Light emitted by astronomical bodies is one of the major clues found in the vast universe. With light, astronomers and astrophysicists can see beyond the stunning brilliance of the celestial bodies found in our galaxy. The Sun is probably one of the most brilliant celestial bodies that we have seen and the nearest to Earth. The Sun emits light in epic proportions and supports life here on Earth. The Sun has a photosphere – a region where the light received [...]

Fine lines or webs used in the focal plane eyepiece are called Reticle. It is used for centering objects or as a guide for making angular measurements. It is commonly used for telescopes, cameras and even rifles. It is also known as graticule. The lines on the reticle are also typically illuminated.

One of the most important features or power of a telescope is its capability of showing us the smallest details along with clear, sharp images of the object that we are viewing. This is what’s referred to as its resolving power. There are certain celestial objects that are too close together that they tend to blur into a single image if you were to use a particularly low-powered telescope.

Redshift is an important concept in astronomy that is used to describe the distance of a far away object. As a term in physics, redshift refers to the change in the frequency of a photon from higher to lower energy and accordingly from shorter to longer wavelength. In simple terms though this just means that wavelength of the light is stretched so much that one can observe the light to shift towards the red part of the spectrum, which is [...]

The biggest stars in the universe are called red supergiants. To get a picture of how huge these stars are, just imagine being able to fit 1800 suns into one red supergiant or imagine the sun growing so much that it already reaches the orbit of Saturn. But their superiority in size does not mean that these are stars have the most mass. In fact this stage in the life of a star occurs when a star such as the [...]

When you look at stars in the night sky, it appears like they are just tiny dots of light that look the same. However, they are millions of lights years away, stars look very different from how they appear at night. They are in fact classified into several types according to their size, temperature, and brightness.

A radiometer is a device used for measuring different types of electromagnetic radiation or energy that exhibit wave-like properties. All objects that have a temperature beyond absolute zero are able to radiate this type of energy into the space surrounding them. This is also true for objects found in space such as stars and even whole galaxies.

A groundbreaking development in the field of science occurred in the early parts of the 20th century when Albert Einstein introduced the theory of relativity to a world that mostly thought that everything in the universe – space and time – are fixed into place.

A regolith is a collective term referring to the blanket of powdery materials that cover the surface of several celestial bodies such as the earth, moon, and asteroids among many others. This blanket has a powdery appearance and texture because it is composed of fine debris such as soil, shattered rock, dust, and other small objects that tend to land on the surface of these celestial bodies.

A refracting telescope is one of the earliest tools used by astronomers from way back to study outer space and distant objects. It is one of the two kinds of optical telescopes and uses a lens as the light gathering part or the objective as opposed to a mirror that is commonly used as the objective by reflecting telescopes.