My research and attempts to start using the telescope for its intended purpose is progressing slowly but gloriously. The baby takes up 98% of my time, and the remaining 2% I often prefer to eat or shower. Basic needs first. Sometimes, however, I have a few minutes left, in which I often read scientific articles or guides for using a telescope. I found a very easy and good explanation about lenses, eyepieces and focal lengths and their numbers.

The job of a telescope is to collect the amount of light emitted by a given celestial body at a single point. The eyepiece’s job is to take that concentrated light and give us a picture that we can see and understand.

Also, a very important rule became clear to me after discovering the formula for magnification and focal lengths from last telescope log #3, namely:

The BIGGER the number on the eyepiece, the lower the magnification.

The SMALLER the eyepiece number, the higher the magnification.

…which is also a logical conclusion from the formula.

I am currently researching ways to locate a desired celestial body so that I can point the telescope at it and observe it. It turns out that this is an easy task with an expensive and good telescope, and quite a difficult task for my cheap amateur telescope. Not to mention that I’m an absolute dilettante at skywatching and just an amateur at astronomy.

Another thing that became clear to me was that even if I could find a way to pinpoint the exact spot, say on Mars or a constellation, there’s still a good chance I wouldn’t be able to see it because of light pollution. I live in a standard metropolitan neighborhood with street lights that are very disruptive and “wipe out” 90% of the stars I can see from the sky. Light pollution is the accumulation and concentration of large amounts of light in one place. As you can guess – in the capital, light pollution is at its maximum. Also, I should aim for a day (rather night) without clouds and (! something interesting I didn’t know !) without wind. Yes, apparently wind also interferes, because it stirs the atmosphere and interferes with the clear picture. So one thing became clear to me – to see a celestial body other than our giant moon, I would have to go somewhere high (to avoid smog and polluted air) and away from sources of light, such as the big city, in clear cloudless and calm windless night. I am thinking of climbing the Vitosha mountain and going to this place called “Kopitoto” (“The hoof” if you translate it) or visiting my husband’s parents, who live in a small village. I’ll see which one (and when) the baby gives me the chance to do.