How to Properly Use a Telescope

Thanks for visiting this brief list on a number of the things that you should understand to become an authority on the Telescope. Today we're going to be looking at some key points in regards to the Telescope Eyepiece by way of a checklist style article. We will be addressing the Magnification, Field of View and Barrel Diameter. Once you finish this article you'll know how exactly to identify the Magnification of the Eyepiece, what's meant by Field of View and 3 essential factors in regards to the Barrel Diameter of your Telescope Eyepiece

Magnification. The strength of the eyepiece is usually expressed in the relation to magnification. The magnification is stated on the actual barrel of the telescope eyepiece by having an "x" or "X" accompanied by some number. So an eyepiece marked x25 is going to magnify the view produced by the telescope by 25 times.

Nonetheless, higher magnification isn't always a good thing. All optical telescopes are limited by the amount light they can gather to build an image. Substituting a lower power eyepiece with one that has larger magnification will clearly result in a bigger picture, however that picture is often more dull and could have less clarity when compared to a smaller sized picture.

Field of View. An individual may like to know how much of the sky they will be able to observe. Nevertheless Field of View (FoV), normally refers to two different aspects.

* Actual Field of View is the amount of the sky that may be seen through the telescope's eyepiece, assessed in angles. Often the actual field of view is somewhere between 2 degrees and one 10th of a degree.
* Apparent Field of View is the measure of what size is the image seen through telescope (in contrast to Magnification), again depicted in angles. This will usually range from about 35 degrees to around 80 degrees

Once you learn the Apparent Field of View it can be quite simple to determine the Actual Field of View of your telescope eyepiece.

Barrel Diameter. Barrel Diameter refers to the physical dimension of the eyepiece that fits into the telescope's eyepiece holder. You will find three sizes intended for most amateur telescopes.

The most used dimension is 1¼ ". Working with a focal length of about 32 millimeters is just about the maximum practical for the eyepiece having a 1¼ " barrel. When the focal length is higher than 32 mm, it's likely that the edges of the barrel will intrude on the image, therefore constraining the picture dimension.

Another typical dimension for amateurs is a 2" eyepiece. However this can be usually available on more superior and, consequently, expensive telescopes.

It is usually better to steer clear of the.965 " eyepiece as this is usually only found on less expensive, toy, telescopes. Usually they are manufactured from plastic and quite often have plastic lenses. Quality eyepieces in this size are no longer manufactured.

Many thanks for making your time and efforts to look over this brief checklist for the Telescope Eyepiece. I hope that you enjoyed this material as much as I did in providing it. At this point if you want additional information about Telescopes and other optical equipment please feel free to check out several of my other reports.

Learn more about Telescopes and Observational Astronomy at The Telescope Eyepiece

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