The Telescope
The telescope was first used by Galileo Galilei in the 17th century. It opened up the ability to look closer at celestial objects from the surface of the earth. While Galileo observed Jupiter and the Milky Way, I just wanted to be able to learn how to use a telescope and look at the moon.
On September 29th I spent an hour with my sister, my husband, and my two oldest boys discussing astronomy and learning how to use the telescope. In the days leading up to this I purchased a CSTAR telescope. One night prior to talking about the telescope, I took the telescope out one night to try to familiarize myself with how to use it. I also purchased a couple children’s books called, The Visual Dictionary of the Universe and The Day We Walked on the Moon. I thought these books would be a good way to introduce terminology used in astronomy and to introduce the subject of the moon, which is what I wanted to look at.
The people I invited to be in the group were not extremely familiar with astronomy and I wanted to take the opportunity to teach them a little bit about what astronomy is. I wanted to talk about the telescope and how it works. Then I wanted to take them outside and find the moon and look at it. I wanted them to have an opportunity to actually see something that I had been learning about in my class.
As everyone gathered, I asked them to look at the two books I had there to give them some idea as to what we would be talking about. When everyone finished looking at the books we got out the telescope. We talked about how there are different types of telescopes. There are radio telescopes, refractor telescopes, and reflector telescopes. The telescope I bought is a reflector telescope. I explained that reflector telescopes work by using mirrors and lenses to reflect and enhance what we would be looking at.
Then we went outside to look at the moon through the telescope. I thought using a telescope would simply be point it at the object and look at it. I thought the moon was big and would be easy to find and look at but
instead I really struggled to find it. I found I had to move the telescope the opposite direction of what I wanted to move it in order to get the moon where we could see it. I also found that small adjustments made huge differences with where something appeared.
The struggles we were having trying to find the moon is what ended up dominating a lot of our conversation. I asked my husband, who is a math major, why we had to move the telescope the opposite way of what it seemed it should be in order to see what we wanted to see. He explained that it was because the picture we were seeing is backwards. I knew that the telescope worked by using mirrors but I thought what we were seeing was like looking directly at the moon. That wasn’t the case for us. Instead what we are seeing is what is in the mirror which is backwards of what we see when we just look at it. We found that we really had to think about how to move the telescope to get the moon where we wanted it to be.
The other thing that I wanted to know was how we were able to look through the viewer on the side of the telescope and see what was obviously at the back of the telescope. It was my younger son that pointed out that there is a smaller mirror at a forty-five degree angle that captured what was on the mirror at the back of
the telescope and allowed it to be seen through the viewer on the side of the telescope.
I learned that our telescope has two mirrors. The big one at the back is what captures the light and forms an image from that light. The smaller one at the front is angled at a 45 degree angle in a way so it can capture the image that is on the mirror at the back of the telescope and then projects it out the viewer so we can see it. We use different lenses to magnify the image this image.
It took us a while to figure out how to adjust the telescope because of the way the mirrors affected what we were seeing. Once we found the moon, we took turns looking at it. This was by far the most exciting part of the night for all of us. We were all surprised at how bright it was. It could be seen shining through the eye piece while standing a few feet away from the telescope. I didn’t think you would see anything until you actually walked up to the telescope and looked in it but I was wrong. Another thing that was amazing about the moon was seeing the craters on the moon and the way it looked like cracks were radiating out from them. The craters look almost like rock chips in a windshield. This is the first time any of us had seen the craters of the moon. If
you are just looking at the moon at night you don’t see the craters.
One of the things brought up by my husband while we were looking at the moon was that we see the same side of the moon. He explained that the moon and the earth rotate at the same rate which makes it so that we see the same side of the moon every night. I remember reading this in the book but it surprised my sons and
sister. My sister pointed out that sometimes it is hard to fathom that the earth is rotating and the moon
is rotating because to us it doesn’t feel like the earth is moving. My husband explained that it is because we are moving with it and there is no acceleration going along with it.
