 100,000,000,000 and you will se some jaws drop for sure.

*The milky was is just one of tens of billions of galaxies each of which has billions of stars in them as well.  In fact, the Milky Way is one of the small galaxies.

*If you wanted to drive across the Milky Way, it would take you 100,000 years.  But you cant get there driving the speed limit.  You have to drive five trillion, eight hundred million miles per year to get all the way across that fast.

*Scientists calculate that the Milky Way is 14 billion years old.

These little fun facts should get a pretty spirited discussion going about the origins of the universe and about the possibility of space travel or if there are life on other planets.  You can challenge the kids to calculate that if every star in the Milky Way supported nine planets and if only one of them was habitable like earth is, what are the odds that life would exist on one of them?  I think you will see some genuine excitement when they try to run those numbers.

Such discussion can be fun, exciting, and full of questions.  Dont be too hasty to shut down their imaginations as this is the birth of a lifelong love of astronomy that they are experiencing.  And if you were there that first moment when they saw that night sky, you will re-experience your own great moment when you was a child.  And it might set off a whole new excitement about astronomy in you all over again.

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The WOW Hobby

Some people sometimes view hobbies as sometimes silly or frivolous pastimes.  And its true some hobbies are like that.  But it is healthy to have a hobby because it diversifies our interests and keeps us active and fun to be with.  But many hobbies are for the few that really get into that area of study.  Stamp collecting or rock climbing are valid hobbies.  But to be sure, these are not hobbies that just anybody will get into.

Astronomy, by contract, that you could say everybody gets into at some point or another.  It is safe to say that everybody at some point has looked up at a magnificent night sky and said WOW.  At that moment, even if was only for that moment, that person became an amateur astronomy hobbyist.  They had that Wow moment in what can only be described as the WOW hobby.

That common experience is what makes astronomy one of the most exciting and popular hobbies of them all.  Any hobby has to have a few wow moments.  Whether its hitting that strike in bowling or finding that perfect stamp, there has to be a moment when the bell rings.  Well astronomy has many wow moments that occur virtually any clear night in the stars.  From the coming of an asteroid shower to just figuring out another constellation, there is so much to do and play with in astronomy that you can be a hobbyist your whole life and never get bored.

Besides the excitement of astronomy, another reason it makes a great hobby is that it is easy and cheap to get started.  Unlike skiing for example, to just start enjoying astronomy, all you need is the night sky.  But there is no end to the levels of complexity and sophistication you can get to as you move along in astronomy as well.  So like any good hobby, astronomy is endlessly fascinating and tremendously addictive because there is always more you want to learn and more you can do to make your knowledge and experiences more interesting and fun.

A great side benefit of how many people are into astronomy is that it is a tremendously social hobby as well.  This is unusual for a hobby that is associated with a science, that is executed by staring up in the sky by yourself and that is not competitive.  But in any town or city, there are at least a few and probably dozens of astronomy clubs and associations that meet regularly to discuss astronomy.

This is the perfect way to introduce a new recruit to the hobby of astronomy.  These clubs thrive on sharing their love of astronomy with new members, kids and those just learning how to explore the stars.  Most astronomy clubs schedule regular safaris to go out away from the lights of the city and get a good night of sky watching done.  Going on such an outing with a big group of enthusiasts is the type of experience that will take a passive interest into astronomy and change it into a healthy obsession.

By going out with a group, you can rub elbows with people who know the night sky, can help you learn how to spot the great constellations and how to train your eyes to see the really cool stuff going on over our heads virtually every night.  Astronomy is a passion that is shared equally by everyone from children, to college students to serious scholars in the field to even professional astronomers who work at exploring the universe full time.  On any given night, you or your child may be sitting next to an award winning professional astronomer who will happily provide a private lesson looking up at the cosmos just for the sheer fun of shared learning.

The great thing is that everything we have talked about here costs virtually nothing.  You can get started with your love of astronomy and learn as you go so when you are ready to make some investment in equipment, you have learned from others what is just the right thing for you.  Sure, eventually you will want some astronomy magazine subscriptions, a star map or two and binoculars or a telescope.  But those things come as your love of the hobby matures.  Meanwhile, get out there, meet others who share your excitement about star gazing and get to know a hobby that never stops making you say WOW.

