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Stars in a Winter Wonderland

© Steven Haywood Yaskell

On summer nights we look into our resident galaxy - the Milky Way. On winter ones we look straight out into the open universe. Why not take a journey around it?

Astronomy lets your equipment range from just plain eyes to very large telescopes of 25 inches in primary lens diameter. The sky's the limit in fact. It's an ever more popular natural history hobby and an increasingly cost-efficient one as regards purchasing optical devices. Try getting a pair of binoculars that can be attached to tripod stands. Or if you're really ambitious order and assemble what's called a kit telescope.

In 1903, ninety percent of us would have needed nothing more than our eyes and a star map to see and appreciate a great deal of what now eludes us near or in cities. This is due to light from streetlamps and the other background glow. Unless you're a country family living beyond the city glare, you'll need help. Find wider binocular sizes such as 16 x 40 or 10 or 12 x 50 in department stores like Target for $50 or less. Telescopes used to be grind-your-own lens affairs only for the techno-mechanical and math adept. Most are so cheap and good today there is no need to build your own from scratch, even if you can find the optical labs that will cut you the lenses. Order a telescope kit by mail that requires only a few common tools for assembly (screwdrivers and pliers etc.).

Assembling your own scope allows you to get a feel for the technical side of a potentially very technical subject. If this doesn't interest you, small 'scopes within the one hundred dollar range or less can be purchased from stores like Discovery Channel or bargain outlets like the Christmas Tree stores, or mounted spotting scopes for under 40 dollars.

If you already have a telescope with a swivel mount or a fork mount (and no right ascension and declination arms) then swivel away. If you have one with these arms you can carefully guide the scope past objects and track them once you sight them in. This is a great bonus. All telescopes should have a sighting scope attached. In daylight coordinate the view seen in the sighting telescope with that seen through the eyepiece. This will let you sight in things seen in the sighting scope's crosshairs straight in the middle of the eyepiece.