Cataclysmic Cosmic Events and How to Observe Them - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Cataclysmic Cosmic Events and How to Observe Them write by Martin Mobberley. This book was released on 2009-03-01. Cataclysmic Cosmic Events and How to Observe Them available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. In the Victorian era – or for non-British readers, the mid-to-late nineteenth century – amateur astronomy tended to center on Solar System objects. The Moon and planets, as well as bright comets, were the key objects of interest. The brighter variable stars were monitored, but photography was in its infancy and digital imaging lay a century in the future. Today, at the start of the twenty-first century, amateurs are better equipped than any professionals of the mid-twentieth century, let alone the nineteenth. An amateur equipped with a 30-cm telescope and a CCD camera can easily image objects below magnitude 20 and, from very dark sites, 22 or 23. Such limits would have been within the realm of the 100- and 200-inch reflectors on Mount Wilson and Mount Palomar in the 1950s, but no other observatories. However, even those telescopes took hours to reach such limits, and then the photographic plates had to be developed, fixed, and examined by eye. In the modern era digital images can be obtained in minutes and analyzed ‘on the fly’ while more images are being downloaded. Developments can be e-mailed to other interested amateurs in real time, during an observing session, so that when a cataclysmic event takes place amateurs worldwide know about it. As recently as the 1980s, even professional astronomers could only dream of such instantaneous communication and proc- sing ability.
Comets and How to Observe Them
Comets and How to Observe Them - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Comets and How to Observe Them write by Richard Schmude, Jr.. This book was released on 2010-09-20. Comets and How to Observe Them available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Comets have inspired wonder, excitement and even fear ever since they were first observed. But they are important members of the solar system, that contain material from early in the life of the system, held in deep-freeze. This makes them key in our understanding of the formation and evolution of many Solar System bodies. Recent ground- and space-based observations have changed much in our understanding of comets. Comets, and How to Observe Them gives a summary of our current knowledge and describes how amateur astronomers can contribute to the body of scientific knowledge of comets. This book contains many practical examples of how to construct comet light-curves, measure how fast a comet’s coma expands, and determine the rotation period of the nucleus. All these examples are illustrated with drawings and photographs. Because of their unpredictable nature comets are always interesting and sometime spectacular objects to observe and image. The second part of the book therefore takes the reader through the key observing techniques that can be used with commercially available modern observing equipment, from basic observations to more scientific measurements.
Cataclysm!
Cataclysm! - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Cataclysm! write by D. S. Allan. This book was released on 1997-09-01. Cataclysm! available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Follow this multi-disciplinary, scientific study as it examines the evidence of a great global catastrophe that occurred only 11,500 years ago. Crustal shifting, the tilting of Earth's axis, mass extinctions, upthrusted mountain ranges, rising and shrinking land masses, and gigantic volcanic eruptions and earthquakes--all indicate that a fateful confrontation with a destructive cosmic visitor must have occurred. The abundant geological, biological, and climatological evidence from this dire event calls into question many geological theories and will awaken our memories to our true--and not-so-distant--past.
The Caldwell Objects and How to Observe Them
The Caldwell Objects and How to Observe Them - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Caldwell Objects and How to Observe Them write by Martin Mobberley. This book was released on 2009-10-03. The Caldwell Objects and How to Observe Them available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. When Mike Inglis, who consults for Springer, ? rst asked me to write a Caldwell book in their “and How to Observe Them” series I admit I did need some time to think the suggestion over. I am a fan of Patrick’s Caldwell catalog as are most of the amateur astronomers I know, but could a new book be justi? ed when the massive, compreh- sive, and wrist-spraining Caldwell tome by Stephen O’Meara covers the subject fully anyway? That other book was researched and written over a 5-year period in the pre-9/11 world from 1996 to 2001, and its 484 pages of descriptive text and background data are a joy to peruse, as are Stephen’s impressive sketches. OK, the book is far too heavy for the binding and after a few trips outside half the pages in my copy fell out, but apart from that it is an excellent book and surely impossible to improve upon, or even equal, especially in a smaller format book with only half the pages available; at least, that was my initial impression when I mulled over writing another Caldwell book. However, I changed my mind, because a number of events of astronomical signi? cance have occurred in the last 10 years. First and foremost backyard imaging of deep sky objects, especially color im- ing, has come on in leaps and bounds in the twenty-? rst century.
Twenty-Five Astronomical Observations That Changed the World
Twenty-Five Astronomical Observations That Changed the World - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Twenty-Five Astronomical Observations That Changed the World write by Michael Marett-Crosby. This book was released on 2013-06-28. Twenty-Five Astronomical Observations That Changed the World available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. "Twenty-Five Astronomical Observations That Changed the World" takes twenty-five journeys through space, back in time and into human history. We begin with the simplest sight of the Tycho Crater on the Moon, through a repeat of Galileo's observations of Jupiter's moons, and then move out towards the nebulae, stars, and galaxies. The astronomical observations repeat the original groundbreaking discoveries that have changed our understanding of science and ourselves. This title contains graded observing challenges from the straightforward to the more difficult (in chapter order). It offers clear observing tips and lots of practical help, presuming no prior in-depth knowledge of equipment. Binoculars and/or a small astronomical telescope are all that is required for most of the observations. Secondly, it explores for each observation the science of what is seen, adding to the knowledge and enjoyment of amateur astronomers and offering lots of reading for the cloudy nights when there is not a star in view. Thirdly, the book puts the amateur astronomers' observations into a wider perspective. "Twenty-Five Astronomical Observations That Changed the World" makes the observer part of that great story of discovery. Each chapter, each observing challenge, shows how to observe and then how to look with understanding. The projects begin with practicalities: where the object is, how best is it observed and with what appropriate equipment (usually a small-to-medium aperture amateur telescope, binoculars, even the naked eye). "Twenty-Five Astronomical Observations that Changed the World" guides even the inexperienced amateur astronomer - beginners can use the book - around a variety of night-sky objects, and reminds the more experienced how they can best be seen. These practical observations put us in contact with all the history and culture surrounding them: through scientific speculation and literature to those first fuzzy images made in 1959 by the Russian space probe Luna 3.