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The Amazing Hubble

In the history of modern astronomy, there is probably no one greater leap forward than the building and launch of the space telescope known as the Hubble.  While NASA has had many ups and downs, the launch and continued operation of the Hubble space telescope probably ranks next to the moon landings and the development of the Space Shuttle as one of the greatest space exploration accomplishments of the last hundred years.

An amazing piece of astronomy trivia that few people know is that in truth, only about ten percent of the universe is visible using conventional methods of observation.  For that reason, the Hubble really was a huge leap forward.  That is for the very simple reason that the Hubble can operate outside of the atmosphere of Earth.  Trying to make significant space exploration via telescopes from the terrestrial surface of planet Earth is very difficult.  That very thing that keeps us alive, our own Earths atmosphere presents a serious distraction from being able to see deeper and further into space.

The Hubble space telescope was named after the great scientist and visionary Edward Hubble who discovered that the universe was expanding which was explained by what is now known in science as Hubbles Law.  To truly get a feel for the amazing accomplishment that was achieved with the launch of the Hubble telescope, spend some time on Nasas web site dedicated to the project at http://hubble.nasa.gov.  There are also a number of sites where you can enjoy some stunning pictures from the Hubble including http://heritage.stsci.edu/ and http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html. 

Its hard to believe how long the Hubble has been orbiting earth and sending back amazing video and pictures of what it is discovering in space.  But the Hubble was actually initially launched on April 25th 1990.  It was the culmination of literally decades of research and construction which began in 1977.  Expectations were high as the orbiting telescope was put in place and actually began to function as it was designed to do.

All was not always perfect with the telescope and the early pictures were disappointing.  After some study NASA discovered that the reason for the early failures was the curvatures of one of the main lenses of the orbiting telescope.

We probably could never have kept this intricate piece of equipment operational as well as we have had we not had the Space Shuttle program to give us a tool to implement repairs and improvements to the Hubble.  In 1993 a new lens was installed on the Hubble which corrected the problem of picture resolution that was noted in the early operation of the telescope.

Two other repair and upgrade mission have been made to the Hubble since it launched, both of them in 1997 to upgrade older equipment and to retrofit the telescope to extend its useful life through 2010.  Its pretty amazing to think that this scientific and mechanical marvel has been operating now for ten years without maintenance.  We can be assured that plans are in the works for NASA to upgrade or replace parts on the Hubble to extend its useful life even further as that 2010 time frame draws closer.  

It is hard to imagine the science of astronomy or the natural quest for greater knowledge of our universe without the Hubble.  While many times those who would not fund space exploration have tried to cut funding for the Hubble, the operation of this telescope is just too important to astronomers and to the scientific well being of mankind and our planet not to continue to use the Hubble, or its next natural successor.  We will always need to have a set of eyes in the sky to watch the universe and discover more of its mysteries.

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Our Neighbors in Space

We have a special feeling toward the other planets that circle our sun.  Maybe its all the science fiction stories about visiting the moon, Mars and other planets.  But we love to think about those planets that make up what we call the solar system. that do what our planet does but do it very differently indeed.  

The planets of our solar system have taken on personalities and mythical appeal in our literature and arts.  It is easy to find artists who render their vision of the planets that make up our society of planets near our sun.  The names of the planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all from our cultural past being gods from Greek and Roman mythology.  But the solar system is not just made up of these planets.  The solar system is a very busy place indeed.

In 2006, there was quite a bit of controversy as scholars and astronomers agreed to downgrade Pluto and remove its status as a planet.  So you have to wonder, what is it that makes something a planet and what happened to Pluto?  It didnt just go away so it must still be out there.  A planet, by scientific definition is any object in orbit around a sun, that has formed into some kind of round object is a planet as long as it has cleared away any other orbiting items around it.  By cleared away, that doesnt mean it has destroyed all space debris etc.  For example, our planet has not cleared away the moon but it has captured it into its own orbit so we classify as a planet.  Thats a relief huh?

There are many objects floating around in our solar system other than the planets we know of.  Its an interesting piece of trivia that in addition to the planets there are 165 moons orbiting around those nine planets.  Some of those moons are so advanced that some scientists have suspected that they might have supported life at some point.

