Telescopes - refractors and reflectors - are the main items of equipment used by almost every amateur astronomer. The purpose of astronomical telescopes is to collect and focus more light than the human eye can, forming an image that can be viewed, photographed, or analysed. Astronomical Equipment for Amateurs makes buying and using both telescopes and their ancillary instruments easy for astronomers of all abilities. It begins by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of the basic types of refractors, reflectors, mountings and accessories. Observation techniques are also included, along with the use of filters, (colour, anti-pollution and nebula), types of photography (piggy-back, prime focus and eyepiece projection), and also CCD imaging (including types of CCD camera and their advantages and disadvantages compared to photography). Martin Mobberley provides a fascinating insight into astronomical software.

A guide to the purchase and use of all astronomical equipment - from telescopes to CCD cameras. Up-to-date treatment including commercially available items. Ideal for newcomers as well as experienced amateur astronomers. Competitively priced in the Practical Astronomy Series.

Autorentext

Martin Mobberley is a well-known amateur astronomer from Suffolk, England, who joined the British Astronomical Association in 1969, aged eleven, initially as a visual observer. Since the early 1980s he has been a regular photographer and imager of comets, planets, asteroids, variable stars, novae, and supernovae. He served as one of the youngest presidents of the British Astronomical Association, from 1997 to 1999, and in 2000 he was presented with the association's Walter Goodacre Award. In 1997 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named asteroid number 7239 as 'Mobberley' in recognition of Martin's contribution to amateur astronomy. Martin is the sole author of seven previous practical astronomy books published by Springer as well as three children's 'Space Exploration' books published by Top That Publishing. In addition he has authored hundreds of articles in the UK magazine Astronomy Now and numerous other astronomical publications, as well as appearing from time to time on Patrick Moore's long-running BBC TV program The Sky at Night.

Inhalt
1 Fundamentals for Beginners.- Using Low Magnification.- Using High Magnification.- Eyepiece Sizes.- 2 Refractors and Reflectors.- Achromatic Refractors.- Apochromatic Refractors.- Semi-Apochromatic Refractors.- Refractors or Reflectors?.- Newtonian Reflectors.- Long-Focus Newtonians.- Collimation.- Dobsonians.- Buying a Telescope.- Beginners' Telescopes.- Buyer Beware!.- High-Quality Refractors.- Apochromats for the Connoisseur.- Other Telescope Considerations.- 3 Catadioptrics, Cassegrains and Schmidt-Cassegrains.- Cassegrains.- Schmidt-Cassegrains.- Maksutovs.- Schiefspieglers.- 4 Binoculars.- Stands for Binoculars.- Image-Stabilised Binoculars.- 5 Eyepieces.- Magnification.- Practical Considerations.- Comet Seeking.- Focusing-Tube Diameter.- Real Field Limitations.- Popular Commercial Eyepieces.- High-Definition Eyepieces.- Barlow Lenses.- Eyepiece Projection.- Illuminated-Reticle Eyepieces.- Commercial Guiding Eyepieces.- 6 Telescope Mountings.- The Equatorial Mounting.- Commercial Telescope Mounting Systems.- Commercial Drive Systems.- Home-Made Drives and Unusual Mountings.- Electronic Drive Design.- Unusual Mountings.- Poncet Platforms.- Alt-azimuth Field De-Rotators.- 7 Accessories.- Finders.- Guide Telescopes.- Off-Axis Guiders.- Horses for Courses.- Photographic Equipment - Film versus CCD.- Undriven Astrophotography.- Simple Tracking.- Dew.- Film, Meteor-Photography Equipment and Wide-Field Camera Equipment.- Satellite Trails.- Medium-Format Cameras.- Fish-Eye Lenses.- Developing and Printing.- Developing Tanks.- Developing Colour Film.- Black-and-White Printing.- Cold Cameras and Film Hypersensitising.- Camera Interfaces.- Focusers.- Commercial Schmidt-Cassegrain Focusing.- Manual Guiding and Off-Axis Guiders.- Guiding for Comet Photography.- A CometMarathon.- Coma Correctors.- A Final Word on Focusers.- Filters.- Planetary Filters.- Deep Sky Filters.- Comet Filters.- Photographic Filters.- Photometric Filters for CCDs.- Schmidt Cameras and Astrographs.- 8 Electronic Imaging and the Electronics Revolution.- CCDs.- Buying a CCD Camera.- Starlight Xpress.- SBIG and Meade.- Auto-Slewing with a Schmidt-Cassegrain and a CCD Camera.- SBIG Autoguiding.- Other Manufacturers.- Using a CCD Camera.- Understanding and Processing the Digital Image.- A Dark Frame.- Background Brightness.- Flat-Field.- Diffraction Focusers.- Useful Processing Routines.- Unsharp Masking.- Deconvolution.- Median Filters.- Non-Linear Contrast-Stretch.- Image Formats.- Astrometry.- Photometry.- 9 Image Processing, Planetarium and Telescope Control Software.- QMips 1.81 by Christian Buil.- MIRA AL by Axiom.- Hidden Image by Sehgal.- CCD Astrometry.- Paintshop Pro.- Adobe Photoshop.- Printers and Scanners.- Planetarium Software.- Planetarium Telescope Control.- 10 Video Astronomy.- Image Intensifiers.- 11 Observatories.- The Simplest Solution.- Simple Observatories.- If It Can Go Wrong.- Observatory Domes.- 12 Equipment for Observing the Sun.- Eyepiece Projection.- Direct Solar Observation.- Observing in White Light.- Seeing.- Hydrogen-Alpha Equipment.- Viewing Eclipses.- 13 Star Atlases and Deep Sky Atlases.- Appendix 1 Dealers, Bibliography and URLs.- Equipment Suppliers.- Quality Binocular Mounting Suppliers.- Societies Worth Joining.- Internet URLs.- Books.- Appendix 2 Photographic and Visual Magnitude Limits.