48 FAQs about Telescopes etc. (The Astronomy Cafe)

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 Back to the Astronomy Cafe - 365 of the most popular questions since 1996. Over 1 million page requests!

 

Beginner:

  1. Why are newtonian reflectors more popular than other kinds of telescope designs?
  2. Why does the Hubble Space Telescope show green and yellow pictures of Saturn?
  3. Is there a Bed and Breakfast in Santa Fe that has telescopes for the public to use?
  4. What should I expect to see from a rooftop in Manhattan?
  5. What advantage would a telescope on the Moon or Mars have over one on the Earth?
  6. What is the difference between a reflector, a refractor and a catadioptric telescope?
  7. Can we see any of the Apollo artifacts left on the Moon from the Earth?
  8. What other optical designs have been tried for telescopes other than lenses and mirrors?
  9. How much of the sky do you actually see each night?
  10. How do the best modern spy satellites compare with the Hubble Space Telescope?
  11. Could we ever see a planet 1 billion light years away?
  12. How much has the Hubble Space Telescope really expanded our understanding of the universe?
  13. Do smaller telescopes get displaced by bigger ones after they are built?
  14. What will NASA eventually replace the Hubble Space Telescope with in the next century?
  15. How do astronomers decide where to put an observatory?
  16. What size telescope would I need to see objects the way they appear in magazine articles?
  17. Why does a lens make an object look bigger?
  18. Why do some photographs show stars with crosses?
  19. Why don't you see stars in the sky in pictures taken from the Moon or outer space?
  20. What can I see with a 90 mm telescope at 90 power?
  21. If I were to look at a 10th magnitude star with a big enough telescope, would I be blinded?
  22. Why are Dobsonian telescopes so much cheaper than other telescopes of the same size?
  23. Would a telescope let me see more stars in the city and make the view closer to what I see at night in the country?
  24. Is there an Earth-based telescope that can see the things left behind by the Apollo astronauts on the Moon?
  25. Is everything you see in a small telescope a part of our Milky Way galaxy?
  26. What naked-eye objects can you see in the Southern Hemisphere?
  27. What is the smallest distance you can see on the Moon with a telescope?
  28. If you look at a photo taken from space, the sky is always pitch black. Where did all of the stars go?
  29. What can I see with a 60 mm refractor?
  30. For an optical telescope the size of the Earth, how far away could a human face bee discerned?
  31. Could the Hubble Space Telescope see a human face from orbit?
  32. How faint can 8x55 binoculars and a 4.5 inch telescope see compared to the naked eye?
  33. What does the angular resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope correspond to in feet or miles?
  34. Where is the world's largest telescope located?
  35. Does night blindness affect what you will see while star gazing or looking through a telescope?
  36. What are the properties of the human eye as an optical telescope?
  37. Can you see deep sky objects with a 90mm refractor?
  38. How good would the eye have to be to see detail in the Milky Way?
  39. How big a telescope would you need to see the Apollo Landing Platform?

Intermediate:

  1. Can you network telescopes together to make one big telescope?
  2. Can you see planets orbiting nearby stars with the new CCD cameras?
  3. How do you determine the focal length of a telescope mirror?
  4. With a 12-inch Dobsonian, will I see the dust lanes in M31 and planetary detail?
  5. Can you see a quasar in a 10-inch telescope?
  6. Can you warp a spherical mirror into a paraboloid?
  7. In Jean Texerau's book 'How to make a telescope' he mentions "sleeks". What are they?
  8. Are narrow-band 'light pollution' filters very effective?
  9. How do you build a telescope?

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