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IF YOU HAVE ASTRONOMY QUESTIONS PLEASE LEAVE YOUR QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENT SECTION OF MY MOST RECENT POST. I WILL ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS ABOUT ASTRONOMY.

Solar observing

Author: Doug Posted under:
 Some Do's and Don'ts for solar observing.

Don't ever look directly into the sun without a filter on your telescope for solar observing.(It will literally cook your eye .So please do not try it unless you want to be blind all of your life.)

Don't let your telescope sit pointed at the sun unless you are viewing through it and have a filter on .(A friend of mine did this not on purpose but he did it and he has a cardboard tube telescope verses a metal one and you can just guess what happened. The telescope did not burn up but he does have a large singe mark on the outside and inside of the scope.)

Don't buy an eyepiece solar filter.These kind of solar filters are very  dangerous and have been known to melt and that's not good. Buy an over the tube filter, which you can purchase at either Orion telescope or thousand oaks optical.

Don't expect to see solar flares with just a normal solar filter. In order to see solar flares you need what is called an H-Alpha filter. You can buy these separate but they are very expensive.What I recommend is the PST telescope it has everything built into it.You don't have to buy anything for it.It comes with an eyepiece and everything. You can use your own eyepieces as well. And the price is a fraction of the cost of buying a custom H-Alpha filters.

Do observe through other peoples telescopes with a solar filter attached to it to see if it is for you.I have yet to see an amateur astronomer say no to someone wanting to look through there telescope. Astronomers love for other people to be interested in their hobby.

Do use a piece of welding glass to find the sun through your finder scope.IT can be very hard to find the sun in a telescope.You wouldn't think so because it is very large but it can be tough to do.If you go to your local hardware store and buy a piece of the darkest welding glass that you can find and hold it in front of your finder scope you will not have any problem looking through the finder to find the sun. 

Here is a list of websites for more info on solar observing.         
 Thousand Oaks
Orion telescopes
General solar observing
PST telescope
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What you will need on your observing night.

Author: Doug Posted under:
1. Binoculars or telescope(don't forget the eyepieces) or just your unaided vision.
2.Star map, you can get one at skymaps.com 
3.A red light. Why red you might ask; well red light helps keep your night vision. If you use a white light it could take up to 20 minutes to get your night vision back.
4. If it's summer, bring bug spray and I repeat bring bug spray. If it is winter be sure and dress warm.
5.Plenty to drink.
6.Last but not least bring a chair. The more comfortable you are the more you will see and the more you will enjoy it. Comfort is everything.
Well that is about all you will need to start observing. The key is to learn the constellations in the sky then look for the harder to find objects.
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Where to buy a telescope.

Author: Doug Posted under:
 Don't go to your local Walmart to buy a telescope. Most if not all telescopes that are at retail stores are of very poor quality. One, they advertise 600x 700x 800x which you will never get in many telescope. In order to get that kind of magnification out of a telescope you need to have the best day in an astronomers life. That means the sky would have to be crystal clear with no turbulence at all and still the scope would probably not give you the views you are looking for.
 I recommend several places on the Internet to buy a good telescope that won't break you at the bank. I personally recommend buying a reflector telescope. A reflector telescope uses two mirrors to obtain the image you want to see. I will post something a little later on reflectors and refractors and which and why I prefer them.
 You can buy a good reflector telescope for about 350 dollars, if that is too much you can buy one for around 200-250 dollars,it all depends on what size telescope you want to buy.
 I have an 8 inch Celestron dobsonian telescope that I paid 350 dollars for and I love it and it will last me a lifetime.  The setup is easy and very quick, I can set it up in about 3 minutes. And the views are great. 
 Here are a few sites to check out telescope and telescope styles.  http://www.telescope.com/  http://www.telescopes.com/   
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What you won't see in the telscope.

Author: Doug Posted under:
You won't see much color like the photos you see on television or in pictures. The pictures you see are taken with a cameras that are much more sensitive to color then our eyes. There are certain objects that do have color and just to name a few, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter,many solitary stars and the ring nebula. This isn't a complete list just a few objects to look for that have color.
You won't see the flag on the moon. Even the highest powered telescope on earth can't see the flag. It would be like taking a candle and putting it in California and trying to see it from New York.
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What telescope to buy.

Author: Doug Posted under:
There are a few things to factor in when buying a telescope. One, what is your budget.Two, what are your intentions with it. Three, what kind of portability do you want. This is not a complete list but you get the point.
First, you have to decide how much money you are willing to spend. You can get a dobsonian telescope for around $300.00 and the bigger the scope the more you will spend.
You can get a Schmidt cassegrain telescope for about $3000.00. So prices really vary a lot.
Now how portable do you want it to be. A dobsonian telescope can be very big and very bulky. Where as a refractor telescope is very portable.
Here I have included links to photos of different telescopes. Here is a dobsonian telescope http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Dobson-mount.jpg/180px-Dobson-mount.jpg Here is a Schmidt cassegrain telescope http://www.skiesunlimited.net/images/products/527_01.jpg Here is a standard refractor telescope http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/opticsplanet_2044_1016750428. If you've looked at the photos you can really see the difference.
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So your interested in astronomy?

Author: Doug Posted under:
Well the first thing you don't want to do is go out and buy a telescope. Why? Well a lot of people think they are interested in astronomy but don't know what to do when they get their telescope. What I suggest is to buy a pair of binoculars first. A pair of 10x50 binoculars will work just fine and you can see many cool celestial objects.
You wouldn't believe the stuff you can see with a pair of binoculars. If you don't believe that, just download the star map from www.skymaps.com and look at the binocular list. It is a free star map.
So when are you ready to buy a telescope, well once you learn the sky and all of its wonders it is time to move up.
I will post something on buying the right telescope for you.
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