Astronomy with a Budget Telescope An Introduction to Practical Obser
If you had purchased an inexpensive astronomical telescope a few years ago, disappointment would have been almost guaranteed. In current Internet age, times have changed and most (but not quite all) telescopes have been used to favorable results. Sir Patr
- PDF / 7,681,549 Bytes
- 166 Pages / 439.37 x 666.14 pts Page_size
- 59 Downloads / 202 Views
For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/3192
Astronomy with a Budget Telescope An Introduction to Practical Observing Second Edition Patrick Moore John Watson
Patrick Moore Selsey, UK
John Watson Old Basing, UK
ISSN 1431-9756 ISBN 978-1-4614-2160-3 e-ISBN 978-1-4614-2161-0 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-2161-0 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011944427 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface to the Second Edition
It’s been eight years since we finished the first edition of this book. In 2011, Patrick’s uninterrupted record-breaking run of his BBC television program, The Sky at Night, passed its 700th episode and was celebrated with a TV special looking back on its long, long history. In the past decade, other important things have happened in the amateur astronomy world. First, the technology of telescopes and their mounting has improved, along with the value you get for your money. Everything seems to be made in China. Computer-controlled (‘go-to’) telescopes are commonplace and less expensive than they were, and telescope optics are in general very good or excellent, even in budget telescopes. The second thing is the rise of the Internet as a vehicle for shopping as well as for information. This has had a detrimental effect on Main Street (or High Street in the UK) shops in all areas, and that in turn means that it is harder than it used to be to find a decent astronomical telescope in any non-specialist shop. Fortunately, shopping for a telescope on the Internet is easy, provided you know what you are looking for. The product knowledge of the specialists will be far better than you would get in a department store, and the after sales service will be better informed (and if you are lucky, actually better). The best advice for this decade is this: before buying, do your research thoroughly using the Internet as a tool, and looking at any user-feedback (not from the retailers’ web sites – they’ll only put in the good reports!) you can discover. Then buy from a specialist in astronomical equipment. Third, digital photography has become the norm, and beautiful classic ‘wet film’ cameras have been consigned in their thousands to, at be
Data Loading...
