Saturday, November 19, 2011

Firstscope Celestron Beginners Telescopes

!9# Firstscope Celestron Beginners Telescopes

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As the name implies the Firstscope Celestron telescope is designed with the first time user in mind making it one of the best beginner telescopes available today for two reasons, price and ease of use. Don't let the name fool you the FirstScope has enough optical performance to delight children and keep adults interested.

The Celestron Firstscope telescope is compact and portable weighing in at under six pounds. No need for a tripod with this table top telescope. Any stable flat surface like the hood of your car or the back yard picnic table will do, making this telescope for beginners a grab and go scope.

Firstscope Celestron Features

Lets review some of the features of this starter telescope. It comes with a Dobsonian Mount which makes up and down or altitude and left or right or azimuth movement smooth and easy for exact targeting. The optical tube is a Newtonian reflector design, meaning the objects are upside down. The optical elements are all coated glass to ensure clear and crisp images. To ensure durability and minimum maintenance only quality material is used in the manufacturing of these beginners telescopes by Celestron.

No assembly is needed. Just insert one of the eyepiece that comes with your stargazing telescope and your good to go. To get the most out of your Celestron telescope Firstscope make sure you read the manual before your try to view the night sky. Practice in the day time to familiarize yourself with the operating functions. It comes with a useful owners manual with detailed instruction to make your exploration of the universe fun and rewarding,

So as not to void your two year limited warranty lets look at some safety tips. Never use your telescope to project images of the sun as heat will build up inside and damage your equipment. The use of solar filters can cause unfiltered sunlight to pass through your eye or cause the telescope to crack or break from the heat. Never leave your equipment unattended only to return to find it broken on the ground.

Two eyepieces are included with the Celestron Firstscope a 20mm 15 power and a 4mm 75 power. For additional eyepieces, moon filter, finder scope and astronomy CD make sure to check out the accessory kit. Weather you are looking for a telescope for kids or are new to astronomy yourself, these beginners telescopes will provide you with years of rewarding service while you search the night skies.


Firstscope Celestron Beginners Telescopes

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The Gregorian Telescope - The First Practical Reflector

!9# The Gregorian Telescope - The First Practical Reflector

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The Gregorian Telescope is an interesting design of reflector and it was the first practical design for a telescope that used a mirror. It is still used in modern times but only in very limited circumstances.

Credit for the first reflector goes to an Italian professor named Niccolo Zucchi. He made his first scope in 1616 but the design of his scopes was not very practical. James Gregory was a Scottish Mathematician and Astronomer of the 17th Century and he is credited with having designed the first practical reflector telescope. In 1663 he published this design in his book titled Optica Promota. But he didn't build the first working model until ten years later with the help of scientist Robert Hooke. It was in this ten year period that Sir Isaac Newton built his famous Newtonian telescope (1670). So the Gregorian telescope predates the Newtonian in design but Newton's was the first to be built.

How the Gregorian Telescope works

To understand how the Gregorian reflector works we will first take a look at the Newtonian telescope. In the Newtonian a parabolic mirror placed at the bottom of a tube and it focuses light back up the tube to a flat mirror that directs it out the side of the tube to an eyepiece. The eyepiece is on the side of the tube. In a Gregorian design the parabolic mirror is at the bottom of the tube and it focuses light back up the tube but the second mirror is an ellipsoid and it redirects the light back down the tube to the eyepiece through a hole in the center of the large primary mirror. This type of telescope has the eyepiece at the bottom.

The benefits and shortcomings

Newton's telescope has one parabolic mirror and one flat mirror while Gregory's has a parabolic as its primary mirror and an ellipsoid as its secondary. Additionally, Gregory's primary mirror needed a hole cut in the center of it. These things mean it is a much more optically complex instrument and much more difficult to make. Newton's design is much easier to make. This is probably why it took Gregory ten years to make his first working model.

The Gregorian does have some benefits over the Newtonian style scope. The ellipsoid secondary mirror is placed at a point after the focus of the light. This configuration, in conjunction with an eyepiece, provides an erect or right side up image while the Newtonian telescope gives an upside down image. This is a big benefit if you are using the telescope for terrestrial viewing. And because of this inversion of image after the secondary mirror it allows a baffle to be placed inside the tube. This baffle prevents unwanted light and heat from reaching the primary mirror. This is a very useful tool when a telescope is meant to be used for solar observations where heat is a big concern. For this reason the Gregorian design is sometimes still used for telescopes that will be used for solar observations.

The Gregorian design for a telescope is not used very often in modern times. It has been changed and much improved by the Cassegrain telescope. But the Gregorian does find limited use occasionally as a finder scope that accompanies a larger scope. This is because of the nature of it displaying properly oriented erect images. And because of its ability to have a baffle inside it is also sometimes used for telescopes built for solar observations.

Gregory's telescope design is not much used in modern times but it was the forerunner and inspiration for many of today's telescope designs.


The Gregorian Telescope - The First Practical Reflector

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Celestron NexStar 6 SE Telescope

!9#Celestron NexStar 6 SE Telescope

Brand : Celestron
Rate :
Price : $699.00
Post Date : Nov 03, 2011 08:17:22
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The Celestron NexStar 6SE Telescope is a state-of-the-art design that allows you to view incredibly detailed celestial bodies. The patented single-fork arm enables smooth operating within the optical tube. With the NexStar 6SE Celestron Telescope, the quality is undeniable and the viewing is spectacular as the Go To buttons capture the object of your choice. With the Celestron NexStar 6SE Telescope, you get serious performance and easy portability in this high-quality altazimuth computerized telescope.Features:6" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with 150mm aperture44% more light gathering power than 5" models1500mm focal lengthFocal ratio: 10Ultra portable – weighs 30 lb including the tripodCombines the classic heritage of the original orange tube telescopes with the latest state-of-the-art featuresStarBright XLT high transmission coatings come standardCelestron's unique patented single fork arm with integral hand control design provides a rigid and smooth operating structure for the optical tubeStar diagonal provides more comfortable viewing position when observing objects that are high in the skyProven NexStar computer control technologyIncludes:Quick release fork arm mount, optical tube and accessory tray for no-tool setupStarPointer finderscope to help with alignment and accurately locating objectsSturdy computerized altazimuth mountInternal battery compartment to prevent cord wrap during useUltra sturdy steel tripod with accessory tray40,000 object database with 200 user-definable objects and expanded information on over 200 objectsSkyAlign allows you to align on any three bright celestial objects, making for a fast and easy alignment processFlash upgradeable hand control software and motor control units for downloading product updates over the InternetAutoguider port for long exposure astrophotographyDC Servo motors with encoders on both axesCustom database lists of all the most famous deep-sky objects by name and catalog number; the most beautiful do

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