Patrick Moore’s Practical Astronomy Series Other Titles in this Series Telescopes and Techniques (2nd Edn.) Light Pollution Chris Kitchin Bob Mizon The Art and Science of CCD Astronomy Using the Meade ETX David Ratledge (Ed.) Mike Weasner The Observer’s Year (Second Edition) Practical Amateur Spectroscopy Patrick Moore Stephen F. Tonkin (Ed.) Seeing Stars More Small Astronomical Observatories Chris Kitchin and Robert W. Forrest Patrick Moore (Ed.) Photo-guide to the Constellations Observer’s Guide to Stellar Evolution Chris Kitchin Mike Inglis The Sun in Eclipse How to Observe the Sun Safely Michael Maunder and Patrick Moore Lee Macdonald Software and Data for Practical The Practical Astronomer’s Deep-Sky Astronomers Companion David Ratledge Jess K. Gilmour Amateur Telescope Making Observing Comets Stephen F. Tonkin (Ed.) Nick James and Gerald North Observing Meteors, Comets, Supernovae Observing Variable Stars and other Transient Phenomena Gerry A. Good Neil Bone Visual Astronomy in the Suburbs Astronomical Equipment for Amateurs Antony Cooke Martin Mobberley Astronomy of the Milky Way: The Transit: When Planets Cross the Sun Observer’s Guide to the Northern and Michael Maunder and Patrick Moore Southern Milky Way (2 volumes) Practical Astrophotography Mike Inglis Jeffrey R. Charles The NexStar User’s Guide Observing the Moon Michael W. Swanson Peter T. Wlasuk Observing Binary and Double Stars Deep-Sky Observing Bob Argyle (Ed.) Steven R. Coe Navigating the Night Sky AstroFAQs Guilherme de Almeida Stephen Tonkin The New Amateur Astronomer The Deep-Sky Observer’s Year Martin Mobberley Grant Privett and Paul Parsons Care of Astronomical Telescopes and Field Guide to the Deep Sky Objects Accessories Mike Inglis M. Barlow Pepin Choosing and Using a Schmidt-Cassegrain Astronomy with a Home Computer Telescope Neale Monks Rod Mollise Visual Astronomy Under Dark Skies Astronomy with Small Telescopes Antony Cooke Stephen F. Tonkin (Ed.) Lunar and Planetary Webcam User’s Guide Solar Observing Techniques Martin Mobberley Chris Kitchin The Urban Astronomer’s Guide How to Photograph the Moon and Planets Rod Mollise with Your Digital Camera Digital Astrophotography Tony Buick David Rutledge Pattern Asterisms: A New Way to Chart the CCD Astrophotography: High-Quality Stars Imaging from the Suburbs John Chiravalle Observing the Planets Peter T. Wlasuk Human Vision and the Night Sky Hot to Improve Your Observing Skills Michael P. Borgia Library of Congress Control Number: 2005938491 ISBN-10: 0-387-30776-1 Printed on acid-free paper. ISBN-13: 978-0387-30776-3 © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 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 connec- tion 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 pro- prietary rights. Printed in the United States of America. (EB/BP) 987654321 springer.com “Daddy, I wanna get a ladder and touch the Moon” Robert Michael Borgia Age 3 Contents Introduction . ix 1 The Integrated Observing System. Part I: Your Eyes . 1 2 The Integrated Observing System. Part II: Your Equipment . 19 3 Putting the Integrated Observing System Together . 51 4 First Night Out . 71 5 Mysteries of the Moon . 83 6 Secrets of the Sun . 103 7 Mercury, Venus, and the Inner Solar System . 119 8 The Enigmas of Mars, the Red Planet . 141 9 Comets and Asteroids, the Cosmic Leftovers of Creation . 159 10 Jupiter and Saturn, Kings of Worlds . 175 11 The Outer Worlds; Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Beyond . 195 12 Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (Now Knock It Off!) . 207 13 Faint, Fuzzy Things. Part I: Phenomena Galactica . 227 14 Faint, Fuzzy Things. Part II: The Island Universes . 249 vii viii Contents Appendix A Object Listing . 271 Appendix B Scales and Measures . 277 Appendix C Resources . 281 Index . 