In addition to the regular planets and moons, there are dwarf planets, asteroid belts and routine visits by comets that create a lot of traffic in our cosmic corner of the universe.  The two known dwarf planets that exist on the outer rim of our solar system are Eries and Ceres.  So when Plutos status was changed to be removed from the list of planets, it simply joined those two bodies as dwarf planets but still a solid citizen of the community of celestial bodies around our sun.

In addition to these larger bodies, there is an asteroid belt that exists between Mars and Jupiter that most of the asteroids that we see in our night sky come from.  There is another belt of large objects further out called the Kuiper belt as well as a bubble in space called a heliopause and there is a suspected additional belt outside the known solar system called the Oort belt that we think is the origin of a lot of large asteroids and comets that frequent our solar system and come to orbit our sun.

As fascinating as these many celestial bodies who are our neighbors in space is the origin of our solar system.  We have to break it down to simple terms to understand the terms but we know that the early history of the solar system and the universe was one of great bodies of gas and clouds of matter eventually cooling and heating, exploding and spinning off stars and other massive space giants that became more stars, galaxies and solar systems.  It was from this erratic activity that our sun separated from the gasses and carried with it the material that became our solar system.  The gravity of the sun captured sufficient matter that it began to go through the process of forming, cooling, exploding and separating.  This is what happened as the planets all went through he same process eventually establishing stable orbits and small objects falling into orbit around them.

When you think of how powerful and out of control this process is, its amazing to step back and see the beauty of the organization of our solar system today.  The more detail you learn about the history of our solar system, the more you will enjoy your explorations of the planets with your telescope.  That that discovery is part of the fun of astronomy.

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Telescopes 101

Buying the right telescope to take your love of astronomy to the next level is a big next step in the development of your passion for the stars.  In many ways, it is a big step from someone who is just fooling around with astronomy to a serious student of the science.  But you and I both know that there is still another big step after buying a telescope before you really know how to use it.

So it is critically important that you get just the right telescope for where you are and what your star gazing preferences are.  To start with, lets discuss the three major kinds of telescopes and then lay down some Telescope 101 concepts to increase your chances that you will buy the right thing.

The three primary types of telescopes that the amateur astronomer might buy are the Refractor, the Reflector and the Schmidt Cassegrain telescope.  The first two are named for the kind of lens that is used.  It is pretty easy to see that the lens is the heart of the telescope so the kind that you will use will determine the success of your use of that telescope.

The refractor lens is the simplest because it uses a convex lens to focus the light on the eyepiece.  So the lens bends outwards for this purpose.  The refractor telescopes strength is in viewing planets.  The reflectors strength is in seeing more distant objects and the lens is concave or bends in.  It uses mirrors to focus the image that you eventually see.  The final type, the Schmidt Cassegrain telescope is the most complex and accomplishes the goals of both but it uses an involved system of mirrors to capture the image you want to see.

So to select just the right kind of telescope, your objectives in using the telescope are important.  To really understand the strengths and weaknesses not only of the lenses and telescope design but also in how the telescope performs in various star gazing situations, it is best to do some homework up front and get exposure to the different kinds.  So before you make your first purchase

*Above all, establish a relationship with a reputable telescope shop that employs people who know their stuff.  If you buy your telescope at a Wal-Mart or department store, the odds you will get the right thing are remote.

*Pick the brains of the experts.  If you are not already active in an astronomy society or club, the sales people at the telescope store will be able to guide you to the active societies in your area.  Once you have connections with people who have bought telescopes, you can get advice about what works and what to avoid that is more valid than anything you will get from a web article or a salesperson at Wal-Mart.

*Try before you buy.  This is another advantage of going on some field trips with the astronomy club.  You can set aside some quality hours with people who know telescopes and have their rigs set up to examine their equipment, learn the key technical aspects, and try them out before you sink money in your own set up.

There are other considerations to factor into your final purchase decision.  How mobile must your telescope be?  The tripod or other accessory decisions will change significantly with a telescope that will live on your deck versus one that you plan to take to many remote locations.  Along those lines, how difficult is the set up and break down?  How complex is the telescope and will you have trouble with maintenance?  Network to get the answers to these and other questions.  If you do your homework like this, you will find just the right telescope for this next big step in the evolution of your passion for astronomy.

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