At first everyone seemed a bit hesitant to discuss astronomy. Actually going outside with the telescope and viewing the moon really opened up the conversation. As we wrapped up our evening we decided we needed to learn how to use our telescope better so that we can look at constellations and other planets.
On September 29th I spent an hour with my sister, my husband, and my two oldest boys discussing astronomy and learning how to use the telescope. In the days leading up to this I purchased a CSTAR telescope. One night prior to talking about the telescope, I took the telescope out one night to try to familiarize myself with how to use it. I also purchased a couple children’s books called, The Visual Dictionary of the Universe and The Day We Walked on the Moon. I thought these books would be a good way to introduce terminology used in astronomy and to introduce the subject of the moon, which is what I wanted to look at.
The people I invited to be in the group were not extremely familiar with astronomy and I wanted to take the opportunity to teach them a little bit about what astronomy is. I wanted to talk about the telescope and how it works. Then I wanted to take them outside and find the moon and look at it. I wanted them to have an opportunity to actually see something that I had been learning about in my class.
As everyone gathered, I asked them to look at the two books I had there to give them some idea as to what we would be talking about. When everyone finished looking at the books we got out the telescope. We talked about how there are different types of telescopes. There are radio telescopes, refractor telescopes, and reflector telescopes. The telescope I bought is a reflector telescope. I explained that reflector telescopes work by using mirrors and lenses to reflect and enhance what we would be looking at.
Then we went outside to look at the moon through the telescope. I thought using a telescope would simply be point it at the object and look at it. I thought the moon was big and would be easy to find and look at but
instead I really struggled to find it. I found I had to move the telescope the opposite direction of what I wanted to move it in order to get the moon where we could see it. I also found that small adjustments made huge differences with where something appeared.
The struggles we were having trying to find the moon is what ended up dominating a lot of our conversation. I asked my husband, who is a math major, why we had to move the telescope the opposite way of what it seemed it should be in order to see what we wanted to see. He explained that it was because the picture we were seeing is backwards. I knew that the telescope worked by using mirrors but I thought what we were seeing was like looking directly at the moon. That wasn’t the case for us. Instead what we are seeing is what is in the mirror which is backwards of what we see when we just look at it. We found that we really had to think about how to move the telescope to get the moon where we wanted it to be.
The other thing that I wanted to know was how we were able to look through the viewer on the side of the telescope and see what was obviously at the back of the telescope. It was my younger son that pointed out that there is a smaller mirror at a forty-five degree angle that captured what was on the mirror at the back of
the telescope and allowed it to be seen through the viewer on the side of the telescope.
I learned that our telescope has two mirrors. The big one at the back is what captures the light and forms an image from that light. The smaller one at the front is angled at a 45 degree angle in a way so it can capture the image that is on the mirror at the back of the telescope and then projects it out the viewer so we can see it. We use different lenses to magnify the image this image.
It took us a while to figure out how to adjust the telescope because of the way the mirrors affected what we were seeing. Once we found the moon, we took turns looking at it. This was by far the most exciting part of the night for all of us. We were all surprised at how bright it was. It could be seen shining through the eye piece while standing a few feet away from the telescope. I didn’t think you would see anything until you actually walked up to the telescope and looked in it but I was wrong. Another thing that was amazing about the moon was seeing the craters on the moon and the way it looked like cracks were radiating out from them. The craters look almost like rock chips in a windshield. This is the first time any of us had seen the craters of the moon. If
you are just looking at the moon at night you don’t see the craters.
One of the things brought up by my husband while we were looking at the moon was that we see the same side of the moon. He explained that the moon and the earth rotate at the same rate which makes it so that we see the same side of the moon every night. I remember reading this in the book but it surprised my sons and
sister. My sister pointed out that sometimes it is hard to fathom that the earth is rotating and the moon
is rotating because to us it doesn’t feel like the earth is moving. My husband explained that it is because we are moving with it and there is no acceleration going along with it.
At first everyone seemed a bit hesitant to discuss astronomy. Actually going outside with the telescope and viewing the moon really opened up the conversation. As we wrapped up our evening we decided we needed to learn how to use our telescope better so that we can look at constellations and other planets.