Observing Techniques

Two famous statements made by William Herschel underscore the importance of this lengthy chapter as preparation for observing the Herschel objects. One is that “Seeing is in some respect an art, which must be learnt.” As described below, there is no doubt that the human eye can be trained to see better in at least four distinct areas involving the viewing of celestial wonders – these being dark adaptation, averted vision, color perception, and visual acuity. And the reason that this is really possible is that the eye works not alone but in conjunction with an amazing “image-processing computer” – the human brain!