Using Star Charts With Telescopes

Series Summary

Since the dawn of time, the night sky has fascinated inhabitants of Earth. The Egyptians and Mayans used astronomy sciences and star charts to navigate, as did sailors. Constellations have provided fascinating legends and fodder for horoscope writers in newspapers all over the world. Since the invention of the telescope, astronomy, the study of stars and the celestial bodies, has made grand leaps understanding the way our universe exists. Telescopes can be small enough to carry in a satchel or large enough to fill an entire laboratory, and so the fascination with how the planets and stars swirl and twinkle can be scratched by amateur and professional astronomers alike. In this free telescope viewing and astronomy video series, observatory director Rocky Alvey teaches all about home telescope use. Alvey talks about telescopes with passion, including the parts of a telescope, the development of various styles, where to use them, and where to find local resources for telescope viewers. Alvey offers tips on caring for a telescope, transport and upgrading. He even addresses the reasonable expectations a telescope viewer can set when observing the stars from home.

Video Transcript

"One of the things that you should know before you get started using your telescope is that the sky can be a very complicated thing if you don't understand just the basics on how to find things in the sky. So, I would recommend that, even before you get out, set your telescope outside, you get a couple items that could really help you find things in the sky. Of course the moon's very easy to find, it's very bright, and so you won't have trouble locating that. Before you get started with your telescope, I would recommend that you purchase one or two items that will really help you navigate the night sky. One of the basic items is a fairly inexpensive item. It's called a star wheel or a planisphere. And they make star wheels and planispheres in several different sizes, several different types. It's essentially a calender that shows you what's in the sky. Now this is a large one and this particular planisphere is really good for me or for people that maybe don't see as well at night as a child would. Children are able to have better night vision than older adults. And, if you're in our fifties or above, your night vision may be reduced to the point where a large planisphere would be good. Now, the star wheel is very simple to use, if you'll notice there's a central pivot pin and that represents the North Celestial Pole. Or the place in the sky where the earth spins. So, if you were to project the spin axis of the earth into space, there would be one spot where you would see everything in the sky rotate around it. And so this pin needs to be aligned with that place in space which is very near the star Polaris. You've heard of the North Star Polaris. Now, another misnomer that I might mention here, Polaris isn't the brightest star in the sky. It is one of the fiftieth brightest starts, but it is not the brightest. So, if you find north and you can align your planisphere so that you're looking north, and this spin axis on your planisphere is pointing towards that place in space, you can align the time of night with the date and it will show you exactly what's in the sky in this window. So, that's the first thing that you need to learn how to use, a planisphere or star wheel. You can also find them on line and print them out on paper and put a little brad in them and make them just with a couple of pieces of regular typing paper. Another type of star wheel, there's several manufacturers that make these. This is the particular Celeste drawn sky map and it has the planisphere on the front. It also has basic star maps in the back and information about the constellations in that piece of the sky. So, enough of that. Get a star wheel and learn how to use it."