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Helping you enjoy astronomy with articles, info and video and supporting the International Year Of Astronomy 2009.
CURRENT MOON PHASE
Courtesy USNO
Page listing for the category: Getting Started In Astronomy
A system of magnitude numbers (mag for short) is used to classify the brightness of the stars we see in the sky.
This magnitude system was actually first devised by Hipparchus, the Greek astronomer, a long time ago in the second century BC.
It is based on the principle that the stars we can see with the unaided eye, should be classified between magnitude 1 for the brightest and magnitude 6, for the faintest. read on..
Distances between objects in space are huge. So huge, in fact that miles or kilometers are difficult to use
Consequently, astronomers usually measure space distances in light years.
One light year is the distance light travels in one year. read on..
Binoculars have some great advantages over telescopes when doing astronomical observation. I discussed this in my article Astronomy With Binoculars.
But how do you go about choosing a suitable pair of binoculars for astronomy? read on..