283 Introduction For years, the images have blazed through your imagination. They are the magnificent full-color photographs returned by the Hubble Space Telescope and its sister Great Observatories1 of the grand depths of the cosmos. From the “pillars of creation,” considered to be Hubble’s signature image, to the incomprehensible depths of the Hubble Deep Fields to the intricate details imaged in the surface and cloud tops of Mars or Jupiter, the power of the Hubble Telescope to turn on the public to science is unparalled in the history of modern culture. They also have spurred new telescope sales to unimagined highs. And after years of watching the heavens through the eyes of NASA, you’ve decided it’s time to see it for yourself. You make the trip to the department store and pick up that shiny new “500×” tele- scope, set it up and soon you’re in business. Unfortunately, the high initial expectations usually give way to disappointment. Instead of seeing the magnificent swirling clouds of gas in the Orion Nebula, you see a pale green-gray cloud with a couple of nondescript stars lurking nearby. The swirling red, yellow and brown storms of Jupiter are nowhere to be seen; only varying shades of gray in the planet’s cloud bands, assuming you can see bands at all! And Mars? After waiting all night for the red planet to rise up over the morning horizon, you are greeted by nothing more than a featureless reddish-orange dot. After a few weeks of this, the telescope suddenly is no longer making the nightly trip outside. Soon the scope only gets outside one night a week and not long after that, it becomes a place to hang laundry. It need not be that way for the sky you long to see is out there. You just need to learn how to see it. If you are that person, 1 NASA’s “Great Observatories” include the Hubble Space Telescope (launched 1990), the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (launched 1991, de-orbited 2001), the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (launched 1999) and the Spitzer Space Telescope (launched late 2003). ix x Introduction then this book is for you. If you own a larger telescope and feel you have run out of challenges, then you’ve got the right book too. One thing that many people who do not study the sky don’t understand is that astronomy is the one and only science where ordinary people with an ordinary education can make the discoveries that electrify the public and even alter the course of modern science. Amateurs dis- covered the great comets Hale–Bopp, Hyakutake, West and Ikeya–Seki. Amateurs today are even helping to discover new planets around distant suns. Indeed, with the attention of most professional astronomers focused on non-visible wave- lengths, most major discoveries made in visible-light astronomy today are made by amateur astronomers just like us. The opportunities for discovery, learning and wonder are absolutely endless, but it also takes an enormous amount of work. If you’re willing to do it, then please read on. I wrote this book to share with you what I have had to learn through hard trial and (a lot of) error. I hope to share with you so as to limit your frustration, increase learning and most of all expand your joy in this amazing hobby and lim- itless science. We’ll begin in the pages ahead by discussing the critical elements of the integrated observing system. This system has three critical components all of which must work correctly and in harmony for you to have success. These are the observer’s eyes, his equipment, and lastly his brain. A perfect scope and flawless vision are useless without the knowledge of how to use it and of what it is you are looking for, what to expect when observing and why that particular object is of such interest. A well-trained mind and a perfect scope are of little use if the eyes are in poor health or are adversely affected by factors external to the eyes or exter- nal to the body. Perfect eyes and a well-trained mind will not perceive very much if the telescope cannot produce a sharp image because it is poorly maintained or its optics or mounting are of poor quality. Our first three chapters are about preparing and training the eyes, acquiring the right equipment for your particu- lar needs including some frank advice about how to shop for that first serious tele- scope, then we will talk about training the mind, the need to gain knowledge and then putting it all together to make observing fun, enriching, and satisfying. Once you have all the tools in place, we’ll go out in the field for a test run and put our eyes, brain and telescope to work. We’ll walk through a typical first night in the field by planning and executing an observing session where time can be an issue, both in terms of being ready for a precise moment and making use of time of limited quantity. The first night out can be the most wonderful night of your life as an amateur astronomer, or the night that turns you off the hobby completely. We’ll talk about how to make it the former rather than the latter by teaching you to manage your time, your equipment, yourself and perhaps most importantly, your expectations.