Abstract
The main focus of this chapter is on the basic types of optical equipment, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each type when used for lunar observing. I will also briefly cover using telescopes for observing other celestial objects, in order to help you select the right all-around telescope and eyepieces for your purposes. No discussion of telescopes and the Moon would be complete without a brief survey of the history of optics leading up to the invention of the refracting telescope in 1608, improvements to telescopes, and early lunar observations made with them. My reason for covering the history of the telescope is that many of the men who were instrumental in developing and improving lenses, telescopes, optical filters, eyepieces, and other optical instrument accessories have been commemorated with lunar features named in their honor.
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Notes
- 1.
Aristophanes, The Clouds, trans Benjamin Bickley Rogers in The Great Books of the Western World. (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 5, 1952), 498, lines 766–779.
- 2.
Selig Brodetsky, Astronomy in the Babylonian Talmud (Brooklyn, NY: Kesser Torah, 1979), 9. A cubit was about 43 to 53 cm (17 to 21 inches) in length. Rabban or Rabbon means leader.
- 3.
Edward MacCurdy, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (London: Jonathan Cape, 1938), vol. 1, 291. This translation is from the Codice Alantico, sheet 190, reverse a.
- 4.
Lunar and solar eclipses are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 32.
- 5.
Giambattista della Porta, Magia naturalis, Book 17, (Latin edition of 1597), 572, 598. English translation of 1658, pages 355, 368.
- 6.
Huib J. Zuidervaart, “The ‘True Inventor’ of the Telescope. A Survey of 400 years of Debate.” in The Origin of the Telescope (Amsterdam: KNAW Press, 2010), 43.
- 7.
E. Strout, “The Very First Maps and Drawings of the Moon”, Journal of the British Astronomical Association 75 (1965), 100–105.
- 8.
The multiplication symbol “×” is used to indicate “power.”
- 9.
Edward Rosen, The Naming of the Telescope (New York: Henry Schuman, 1947), 31. Rosen concludes that Demisiani coined the term “telescope” and that Cesi introduced it at the April 14, 1611 banquet. Also refer to Galileo Galilei, Sidereal Nuncius or the Sidereal Messenger, trans. Albert Van Helden (Chicago Univ. Press, 1989), 112.
- 10.
Edmund Neison, The Moon and the Condition and Configuration of its Surface (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1876), 85.
- 11.
For eyepiece and telescope focal lengths, and aperture diameters, the standard designation uses no space between the numeric value the abbreviation “mm” for millimeter.
- 12.
Charles H. Smiley, “The Remarkable Schmidt Camera.” The Griffith Observer (October 1938), 92–95. Figure 4.15 is from this article.
- 13.
Erwin Finlay-Freundlich and Robert L. Waland, “A New Telescope in Scotland.” Sky & Telescope (May 1953), 176 and 177. Also refer to E. Finley-Freundlich, “Schmidt–Cassegrain Telescope at Dundee.” Nature No. 4201 (May 6, 1950), 703 and 704.
- 14.
Secondary sources researched state that the Erfle eyepiece was invented during either World War I or World War II. These sources usually include a statement that the Erfle was developed for military use, or that the time of the invention was unknown. A search of United States patents revealed that Heinrich Erfle applied for a German patent on July 23, 1918 and received a U.S. patent (1,478,704) on December 25, 1923.
- 15.
Roger C. Ceragioli, “Georg Simon Plössl and his Namesake Eyepiece” Journal of the Antique Telescope Society 36 (Fall 2012), 2–24.
- 16.
Several eyepiece filter manufactures sell parts of their line of filters by color names other than their official Kodak Wratten designations for a particular filter number. I am using the color names that you will usually find in eyepiece filter catalogues and advertisements.
- 17.
Raymond Barbera, et al, Astro filters For Observation and Astrophotography (Oakland, CA: The Opticia b/c Company, 1973), 22.
- 18.
The Roman numeral designations for libration zones are derived from the system created by Czech astronomer Antonín Rükl in his Atlas of the Moon (London: Hamlyn Publishing, 1991). The libration zone designations have not received any official IAU recognition.
- 19.
In the 1970s, Donald Menzel tried to rename the small crater Purkyně S (lat 01.78°S, long 90.66°E) on lunar chart LTO 82A1 “Milton” for the British poet John Milton. The naming of a lunar feature for Milton was not adopted by the IAU. This stanza refers to Galileo.
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Garfinkle, R.A. (2020). Lunar Observing Equipment. In: Luna Cognita. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1664-1_4
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